Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

The New York Times bestselling author of Begin Again confronts America's unfinished story in this blistering reassessment of race, freedom, and the myths that bind us. Celebrated public intellectual Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. presents a groundbreaking analysis of the vicious cycles of American history and the country's enduring refusal to face its true nature--especially at the moments when national anniversaries steer us back toward the mythology meant to disguise the truth. America, U. S. A., deliberately formulated and beautifully written, details a heart-wrenching exploration of America's legacy. It is a magnificently complex combination of lessons and voices--from W. E. B. DuBois and John Dos Passos to Herman Melville and Martin Luther King, Jr.--that, together, paint a sprawling and honest tableau of the United States, its complicated past, and ever more tenuous future. Glaude's is a powerful voice of conscience in our tumultuous world. He pulls no punches, calling on us to interrogate our conceptions of innocence and freedom and the stories we tell ourselves about our past and present. Centered around the major celebrations of America's milestone birthdays across 250 years of history, the book offers a riveting look at the battles over who has a stake in writing the American story. Devastatingly candid, profoundly moving, and deeply reflective, America, U. S. A. is a shining meditation on how we must reckon with a grim past in order to strive for the better angels of our future.

For over fifty years, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., a Baptist minister, activist, and organizer, has worked for civil rights, peace, and the promise of true democracy. From his years in the Civil Rights movement, his work as founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and as an international ambassador for human rights, he has left an indelible mark on the history of our time. These speeches and sermons, delivered both to the downtrodden and the powerful, from Senegal and Bangkok to Chicago include the famous speeches he delivered at the Democratic Party conventions of 1984 and 1988 following his historic campaigns for the presidential nomination.

*THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*'A simply wonderful book' PHILIPPE SANDS'Begin Again is that rare thing: an instant classic' PANKAJ MISHRA'Incredibly moving and stirring' DIANA EVANSAmerica is at a crossroads. Drawing insight and inspiration from Baldwin's writings, Glaude suggests we can find hope and guidance through an era of shattered promises and white retrenchment. Seamlessly combining biography with history, memoir and trenchant analysis of our moment, Begin Again bears witness to the difficult truth of race in America. 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 more just future.'An essayistic marvel . . . deeply personal and yet immensely readable' SARA COLLINS, GUARDIAN'An urgent, deeply interesting book' RACHEL COOKE, OBSERVERWinner of the Stowe Prize 2021Shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2021

Since the first African American denomination was established in Philadelphia in 1818, churches have gone beyond their role as spiritual guides in African American communities and have served as civic institutions, spaces for education, and sites for the cultivation of individuality and identities in the face of limited or non-existent freedom. In this Very Short Introduction, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. explores the history and circumstances of African American religion through three examples: conjure, African American Christianity, and African American Islam. He argues that the phrase "African American religion " is meaningful only insofar as it describes how through religion, African Americans have responded to oppressive conditions including slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, and the pervasive and institutionalized discrimination that exists today. This bold claim frames his interpretation of the historical record of the wide diversity of religious experiences in the African American community. He rejects the common tendency to racialize African American religious experiences as an inherent proclivity towards religiousness and instead focuses on how religious communities and experiences have developed in the African American community and the context in which these developments took place.