Necessary Trouble

Growing Up at Midcentury

By: Drew Gilpin Faust

Narrated by: Drew Gilpin Faust

Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

To grow up in the 1950s was to enter a world of polarized national alliances, nuclear threat, and destabilized social hierarchies. Two world wars and the depression that connected them had unleashed a torrent of expectations and dissatisfactions—not only in global affairs but in American society and Americans’ lives.

To be a privileged white girl in conservative, segregated Virginia was to be expected to adopt a willful blindness to the inequities of race and the constraints of gender. For young Drew Gilpin Faust, the acceptance of both female subordination and racial privilege proved intolerable and galvanizing. Urged to become “well adjusted" and to fill the role of a poised young lady that her upbringing imposed, she found resistance was the necessary price of survival. During the 1960s, through her love of learning and her active engagement in the civil rights, student, and antiwar movements, Faust forged a path of her own—one that would eventually lead her to become a historian of the very conflicts that were instrumental in shaping the world she grew up in.

Culminating in the upheavals of 1968, Necessary Trouble captures a time of rapid change and fierce reaction in one young woman’s life, tracing the transformations and aftershocks that we continue to grapple with today.

©2023 Drew Gilpin Faust (P)2023 Dreamscape Media

Critic reviews

"This memoir by the distinguished historian and past president of Harvard is ably narrated by the author.... Listeners learn about her unhappy but privileged childhood in Virginia, which prompted her decision to dedicate her life to social justice." (AudioFile)

Tremendous and valuable, historical perspective!

Drew Faust was a kind observer and participant in probably the most important social upheaval in our nation’s history. She is a keen observer and excellent reporter on the 1960’s racial history to which I was more of an observer than a participant.

As a highly introspective young woman of the South with a growing awareness of the inequities of black-white racial societal norms, I give her enormous credit for her lifelong determination to help right those wrongs.

Challenging

Thoughtful, informative and challenging. I have a much better understanding of the era I grew up on with the author. More than anything it reminds me of the accountability I have for what I see, hear and experience-- and that what I do about it can make a difference.

So much truth in history lived and retold.

My thanks to the author, for the history retold in the truth of the life that she has lived.

struggles and triumphs of mid century women

having grown up about 10 years after the author, so much of her story mirrors what my life was like still, despite the strides made by these courageous people. I felt a sisterhood with the author at every chapter and heard my voice in hers as she narrated her history - herstory.

Inspiring!

I am a 65 year old woman and this history of Drew Gilpin Faust, who is just a few years ahead of me on her journey, inspired, encouraged, and motivated me.
Sometimes we need to learn personal stories of the past to remember how much impact one person can have.
Excellent read! Well done!

First hand memory

As a woman growing up in the 50s, I can relate to all parts of this story. I’m going to read it again at this time and listen for more details. I too got in my share of necessary trouble.

Left Me Wanting More (and Less)

A fascinating memoir of a fascinating woman whose commitment to equal rights is mightily impressive. I am Ms. Faust’s contemporary - about the same age, a member of a college class of 1968, etc., but my commitment looks pale in comparison. I just wish she had talked a bit about her life after the 1960s and a bit less about her civil rights struggle; not that it was bad or boring - quite the contrary - but her subsequent life must surely be equally interesting. Perhaps there will be a sequel….

Memoirs are so aptly suited to audiobooks, and I love the fact that Ms. Faust narrated her life. She’s not the best narrator, but I know it rings true.

Her upbringing mirrored mine her stepping out of that small sheltered life was courageous .

Drew is the true activist who jumped in and stayed in to slowly help bring about change one small step at a time. Thoroughly enjoyed, brought back so much on how women born in the mid 40’s evolved and changed life for all.

Good but a little rambling at the beginning

Pretty good book, but a little rambling at times, especially the first 1/5. Interesting account of the time and region.

So important

Her story is so much like mine in this period. She did it all. She totally inspires with the truth of the 1960’s. Thank you Drew from the bottom of my heart. Susan