C.L.R. JAMES : A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY (SUNY SERIES, INTERRUPTIONS: BORDER TESTIMONY(IES) AND CRITICAL DISCOURSE/S)

Worcester, Kent, 1959- [author]; James, C. L. R. (Cyril Lionel Robert), 1901-1989 [subject]

ISBN 10: 0791427528 / ISBN 13: 9780791427521

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany, 1996

About this Item

Octavo; G; Paperback; Spine, black with blue print; Cover has mild edgewear, creasing on rear, vendor label on rear; Text block has slight curling to fore corners, else clean and tight; xvi, 311 pages, illustrated (b&w). 1354405. FP New Rockville Stock. Seller Inventory # 1354405

Bibliographic Details

Title: C.L.R. JAMES : A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY (SUNY ...

Publisher: State University of New York Press, Albany

Publication Date: 1996

Binding: Softcover

About this title

Synopsis:

A fascinating, immensely readable biography of one of the most important radical intellectuals of the twentieth century.

C. L. R. James: A Political Biography offers the first sustained account of the life and work of one of the twentieth-century's most important radical intellectuals.

C. L. R. James (1901-1989) was born and raised in Trinidad and became one of the most prominent figures to emerge out of the West Indian diaspora. He authored numerous books and essays on Caribbean history, Marxist theory, literary criticism, Western civilization, African politics, Hegelian philosophy, and popular culture. His best known works, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, and Beyond a Boundary are classics of twentieth-century thought. James played an active part in democratic movements in the West Indies and Africa as well as in left-wing and Pan-African campaigns in Britain, the United States, and Trinidad.

Review:

C. L. R. James, West Indian author and historian, sometime cricket correspondent for The Manchester Guardian, Africanist, Marxist and black intellectual, is an extraordinary 20th century figure. His history of the Haitian slave revolution, The Black Jacobins, is a masterpiece of humanity and empathy, a classic. He lived in Britain and the United States, where he was friendly with the New York left and the emerging black writers, Richard Wright and . Yet he lived most of his life on the fringe, his ideas disseminated through tiny groups. Paradoxically, he loved America. His study of , essentially an attack on Stalinism, was written while imprisoned on Ellis Island awaiting deportation during the McCarthy era. Kent Worcester has written an in-depth biography.