Category Archives: BOOK REVIEWS
RACE, CLASS AND CIVILIZATION: ON MUNFORD’S RACE AND REPARATIONS
Clarence J. Munford’s Race and Reparation: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century is important both for what it says and who says it. Munford is a major, if not well-known, historian of the African Diaspora. This work thinks in … Continue reading
Time, Space and Race: On Clarence J. Munford’s Race and Civilization
RACE AND CIVILIZATION: Rebirth of Black Centrality (2001) is Clarence J. Munford’s sequel to Race and Reparation: A Black Perspective for the 21st Century (1996). He says of this current project, “I strive to weave together the scattered strands of … Continue reading
THE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS OF US CAPITALISM: A MOMENTO MORI
In 2006—2009 the US financial system and economy came close to systemic collapse. Had it occurred most of the world would have gone down with it. Karl Marx famously described events like these as “momenti mori”, reminders of systemic death. … Continue reading
PAUL ROBESON A HEROIC FIGURE AND MARTIN DUBERMAN’S FAILED BIOGRAPHY
Paul Robeson was one of the extraordinary figures of our time. He was a man of exceptional intellect and perception, unshakable courage and boundless love for and generosity towards African Americans, working people and the colonized masses. His life and … Continue reading
OBAMA AND THE CRISIS OF NEO-LIBERAL BLACK INTELLECTUALS
Charles Pete Banner-Haley’s book From Du Bois to Obama: African American Intellectuals in the Public Forum (2010) is a history of African American intellectuals from the standpoint of Barack Obama ‘s presidency. From his Obama post racial dream-world, Banner-Haley tells … Continue reading
JOSEPH STIGLITZ’ ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT CRISIS AND THE WAY OUT
Nobel prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz’s book Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy surveys the devastation wrought by finance capital on the nation and the role the George W Bush and Obama Administrations and … Continue reading
BLACK POWER, BARACK OBAMA AND PENIEL E JOSEPH’S DEFENSE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
PENIEL E. Joseph’s DARK DAYS, BRIGHT NIGHTS: FROM BLACK POWER TO BARACK OBAMA is an interpretive narrative of how the Civil Rights and Black Power movements transformed American democracy creating democratic possibilities leading to the election of Barack Obama in … Continue reading
