Summary Of My Work Is That Of Conservation By Mark Hersey
520 Words3 Pages
Review of My Work is That of Conservation by Mark D. Hersey, 2011
Mark Hersey’s accounting of George Washington Carver’s life, with over fifty pages of “Notes” to back up his work, is likely evidence to the respect Hersey has of Carver and his ideals. From beginning to end, there is a good sense of getting to know the man who must largely be credited with agriculture as we know it today, and, thanks to Hersey, we are now able to see Mr. Carver as far more than the “Peanut Man”. One of the things Hersey did well was to represent Carver so completely, from his misfortunate childhood, even though it may have been fortunate, as well, to his college education with hardly a notice of any racial inference. Despite the obvious, that his claim of being born a slave in the years surrounding the Civil War (8-9) meant he was black, the story of Carver is done with such attention to detail, that race is almost a non-factor in his life, even though that could not have been the case in reality. By doing this Hersey leaves the reader with no doubt that Carver was an amazing man, empathetic, intelligent and ahead of his time in the study of biology and agriculture.…show more content… This vision is what makes Carver a man whose story should be known, not touched upon during Black History month, and not used for clever peanut commercials, but taught to American children as a piece of American History. It is American History that Hersey provides us with, from the standpoint of the poor Southern worker to the policies and politics of a greedy North and South. We don’t learn of a black man who stood tall amongst black men, we learn of a man who stood tall amongst