LibGuides: English 320: Home -- Toni Morrison: Home

About the Book

Home by Toni Morrison
Publication Date: 2012
America's most celebrated novelist, Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison extends her profound take on our history with this twentieth-century tale of redemption: An angry and self-loathing veteran of the Korean War, Frank Money finds himself back in racist America after enduring trauma on the front lines that left him with more than just physical scars. His home and himself in it, may no longer be as he remembers it, but Frank is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from, which he's hated all his life. -- Publisher description

About the Author

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am - This documentary reflects on the life and work of American novelist Toni Morrison. It includes discussions about many of her critically acclaimed novels and her career as an editor.

(Note: username and password needed to view).

Remembering Toni Morrison, An Iconic American Author -- New York Times (August 2019)

Toni Morrison -- bio from National Women's History Museum

Toni Morrison speak about Home

Toni Morrison's “Home”: A Soldier Fights a War Abroad and Racism at Home - PBS NewsHour segment, 2012 (Note: Use this link to see a transcript of this interview).

Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison reads an excerpt from her novel Home.

Historical Context

KOREAN WAR

Armed Forces Desegration
Last section of article discusses African American soldiers in Korean War. Source: Issues & Controversies in American History database.
"Did the Battlefield Kill Jim Crow? Black Freedom Struggles, The Korean War, and the Cold War Military
chapter from book War! What Is It Good For? : Black Freedom Struggles and the U. S. Military from World War II to Iraq by Kimberley L.Phillips.

Stories of African American Soldiers from the Veterans History Project (Library of Congress) - includes audio of interviews, images, photos, and brief bios.

James W. Allen
"For James Allen, joining the Army was a means of escape from life in racially segregated Florida in the 1950s." Allen served in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Charle Earnest Berry
"I am an American. And when I go home [from Korea], I can't even sit and eat where I want to. Can't ride the bus. Can't get a job I'm qualified [for]. Then what the hell am I fighting for?" (Video Interview, Part 2, 22:03)

EUGENICS IN THE UNITED STATES

Eugenics: Forced Sterilization in the United States
from the Issues & Controversies in American History database.