Exploring James Baldwin's America Through His Writing in 'Begin Again'

Men Nen: Ordered this book as an excellent addition to
My other James Baldwin collection

United States on Aug 30, 2023

Allen M Werner: Not knowing much about James Baldwin other than a parade of thought-provoking quotes, I was very interested in reading “Begin Again” by Princeton Professor Eddie S Glaude, Jr. I was not disappointed. The author presented the information in a thoughtfully engaging way.
It’s a marvelous journey through the Civil Rights movement and up and through the Obama and Trump administrations. It taps into the ways Baldwin’s shift into politics injured him personally and professionally. According to Mr. Glaude, Baldwin was trapped somewhere between the pacifism of King and the militancy of X and Angela Davis. And this middle ground brought with it a great deal of criticism from his contemporaries, including Cleaver and Hughes. But Baldwin seemed to be a more transformative man than other gave him credit for being.
The author focuses on the question the country has dealt with from its inception. It snakes its way through Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement to the Trump administration. All of it pointing towards “appeals to white identity. The symbolism that white people will protect at any cost.”
Much hinges on the supposed “Negro problem.” Freed from bondage,...

United States on Feb 20, 2021

Joe Conway (he, him, his): A powerful book with many lessons around the life and journey of James Baldwin. Moreover, it is a story about an author who initially resisted learning and reading the works of "Jimmy".

Eddie S Glaude, Jr. is masterful in his expression and drawing in the reader only to leave them quite confounded to the circumstances of their own reality. He explains and expounds on this all throughout his book "repeating himself...repeating himself...repeating himself" like the drumbeat of a death march casting a foreshadowing of things to come if one does not heed the apparent warnings and signs of the times. The challenge and call to action are clear. We must change and for real THIS time!

This book challenged me in ways I had not anticipated. Again, as I learn more about the world, history, people, places, and things the more I realize how much I really do not know, let alone fully comprehend. It gives me pause. Pause when I see others not slow down long enough to understand what they are really truly saying and how their 'intent' is ultimately doomed to disenfranchise their 'impact.' Pause to question myself and ask "why am I questioning them" and to repeat the introspection of...

United States on Sep 25, 2020

Big "J": I liked the way Eddie Claude used the writing of James Baldwin to give hope to all wanting meaningful change to the way America has excepted it's past and it's importance to the future of the nation. Well done Professor Claude!

Germany on Aug 22, 2020

Sherry Cooper: From this book, I see that Trump is not an aberration, but another along a continuum of the big American lie. We are not great, we are not fully a democracy, and American has never overcome its original sin of slavery. The public school American history books are fairy tales that too many white people want to perpetuate. Will we ever change and create a just society? This book leaves me hopeful in my hopelessness.

Canada on Jul 28, 2020