CONWAY, Ark. (October 5, 2015) – Hendrix College history professor Dr. Allison Shutt recently published Manners Make a Nation: Racial Etiquette in Southern Rhodesia 1910-1963 (University of Rochester Press).
The book, her first, is available on
Amazon.com.
Manners Make a Nation “tells the story of how people struggled to define, reform, and overturn racial etiquette as a social guide for Southern Rhodesian politics.”
“Manners are an interesting way to look at society and change. Proper manners signaled where people were politically and socially on huge questions of the day,” says Shutt, whose sources included “relentless and dull” etiquette books published by Rhodesian government for the post-WWII white immigrants. Rhodesians left “a huge trail of evidence for historians to read.”
Dr. Carol Summers, a Professor of History at the University of Richmond and a well-known historian of colonial Zimbabwe, praised Shutt’s book as “A highly readable, vivid, and engaging work.”
Shutt has published articles in leading journals in the field, including, the Journal of African History, Journal of Southern African Studies, African Studies Review, and International Journal of African Historical Studies. She joined the Hendrix history department in 1997 and is a contributor to the College’s Africana studies interdisciplinary program along with colleagues Dr. James Jennings (education), Dr. Alice Hines (English), and Dr. Carol West (English). She has also participated in the gender studies interdisciplinary program, along with common courses for first-year students. She is co-coordinator of Distinguished Scholarships with English professor Dr. Dorian Stuber
She began working on the book about a decade ago. She devoted a 10-month sabbatical and visits to the National Archives in Zimbabwe and libraries in London and Oxford to her research.
The book’s cover photo depicts a 1953 visit by the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret to the Rhodes Centenary Exhibition in Southern Rhodesia to emphasize the multiracial racial nature of the colonies, a hopeful but ultimately failed experiment, said Shutt. Her originally proposed cover photo couldn’t be reproduced by the press but the final choice “ended up being perfect.”
The now-completed book could inspire a follow-up project, Shutt said. Jasper Savanhu, a high-ranking politician and trade union organizer, is featured prominently in Shutt’s book, but there is not a biography about Savanhu.
“There simply hasn’t been much written about him,” she said. “His political career was considered a bit of a farce, but his life is full enough for a biography that speaks to his personal life and offers a look into Zimbabwe’s past.”
In the short term, Shutt has been invited to give a presentation on defamation in Southern Rhodesia for a conference on legal regimes at the University of Florida in April 2016.
Shutt is also interested in writing role-playing games for history classes. She first encountered the approach co-teaching The Engaged Citizen (TEC) with English professor Dr. Toni Jaudon.
Last summer, Shutt attended a conference at Barnard College in New York hosted by Reacting to the Past, an organization devoted to role-play games.
“I had a lot of fun doing it,” said Shutt, who observed a rather intensive role-play game based on questions of war and democracy in ancient Athens. “Role play games for college students can be rigorous, subversive fun, and they demand engagement. If it goes well enough, students get involved with researching characters and have fun learning.”
Whether it’s research or role-play games, Shutt is committed to sharing the historian’s experience with students in the classroom.
“My research really does come back into the classroom,” said Shutt, who shared primary source materials from her book research with students in class. “It’s wonderful to see students get excited about the story and give students an idea of what the research experience looks like.”
About Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges and is nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.