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Description: This biography of Malcolm X draws on new research to trace his life from his troubled youth through his involvement in the Nation of Islam, his activism in the world of Black Nationalism, and his assassination. Years in the making, it is a definitive biography of the legendary black activist. Of the great figures in twentieth-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age thirty-nine. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man. In death he became a broad symbol of both resistance and reconciliation for millions around the world. Filled with new information and shocking revelations that go beyond the Autobiography of Malcolm X, this work unfolds a story of race and class in America, from the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan to the struggles of the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties. Reaching into Malcolm's troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents' activism through his own engagement with the Nation of Islam, charting his astronomical rise in the world of Black Nationalism and culminating in the never-before-told true story of his assassination. This work captures the story of one of the most singular forces for social change, a man who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.
Table of Contents: Life beyond the legend --
"Up, you mighty race" : 1925-1941 --
The legend of Detroit Red : 1941-January 1946 --
Becoming "X" : January 1946-August 1952 --
"They don't come like the minister" : August 1952-May 1957 --
"Brother, a minister has to be married" : May 1957-March 1959 --
"The hate that hate produced" : March 1959-January 1961 --
"As sure as God made green apples" : January 1961-May 1962 --
From prayer to protest : May 1962-March 1963 --
"He was developing too fast" : April-November 1963 --
"The chickens coming home to roost" : December 1, 1963-March 12, 1964 --
An epiphany in the Hajj : March 12-May 21, 1964 --
"Do something about Malcolm X" : May 21-July 11, 1964 --
"In the struggle for dignity" : July 11-November 24, 1964 --
"Such a man is worthy of death" : November 24, 1964-February 14, 1965 --
Death comes on time : February 14-February 21, 1965 --
Life after death --
Reflections on a revolutionary vision.
FY2018 /
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This biography of Malcolm X draws on new research to trace his life from his troubled youth through his involvement in the Nation of Islam, his activism in the world of Black Nationalism, and his assassination. Years in the making, it is a definitive biography of the legendary black activist. Of the great figures in twentieth-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age thirty-nine. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man. In death he became a broad symbol of both resistance and reconciliation for millions around the world. Filled with new information and shocking revelations that go beyond the Autobiography of Malcolm X, this work unfolds a story of race and class in America, from the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan to the struggles of the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties. Reaching into Malcolm's troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents' activism through his own engagement with the Nation of Islam, charting his astronomical rise in the world of Black Nationalism and culminating in the never-before-told true story of his assassination. This work captures the story of one of the most singular forces for social change, a man who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.… (more)
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The only reason I bring up that complaint is because I was looking for hints to why there's a controversy about this book. I was wondering if there was anything I, personally, could pick up. I'm not very familiar with what the controversy is about - and I haven't seen any controversial reference to the innuendo that bothered me. Mostly, the controversy seems to be about Marable's lack of respect for the impact Malcolm X had on the Black Liberation Movement. There's a book entitled A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X, if you really want to delve into the issue. However, I am satisfied that Marable did a lot of really good research, and wrote an interesting and informative book. The issue of exactly what long-term impact Malcolm X had on the Civil Rights Movement and the country as a whole is an opinion, in my opinion.
Malcolm X achieved fame as a Minister in the Nation of Islam, which is not to be confused with the orthodox or mainstream version of that religion. Rather, it was a Black separatist religion that included a mythology called "Yacub's
Malcolm made his first journey to the Middle East in 1959 and saw how orthodox Islam was practiced and by whom (all races, including whites). In Spike Lee's film, it was presented that it was this first trip that converted Malcolm away from his hateful views, toward a message of tolerance. I was disappointed to read in this book that that wasn't strictly true. It wasn't until his third trip to the Middle East, in 1964, that Malcolm dropped the hate rhetoric.
He was eventually shunned by the NoI and marked for death, as many heretics of that faith were. In Malcolm's case, he earned an especial vehemence of hatred from the NoI because he exposed the adultery of its leader, Elijah Mohammed. He was killed by NoI members, perhaps with the aid of federal and local authorities, depending on who you believe. Current NoI offshoot leader Louis Farrakhan, originally a friend and protege of Malcolm's was one of the voices calling for his death.
I guess I feel more respect than admiration for the man. To my mind, he preached hate for far too long, and didn't turn it around into positive action until much too late. I understand that the time of his dying was not of his own choosing, but there were so many wasted years there.
Loved the book though. It presented me with a character with whom I disagreed, and with who I carried on hours of spirited debate in my mind before I closed the covers.
It is impossible to draw a definitive political or cultural portrait of Malcolm X from this biography, as the text makes it abundantly clear that Malcolm underwent a series of shifts in his thinking, religion, and politics; all of which were somewhat contradictory and incapable of being cleanly separated from their ideological predecessors. Nevertheless, this book provides the historical background and cultural context without which any discussion of Malcolm X would be incomplete.
