Cornel West

"In this provocative and captivating dialogue, bell hooks and Cornel West come together to discuss the dilemmas, contradictions, and joys of Black intellectual life. The two friends and comrades in struggle talk, argue, and disagree about everything from community to capitalism in a series of intimate conversations that range from playful to probing to revelatory. In evoking the act of breaking bread, the book calls upon the various traditions of sharing that take place in domestic, secular, and sacred life where people come together to give themselves, to nurture life, to renew their spirits, sustain their hopes, and to make a lived politics of revolutionary struggle an ongoing practice. This 25th anniversary edition continues the dialogue with 'In Solidarity,' their 2016 conversation at the bell hooks Institute on racism, politics, popular culture, and the contemporary Black experience"--Provided by publisher.

"Taking Emerson as his starting point, Cornel West's basic task in this ambitious enterprise is to chart the emergence, development, decline, and recent resurgence of American pragmatism. John Dewey is the central figure in West's pantheon of pragmatists, but he treats as well such varied mid-century representatives of the tradition as Sidney Hook, C. Wright Mills, W.E.B. Du Bois, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Lionel Trilling. West's "genealogy" is, ultimately, a very personal work, for it is imbued throughout with the author's conviction that a thorough reexamination of American pragmatism may help inspire and instruct contemporary efforts to remake and reform American society and culture."--Publisher description.

The Affirmative Action Debate collects the leading voices on all sides of this crucial dialogue. A provocative range of politicians, researchers, legal experts, and businesspeople dispute the best way to fight discrimination. Their essays explore such questions as, How did affirmative-action policies come to be? Who benefits most from them, and who suffers? How do these programs work in hiring, contracting, college admissions, and other fields? What will recent Supreme Court rulings and legislative initiatives mean? And, most fundamentally, does any race-conscious remedy simply perpetuate discrimination? Recognizing affirmative action as more than a black-and-white issue, this book includes the voices of women, Latinos, and Asian-Americans who are also affected but often ignored. A sourcebook of solid facts and surprising arguments.

White on White/Black on Black is a unique contribution to the philosophy of race. The book explores how fourteen philosophers, seven white and seven black, philosophically understand the dynamics of the process of racialization. Combined, the contributions demonstrate different and similar conceptual trajectories of raced identities that emerge from within and across the racial divide. Each of the fourteen philosophers, who share a textual space of exploration, name blackness/whiteness, revealing significant political, cultural, and existential aspects of what it means to be black/white. Through the power of naming and theorizing whiteness and blackness, White on White/Black on Black dares to bring clarity and complexity to our understanding of race identity.

"Celebrated intellectual and activist Cornel West offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. In an accessible, conversational format, Cornel West, with distinguished scholar Christa Buschendorf, provides a fresh perspective on six revolutionary African American leaders: Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida Wells-Barnett. West examines the impact of these men and women on their own eras and across the decades. He not only rediscovers the integrity and commitment within these passionate advocates but also their fault lines. West finds that Douglass and, to some extent, Du Bois fall short of the high standards he holds them to, while King has been sanitized and even 'Santaclausified,' rendering him less radical. By providing new insights that humanize all of these well-known figures, West takes an important step in rekindling the Black prophetic fire so essential in the age of Obama"--

"Dr. Victoria Fenway and wagon-train captain Joseph Rickard promised to love each other forever, but a misunderstanding led to her marrying another man. Now determined to carry on her late husband's work of rescuing slaves, she is tracking his murderer. With dangerous slavers tracking her, Joseph becomes her protector, hoping for a second chance"--

"In this unique collaboration, scholars in theology, religious history, and sociology offer a new understanding of American spiritual life by placing African-American religious experience at its center. Moving from specific cases in African-American history and theology to discussions of how African-American experiences can and should inform all studies of American life, they uncover the spiritual human soul that unites all of us. The editors call this project a "testament of hope," and it is a powerful tribute to the late James M. Washington, whose works were an inspirational search for universality."--BOOK JACKET.

As Salzman makes clear in his introduction, the purpose of this collection is not to offer quick fixes to the present crisis but to provide a clarifying historical framework from which lasting solutions may emerge. Where historical knowledge is lacking, rhetoric comes rushing in, and Salzman asserts that the true history of Black-Jewish relations remains largely untold. To communicate that history, the essays gathered here move from the common demonization of Blacks and Jews in the Middle Ages, to an accurate assessment of Jewish involvement in the slave trade; to the confluence of Black migration from the South and Jewish immigration from Europe into Northern cities between 1880 and 1935; to the meaningful alliance forged during the Civil Rights movement and the conflicts over Black Power and the struggle in the Middle East that effectively ended that alliance. The essays also provide reasoned discussion of such volatile issues as affirmative action, Zionism, Blacks and Jews in the American Left, educational relations between the two groups, and the real and perceived roles Hollywood has played in the current tensions. At a time when accusations come more readily than careful consideration, Struggles in the Promised Land offers a much-needed voice of reason and historical understanding.

"The best work of an always compelling, often controversial and absolutley essential philosopher of the American experience, modernity, and the human condition."

"In his first book, now a classic manifesto, Cornel West revitalizes a black theology of liberation by adopting the social analysis of progressive Marxist thought. Through retelling the story of the Western philosophical tradition as well as providing a critical overview of black thought, West provides a theoretical framework for interpreting the African American experience. His goal for integrating the tradition of prophetic Christian thought with Marxist social criticism is the transformation of the structures of the world through political action."--BOOK JACKET.

"An inspiring memoir of one man's transformation through literature and debate from a delinquent, drug-dealing dropout to an award-winning Harvard educator -- all by the age of 27"-- Growing up in an abusive home, Fleming's grades were a nod to his skill on the basketball court, not his presence in the classroom. He turned to the streets and drug deals by fourteen, and the dream of basketball stardom ended with an injury during his first semester at a Division I school. Eventually Fleming became determined to reinvent himself as a scholar, and immersed himself in the work of Black thinkers from the Harlem Renaissance to present day. He found debate, which became the means by which he transformed his life and the tool he would use to transform the lives of others. His memoir is a tale of resilience, visibility, role models, and overcoming all expectations. -- adapted from jacket

First published in 1993 on the one-year anniversary of the L.A. riots, Race Matters was a national best-seller, and it has since become a groundbreaking classic on race in America. Race Matters contains West’s most powerful essays on the issues relevant to black Americans today: despair, black conservatism, black-Jewish relations, myths about black sexuality, the crisis in leadership in the black community, and the legacy of Malcolm X. And the insights that he brings to these complicated problems remain fresh, exciting, creative, and compassionate. Now more than ever, Race Matters is a book for all Americans, as it helps us to build a genuine multiracial democracy in the new millennium.

Perhaps the most prominent public intellectual of our time, Cornel West asks nine of America's most influential artists, scholars, and public figures about the sources of hope among African Americans today: "How can we be realistic about what this nation is about and still sustain hope, acknowledging that we're up against so much?"

"'Brother West' is like its author: brillant, unapologetic, full of passion, yet cool. This poignant memoir traces West's transformation from a schoolyard Robin Hood into a progressive cultural icon. From his youthful investigation of the "death shudder" to why em embraced his calling of teaching over preaching, from his three marriages and his two precious children to his near-fatal bout with prostate cancer. West illuminates what it means to live as "an aspiring bluesman in a world of ideas and a jazzman in the life of the mind"." -- Inside cover.