The Roma: A Traveling History

English literature PhD Potter debuts with an elegant and impressive history of the Roma people. She traces how governments have sought to eject, eradicate, and assimilate the Roma from Tudor England to Nazi Germany to the “new wave of fierce prejudice and discrimination” that followed the fall of the Iron Curtain, when many Roma migrated westward. She also spotlights Roma activists who made efforts to fight back, like Steve Kaslov, a little-known figure who spearheaded a Roma civil rights movement in the U.S. in the 1920s. Along the way, Potter weaves in profiles of Roma lives (musician Django Reinhardt; boxer Johann Trollmann) and of those whose lives intersected with the Roma, such as composer Franz Liszt—who “strove to connect with the Roma through their music”—and novelist Henry Fielding, who wrote a pamphlet baselessly denouncing a Roma woman accused of theft. Potter also draws extensively on her personal experience growing up Roma in Romania and later moving to Britain. These recollections lead to some of the book’s most unsettling moments, as when she writes that “after completing my PhD, I started adding ‘Dr’ to my name when booking hotels: it felt like a badge, making me respectable and reassuring people that I’m not a thief... Often it’s made no difference. ‘Where did you steal your PhD from?’ I was once asked sarcastically.” The result is a powerful call for equality. (July)