Yet that also seems to sell Marable's biography short, as he lays out the story of a man searching for any way to fight the racial oppression in America—first pursuing religious black separatism, wading into political organizing, then switching to Pan-African ideology, and finally forging an alliance with the integrationist movement that he'd repudiated for so long. Far from erratic, Marable dramatizes the changes as a day-by-day process of a man trying to keep an ever-growing number of balls in the air, and the often-pragmatic steps that he took to keep going. X would not only modulate his rhetoric based on the audience, but also his ideology itself, often endorsing more radical steps when abroad but more cautious among traditional domestic crowds. That was how he tried out new ideas, and where he started to give the hints of changing views that would eventually lead to his break from the Nation of Islam.
Highly recommended.
By-and-large, this is the finest biography of Malcolm X available, explaining his life, his times, his motivations, his thoughts, his thought, and his milieu like no other biography up till now. It will probably stand as the standard biography of Malcolm X for decades to come.
Manning Marable's overall thrust is encapsulated in his subtitle: "A Life of Reinvention." Malcolm X changed and rolled with the punches every step of his life. An intelligent and passionate man who stepped into every role he undertook with gusto and aplomb.
The story of Malcolm X is widely known in its particulars, so I need not rehash it. What does Marable bring to the table that may be different or significant. Malcolm Little's early childhood is detailed well, even to the point of debunking some of Malcolm's stories about his youth. His life of petty crime as "Detroit Red" is discussed. Here Marable points out some of the incorrect details Malcolm pumped into his biography to make his crimes seem more grandiose (and thus his subsequent conversion to the NOI and morality all the more miraculous). It seems he truly had genuine affection for his white girlfriend (Spike Lee's movie, following X's autobiography, makes her appear to be a demonic succubus). He may have maintained a homoerotic relationship with a rich white man for the money. His stories as the prison "Satan" may be embellished, but it is in prison he learns of the NOI and its "God" W. Fard Muhammad and "prophet" Elijah Muhammad. His subsequent conversion and work in the NOI is then detailed. His relationship with Elijah Muhammad and his circle, his relationship with Louis X (originally surnamed Wolcott, later to be Farrakhan), his seemingly ambivalent relationship with his wife and children. On the last of these, Malcolm X seems committed to his work and ideas more than his family: aiding the Blackman and Blackwoman in the wilderness of white America through the hybridized Islam of the Nation. For the first time we have a detailed and balanced account of his eventual break from Elijah Muhammad and the NOI, and the tensions that lead to it. His embrace of orthodox Sunni Islam and his evolution from a "all means necessary" and maybe violent racial liberation to a hopefully non-violent civil rights reconciliation. Marable does fine job here, likening Malcolm's later ideas on racial and civil rights for black Americans to the post-colonial liberation movements of Africa. Like the struggle of Africans to free themselves from colonial rule and strictures, restoring their culture, vitality, and rights, Malcolm viewed the struggle of African Americans as one of liberation from racial rule and strictures, restoring their culture, vitality, and rights. Marable's account of Malcolm X's assassination, a murky historical area still, is serviceable. There are still questions, "what ifs," and unknown details in the story, but likely these are issues that will never be resolved.
(And by gosh, the damnable NOI. They foster this talent, drive this talent away, and now that Malcolm X is in the pantheon of American and African American greats/heroes, they embrace him again. Shocking. Elijah Muhammad, his entourage, and Louis Farrakhan, the whole ilk, do not shine when the light of facts and truth are shined upon them.)
Grounded in excellent primary and secondary research, extensively noted (not footnotes, not endnotes, but that stupid and insufferable system of page numbers-snippets-sources), this biography is the place to start, even before reading the famed autobiography he dictated to Alex Haley. Decent images, but more and better ones could have been added (Malcolm as a kid, Malcolm on the football team, the famous pic of Malcolm X and the rifle? where are these?).
In the end, what to think of Malcolm X? I find his story one of lost potential. A man of his intelligence and ability, so blinded by the indignities and injustices of racist white America, alongside the soul-crushing effects of poverty, that he would latch onto a theologically spurious cult, attach himself to an unscientific anti-white counter-racism, and then adopt the destructive tenets of Marxist-inspired post-colonial despots.
But I understand WHY, thanks to Marable's prose. Early in the book young Malcolm Little, straight A student, athlete, popular with boys and girls black and white, tells his English teacher he wants to be a lawyer (p. 38):
"But now Malcolm was keenly aware of the social distance between himself and others. An English teacher, Richard Kaminska, sharply discouraged him from becoming a lawyer. 'You've got to be realistic about being a nigger,' Kaminska advised him. 'A lawyer—that's no realistic goal for a nigger.... Why don't you plan on carpentry?' Malcolm's grades plummeted and his truculence increased. Within several months, he found himself expelled."
Imagine a world in which young Malcolm Little became a lawyer and you never heard of him. Or he ran for office. Or he won an important civil rights case. Different world.
What to think of Malcolm X? His story is one of success and failure. A lesson on what to do and what not to do. A story of both how the deck can be stacked against you and a story on how perseverance and grit can win the day. It is a human story, and a distinctly American story. It is one you can learn from and appreciate, whether you buy into it all or not. And Marable's engaging storytelling is a good place to get that story. Capital.