Pride (political science, Vanderbilt U.) was researching school desegregation and racial politics in Mobile, Ala., when he encountered Danner, a white woman born into a prominent family who stepped outside the boundaries of her social world by drinking, using drugs, and throwing herself into causes including world peace, animal rights, and the civil rights movement. Taking responsibility for a black foster daughter and moving into a predominantly black part of town, Danner (and her iconoclastic activities) eventually alienated her upper-class friends, her father, her husbands, and, ultimately, her daughter. Pride reconstructs her story using interviews, letters, Danner's own reflections, and current critical theory on understanding the meaning of a human life. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
