"The Wretched of the Earth" by Frantz Fanon and Richard Philcox

ANONYMOUS: What to say about this book other than, "amazing". I have worked and lived most of my life in contexts where settler colonialism is breaking down, dissolving, as something new towards equity emerges. Frantz Fanon articulates the voice of the oppressed in ways that resound as absolutely true within me. I jumped to the section on 'Violence' right away ... and end up only deeply empathetic of the fight for freedom of so many throughout the world who have been colonized. I ordered this book in English. I have a longing to read more of his books now and have ordered in the language he wrote in, French. "Amazing" is, in my experience, not an exaggeration, if you want a deep, non-judgmental understanding of oppression. Be prepared to experience a gamut of emotions. I have tears emerge even as l write this review.

Canada on Dec 19, 2023

mike wilson: As a dialectician, Fanon surpasses Machiavelli. His analyses of class and race are meticulously detailed. One disturbing aspect of his work is that, because it’s so irrefutable, it may not be possible to use it as a guide for avoiding missteps; e.g., his warning that urban socialists must reach out to anti-scientific rural masses (which we see today in the wide ideological chasm between progressive socialist liberals and the exploited evangelical Christian middle and working classes). Because of the insurmountable human traits of short-sighted ego thinking and strategies formed in ideological silos, this work could be subtitled, “What to expect when you’re having a revolution.”

United States on Sep 05, 2022

padre viejo: i am 90 years old. i was a student in the 60s but i had already served in the military so i was already in my 30s. Which meant with a wife and twins i was more concerned with earning a living and finishing my doctorate than participating BUT it was a time when we swung one way as a nation and we were part of the post war swing of the world. The world had developed empires, WW1 began their downfall, ww2 pretty much finished the rest BUT it opened the door for new imperialism. On one hand colonialism melted away. The greatest empire ever, the British faded to legend and an island itself breaking up. American imperialism sprouted along with Soviet. And now China and Russia. One old model, Russia, one new model China. But the world i cyclical not progressive so China may become another imperial power. Fanon is an antidote as are other writers of the 60s so good to see new editions. Many rebels are now out of print. History is always ignored but it is always present.

United States on Jul 12, 2022

Amazon Customer: It is a very well written book and I will highly recommend it to my friends. I am now probably going to read the original version.

India on Jun 29, 2020

Fredric Henderson: Many will try and dismiss The Wretched of the Earth as a irrelevant product of the Third World militantism of the 60's but should think again. The movements Fanon believed in may be in the past but dangerously increasing inequality is creating a world of a growing class of the wretched, just as enraged as Fanon's subjects. Now, however, this disparity is not just between the First and Third world's, it is everywhere.

Mexico on Dec 25, 2019

Roman P.: This is a review of the 2004 Grove paperback edition of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth

The Wretched of the Earth is the most famous work of Algerian revolutionary Franz Fanon (1925-1961) finished and published shortly before his death (he died of leukemia). Fanon is known above all as a theorist of revolutionary violence and a champion of its therapeutic good for the oppressed. However, this book is not about armed struggle only; it covers many other topics: theory of class conflict in colonies, revolutionary process and subjects of social change in the Third World, the future of new independent states (former colonies), strategies of building Third World—First World relations in a right way, the relationship between the struggle for national culture and national liberation struggles, consequences of colonialism for both the colonizer and the colonized, etc. It’s a book of an angry man; the author's revolutionary pathos and standing with the oppressed (‘the wretched of the earth’) are noticeable.

Though Fanon wrote his book drawing on the experience of the Africa of the 1950s an acute reader can easily notice similarities and parallels with...

United States on Sep 17, 2019

Muhammad Abdul Wahid: Great condition

Italy on Jul 22, 2019

Shava Nerad: I actually like the idea of supporting a press that is publishing Fanon.

When I was growing up with my dad working with the SCLC and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as part of the night security crew for the summer marches, I was probably more aware than most Americans -- certainly most Americans outside of the black community -- of how much permeability there was between the nonviolent SCLC, and the Black Panther movement, for which Fanon was a seed influence.

Youth in the SNCC organization, the youth group associated with the SCLC, often went back and forth between SNCC and the Panthers as they developed their activist identity and their ideas of how justice might be achieved.

The phrase "by any means necessary" used by the Panthers often scared the bejeezus out of the white community. But when I sat down with my father -- who was an adherent of formal nonviolence -- he handed me Fanon to read, and told me that it was a valid investigation as to whether violence should be considered if nonviolent means were not entertained by the state.

To my dad, who was a peaceful but fiercely justice-oriented man (for those of you who know the idiom "fire of Amos" he...

United States on Mar 28, 2019

Samuel Muli: The book explores nationalism, imperialism and the colonialism with enviable clarity and purpose.

Germany on Aug 07, 2018