Product Description: ". . . [a] bold and provocative celebration of the black radical imagination in the 20th century." —The New York Times Book Review
Kelley unearths freedom dreams in this exciting history of renegade intellectuals and artists of the African diaspora in the twentieth century. Focusing on the visions of activists from C. L. R. James to Aime Cesaire and Malcolm X, Kelley writes of the hope that Communism offered, the mindscapes of Surrealism, the transformative potential of radical feminism, and of the four-hundred-year-old dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow. From "the preeminent historian of black popular culture" (Cornel West), an inspiring work on the power of imagination to transform society.
"Based on Kelley"s belief that to make a better world we must first imagine it, this brilliantly conceived and written book recounts the accomplishments of black activists and thinkers over the past century who have been committed to remaking the world." —Library Journal
Robin D. G.Kelley is professor of history and Africana studies at New York University and author of Hammer and Hoe, Race Rebels, and Yo" Mama"s Disfunktional! (Beacon / 0941-5 / $14.00 pb). He lives in New York City.
I feel dumberer for having read it This book is truly awful. I had the misfortune of being assigned this book for a class, and let me tell you...Just awful. First of all, the author is a unreconstructed Communist who never admitted that Communism failed. Secondly, the book is totally self-indulgent; it's not historical at all. He writes in the first person and offers nothing to back up his statements (no citations). This guy is really out to lunch. Catch his next book, published by Bellevue State Press.
An inspiring vision for radical struggles While Robin Kelley might claim this book is not a "true" intellectual history, there's an awful lot of intellect packed inside. His profound thoughts, engaging writing, and motivating ideas all find focus with his idea that the center of any movement for change has to be love -- love of self, love of people, love of place. Jammed with interesting historical notes and biographies, his sweeping perspective on what it has meant to be black and, perhaps more importantly, identified as such, would serve every citizen of the world well. And if Mayor Mike B. and his constitutents would read Kelley's idea for downtown NYC, New York -- and the world -- might have a chance.
Dream Your way out of our Constrictions This is the BEST book I've read in the last 20 years!! A must read for anyone interested in the Utopian vision of radical movements. I learned a great deal about the reparations movement, Black feminism, and a movement no one is talking about-Surrealism. And it's beautifully written.
Anything Goes Trivia
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