Begin Again: James Baldwins America and Its Urgent Lessons for Today

(Paperback)

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A searing indictment of racial injustice in America - inspired by the life and work of James Baldwin - to help us understand the present moment, and imagine a new future into being *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 EVANS America 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, OBSERVER Winner of the Stowe Prize 2021 Shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2021

Reviews

I loved Eddie Glaude's Begin Again. James Baldwin is a man for our moment: in a time of Black Lives Matter we've come to think about our past, our colonial history, enslavement, matters of race and identity. The beauty of this book is not just that it's deeply personal, but that it's also extraordinarily scholarly . . . You're left with an understanding of the extraordinary modernity, relevance and the immense power of James Baldwin. It's a simply wonderful book -- Philippe Sands
Begin Again is an essayistic marvel, circling and folding back on itself as Baldwin's musings in the past and Glaude's analysis of the present give meaning to each other . . . a scholarly, deeply personal, and yet immensely readable meditation, a masterful reckoning with the "latest betrayal" of the American ideal -- Sara Collins * Guardian *
Timely, powerful . . . Glaude invites us with him to "read Baldwin to the end" and reveals a writer, not spent, but rather illuminating the path beyond despair - the work of a saint if ever there was such a thing -- Ashish Ghadiali * Observer *
A call to confront the truth and legacies of the traumatic birth of America . . . urgent . . . original -- Sujit Sivasundaram * History Today, Books of the Year *
Begin Again is that rare thing: an instant classic -- Pankaj Mishra, author of The Age of Anger
An unparalleled masterpiece of social criticism. Glaude thinks alongside America's finest essayist, matching the master's firepower, brilliance, courage, and sensitivity at every turn . . . breathtaking -- Imani Perry, author of Breathe and Looking for Lorraine
Incredibly moving and stirring. Begin Again. . . underlines just how relevant and crucial Baldwin's work has always been and always will be -- Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People
A powerful indictment of racial injustice in the US written in conversation with the writings of James Baldwin . . . whose wisdom should be part of our conversations today * New Statesman *
Begin Again speaks to a global Black Lives Matter movement . . . A riveting read -- Raymond Antrobus, author of The Perseverance
The magic of Begin Again is that it allows us to ponder Baldwin both in his perilous era and in our own. Remarkable, and remarkably relevant -- Tracy K. Smith, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning Life on Mars

Author Bio

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Glaude is the author of number books, including Democracy in Black- How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul. He hails from Moss Point, Mississippi, a small town on gulf coast, and is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.