The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual

A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership

By: Harold Cruse

Write A Review

Paperback | 30 January 2005 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
616 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.5 x 13.5 x 3.5

Paperback

$51.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $12.94 with

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

Published in 1967, as the early triumphs of the Civil Rights movement yielded to increasing frustration and violence, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual electrified a generation of activists and intellectuals.

The product of a lifetime of struggle and reflection, Cruse''s book is a singular amalgam of cultural history, passionate disputation, and deeply considered analysis of the relationship between American blacks and American society.

Reviewing black intellectual life from the Harlem Renaissance through the 1960s, Cruse discusses the legacy (and offers memorably acid-edged portraits) of figures such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry, and James Baldwin, arguing that their work was marked by a failure to understand the specifically American character of racism in the United States.

This supplies the background to Cruse''s controversial critique of both integrationism and black nationalism and to his claim that black Americans will only assume a just place within American life when they develop their own distinctive centers of cultural and economic influence. For Cruse''s most important accomplishment may well be his rejection of the clichés of the melting pot in favor of a vision of Americanness as an arena of necessary and vital contention, an open and ongoing struggle.

Industry Reviews

"Harold Cruse wrote The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual for the moment and for the future. He succeeded in both....Cruse's book not only reflected the frustration, anger and confusion of its time, it also promised an explanation and a solution...an enduring document."
-- TLS

"Eloquent, passionate, forceful--Harold Cruse has had an electrifying impact on an entire generation of African American intellectuals."
-- Gerald Horne

"Crisis dwarfed almost all other books of the period when it came to bringing together politics, art, and social movements related to or inspired by the Afro-American condition."
-- Stanley Crouch

"Cruse repositioned the interpretive axes of the study and conduct of black political debate. Where Malcolm X was the intellectual inspiration of Black Power and Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) was its principal ideological architect, Cruse was without question its definitive critical interlocutor."
-- Adolph Reed, Jr., New School University

"When all the manifestoes and polemics of the Sixties are forgotten, this book will survive as a monument of historical analysis--a notable contribution to the understanding of the American past, but more than that, a vindication of historical analsis as the best way, maybe the only way, of gaining a clear understanding of social issues."
-- Christopher Lasch, New York Review of Books

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

Orders over $79.00 qualify for free shipping.

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.

Defective items

If there is a problem with any of the items received for your order then the Booktopia Customer Care team is ready to assist you.

For more info please visit our Help Centre.

You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction History Specific Events & Topics in History Social & Cultural History Society & Culture Social Groups Ethnic Studies Black & Asian Studies Fiction Modern & Contemporary Fiction General & World History Reference, Information & Interdisciplinary Subjects

Encyclopaedias & Reference Works General Encyclopaedias Biographies & True Stories Biographies Historical, Political and Military Biographies

Individualism and the "open society"	p. 3
Harlem background - the rise of economic nationalism and origins of cultural revolution	p. 11
Mass media and cultural democracy	p. 64
Cultural leadership and cultural democracy	p. 96
1920's-1930's - West Indian influence	p. 115
Jews and Negroes in the Communist Party	p. 147
The National Negro Congress	p. 171
Richard Wright	p. 181
Artists for Freedom Inc. - dialogue off-key	p. 193
Origins of the dialogue	p. 206
Freedom newspaper	p. 225
From Freedom to Freedomways	p. 240
Richard B. Moore	p. 253
Lorraine Hansberry	p. 267
Paul Robeson	p. 285
Freedomways, summer 1963 : black economy - self-made myth	p. 305
Freedomways, summer 1963 : capitalism revisited	p. 319
Freedomways, summer 1963 : nationalism made respectable	p. 337
The intellectuals and force and violence	p. 347
From Monroe to Watts	p. 382
From southern activism to northern impasse	p. 402
Ideology in black : African, Afro-American, Afro-West Indian and the nationalist mood	p. 420
Role of the Negro intellectual - survey of the dialogue deferred	p. 451
Negroes and Jews - the two nationalisms and the bloc(ked) plurality	p. 476
Negro writers' conferences - the dialogue distorted	p. 498
Intellectuals and the theater of the 1960's - as medium and dialogue	p. 520
The Harlem Black Arts Theater - new dialogue with the lost black generation	p. 533
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual

A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

More in General Encyclopaedias

Knowledge Encyclopedia Science!

Science as You've Never Seen it Before

Classical Mythology A to Z

An Encyclopedia of Gods & Goddesses, Heroes & Heroines, Nymphs, Spirits, Monsters, and Places

Explain That

31 intriguing reasons why from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald

Critical Role

The Armory of Heroes

Schott's Significa

A Miscellany of Secret Languages

The Third QI Book of General Ignorance

Quite Interesting

English Dictionary Complete and Unabridged edition with slipcase

More Than 732,000 Words Meanings and Phrases

Cunk on Everything

The Encyclopedia Philomena - 'Essential reading for these slipshod times' Al Murray

The Complete Language of Flowers

A Definitive and Illustrated History

Interesting Stories For Curious People

A Collection of Fascinating Stories About History, Science, Pop Culture and Just About Anything Else You Can Think of

The Times Mini Atlas Of The World

9th Edition

The Chicken Encyclopedia

An Illustrated Reference

Modern Artillery

300 Artillery Pieces

The Illustrated World Encyclopaedia of Insects

A Natural History and Identification Guide to Beetles, Flies, Bees Wasps, Springtails, Mayflies, Stoneflies, Dragonflies, Damselflies, Cockroaches, Mantids, Earwigs ... and Many More

Knowledge is Beautiful

Jane Austen

Visual Encyclopedia

The Potter's Dictionary

Of Materials and Techniques

European Union Encyclopedia and Directory 2026

The European Union Encyclopedia and Directory

Understanding Cancer Immunotherapy

A Guide for Students, