Begin Again :

Locations
Call Number: 305.896 Gl, Black Studies 305.896 Gl, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / Race & Ethnicity / Glaude, Eddie S.
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch, Westgate Branch

Includes index.
"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"-- Provided by publisher.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

James Baldwin submitted by bcartm01 on June 18, 2022, 10:02am I really didn’t know as much about James Baldwin as I felt I needed to, so I picked up this book and was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed how the author included his journey in learning about Mr. Baldwin and his experience during the time of Donald Trump’s election as well. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about James Baldwin for sure.