HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its…
Loading...

Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own (edition 2021)

by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
5661241,905 (4.14)24
"James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the Civil Rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race. In the era of Trump, what can we learn from his struggle? "Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again." --James Baldwin We live, according to Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., in the after times, when the promise of Black Lives Matter and the attempt to achieve a new America were challenged by the election of Donald Trump, a racist president whose victory represents yet another failure of America to face the lies it tells itself about race. We have been here before: For James Baldwin, the after times came in the wake of the Civil Rights movement, when a similar attempt to compel a national confrontation with the truth was answered with the murders of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. In these years, spanning from the publication of The Fire Next Time in 1963 to that of No Name in the Street in 1972, Baldwin was transformed into a more overtly political writer, a change that came at great professional and personal cost. But from that journey, Baldwin emerged with a sense of renewed purpose about the necessity of pushing forward in the face of disillusionment and despair. In the story of Baldwin's crucible, Glaude suggests, we can find hope and guidance through our own after times, this Trumpian era of shattered promises and white retrenchment. Mixing biography--drawn partially from newly uncovered interviews--with history, memoir, and trenchant analysis of our current moment, Begin Again is Glaude's attempt, following Baldwin, to bear witness to the difficult truth of race in America today. It is at once a searing exploration that lays bare the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we all must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America"--… (more)
Member:sabreader
Title:Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
Authors:Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Author)
Info:Crown (2021), 288 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:US - race, {read in 2022}

Work Information

Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Jr. Eddie S. Glaude

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 24 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)
Glaude is strongest when adapting and applying the words of Baldwin to our times--especially comparing the similarities of the Trump era and the Age of Reagan for example. His notes at the end thanking his students for being open with their anxieties about the times show that he's a keen listener. He's also amazing at taking not just quotes from Baldwin, but the life of the man, his trauma, and his personality, and talking about what we can learn from it. The section at the end, where he looks for Baldwin's grave, makes me think that Eddie could do a remarkable piece of journalism if he wanted. It only loses steam as even with the wealth of research he did (from films, interviews, other books, etc.), at times the book ventures a bit too heavily into guessing about Baldwin's inner thoughts. But that's a minor criticism. This is worth reading. ( )
  JuntaKinte1968 | Dec 6, 2023 |
A profound introduction to the genius of James Baldwin. ( )
  froxgirl | Sep 27, 2023 |
Professor Glaude has written a remarkable book connecting James Baldwin's thoughts & words to our current situation. He is very insightful. This is a great book. ( )
  RickGeissal | Aug 16, 2023 |
Author Eddie S Glaude Jr eloquently describes his respect for James Baldwin throughout the pages of this book. In it, he reminds readers that Baldwin "always believed we could be better than what we are." He also reminds us that Baldwin had to fight for that insight. Baldwin was not a man who was afraid. He was someone who ran toward the trouble because he knew that facing our fears was the only possible path to salvation. "If you're scared to death, you walk toward it." Author Glaude does well to remind us readers that Badlwin's words still ring true today. ( )
  kmarson | Nov 16, 2021 |
One of the hardest books I have ever read. I lived through the times but as a white person was thoughtlessly ignorant -- even when I worked for 40 years in an integrated school system.
  Elizabeth80 | Sep 1, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
For his beautiful heart
First words
James Baldwin and Stokely Carmichael first met during the heady days of the movement to desegregate the South,.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

"James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the Civil Rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race. In the era of Trump, what can we learn from his struggle? "Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again." --James Baldwin We live, according to Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., in the after times, when the promise of Black Lives Matter and the attempt to achieve a new America were challenged by the election of Donald Trump, a racist president whose victory represents yet another failure of America to face the lies it tells itself about race. We have been here before: For James Baldwin, the after times came in the wake of the Civil Rights movement, when a similar attempt to compel a national confrontation with the truth was answered with the murders of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. In these years, spanning from the publication of The Fire Next Time in 1963 to that of No Name in the Street in 1972, Baldwin was transformed into a more overtly political writer, a change that came at great professional and personal cost. But from that journey, Baldwin emerged with a sense of renewed purpose about the necessity of pushing forward in the face of disillusionment and despair. In the story of Baldwin's crucible, Glaude suggests, we can find hope and guidance through our own after times, this Trumpian era of shattered promises and white retrenchment. Mixing biography--drawn partially from newly uncovered interviews--with history, memoir, and trenchant analysis of our current moment, Begin Again is Glaude's attempt, following Baldwin, to bear witness to the difficult truth of race in America today. It is at once a searing exploration that lays bare the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we all must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America"--

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.14)
0.5
1 1
1.5
2
2.5
3 10
3.5 5
4 23
4.5 6
5 22

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,189,389 books! | Top bar: Always visible