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Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own | Eddie S Glaude
6 posts | 5 read | 12 to read
James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the civil rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race. In our own moment, when that confrontation feels more urgently needed than ever, what can we learn from his struggle? "In the midst of an ugly Trump regime and a beautiful Baldwin revival, Eddie Glaude has plunged to the profound depths and sublime heights of Baldwin's prophetic challenge to our present-day crisis."--Cornel West We live, according to Eddie S. Glaude Jr., in a moment when the struggles of Black Lives Matter and the attempt to achieve a new America have been challenged by the election of Donald Trump, a president whose victory represents yet another failure of America to face the lies it tells itself about race. From Charlottesville to the policies of child separation at the border, his administration turned its back on the promise of Obama's presidency and refused to embrace a vision of the country shorn of the insidious belief that white people matter more than others. We have been here before: For James Baldwin, these 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 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 endeavor, 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.
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Pickpick

I liked this dive into Baldwin's work around the civil rights movement and the comparison of attitudes then to now during the Trump era.
One picky issue I had was the author would occasionally refer to Baldwin as Jimmy. It felt a bit too personal and out of place.

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Suet624
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Pickpick

It took awhile but Libby finally came through with Glaude‘s book on Baldwin. This was a fascinating listen, providing greater detail on his life, on his novels, on his evolution in thinking about what needed to be done or even what could be done to deal with racism. The last chapter included Glaude‘s powerful report on visiting Montgomery and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/memorial

Graywacke Glad Libby came through. 🙂 More so, glad you enjoyed. It‘s such a great book to spend time with. And the audio was terrific, no? 3y
Suet624 @Graywacke YES! I‘m not a big audio fan but I think that was the best way for me to absorb that book. 3y
42 likes1 stack add2 comments
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BookMaven9
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Powerful! Powerful! A must read for everyone. Learn about the great lie, James Baldwin and systemic racism in a way that you will see the entire country in a different light.

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BarbaraTheBibliophage
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#Two4TuesdayGiveaway @TheSpineView

1. I‘m more likely to share than keep, unless I particularly loved it. Then I‘ll keep.

2. This is not easy ... there are so many ... so I chose the tagged book. 😎

@KVanRead @TheBookHippie Care to join in? 🥰

TheSpineView So many good books! It is a dilemma! 📚📚📚 4y
TheBookHippie I still think it‘s MONDAY 🤣🤣🤦🏽‍♀️ 4y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @TheBookHippie I‘ve been in the same spot today! 🗓 ⏰ 4y
55 likes3 comments
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Floresj
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This book is a great conglomerate of biography, literary analysis, societal analysis, history lesson, and editorial. It‘s good, succinct, informative, and puts the direction America will go squarely in the reader‘s lap.

BookMaven9 Excellent book 4y
9 likes1 comment
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RowReads1
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