In MY PERSONAL WAR WITHIN, his vividly personal memoir, Ted Bagley gives an account of what it was like to grow up as a young black man in segregated Alabama, of his upbringing by strict but loving parents, his service in the Army during Vietnam, and his education and subsequent business career. He addresses head-on the prejudice and discrimination he encountered throughout his life, but with an attitude of fierce fighting spirit, rather than defeated resignation. He is able both to describe, with justified anger but without bitterness, the difficulties he faced maintaining self-respect and winning the respect of others in a prejudiced world, and to look back with warmth on the more positive aspects of his childhood, including a loving and committed family life, the deep religious and spiritual faith of his elders, and the way he was continually pushed and encouraged to excel despite all the barriers the outside world could raise against him.
Bagley’s advice for younger people today is sensible, pragmatic, and lovingly offered, if a bit nostalgic and inclined to view the more authoritarian days of the past through rose-colored glasses. His tone is straightforward and conversational, as if he was inviting the reader in for a philosophical discussion over coffee. His descriptive skills are vivid and clear, almost poetic in places – whether he’s describing a cozy family breakfast or the experience of facing down another human being at the end of a gun in Vietnam, the reader feels immediately present, sharing his experience. The book ends on a hopeful note with the election of president Barack Obama, but the author rather presciently warns that racism has not gone away, and that social and economic problems remain in abundance, requiring us all to come together and fulfill our responsibilities as citizens to build on that hope. While the author’s more personal, less formal tone is quite appropriate for such an intimate look at a person’s life, the book might be improved a bit by the services of a good editor – there are a number of typos, misspellings, and grammar errors that could rather easily be cleaned up. There are also a few references that have been rendered uncomfortable by recent events (like citing Bill Cosby as a source of moral advice). Still, MY PERSONAL WAR WITHIN remains a useful, thoughtful and thought-provoking first-person look at important historical events, whether for the next generation wondering about their parents’ and grandparents’ experiences, or for historians looking to make sense of a chaotic, painful, but hopeful chapter of the American story.
Ted Bagley gives a thoughtful, chatty, philosophical account of his life growing up black in segregated Alabama just before and during the Civil Rights era in MY PERSONAL WAR WITHIN, a valuable resource, both for young people looking for inspiration and courage in difficult times, and for current and future historians as a valuable primary source concerning events rapidly moving out of living memory and into the history texts.
~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader