Book cover of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own

Book description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A powerful study of how to bear witness in a moment when America is being called to do the same.”—Time

James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the civil rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race. What can we learn…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Begin Again as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Eddie Glaude simply feels like preaching on the page. He helped me understand Baldwin not just as a literary figure, but as a moral witness.

This book challenged me to confront the gap between the America we proclaim and the America we practice. What I appreciate most is its insistence that renewal requires truth-telling. You cannot hold a community together by pretending. You have to reckon with what has been broken. Glaude’s work deepened my understanding of that responsibility.

From Jason's list on holding community together.

Professor Glaube leads us, from his own observations, and those of James Baldwin, through the precarity and failings of modern America. For someone that is new to living in the country and to the details and nuances of its history, it completely opened my mind. It is also beautifully written and though the content is challenging and uncomfortable, it is a joy to read.

From Duncan's list on about protest.

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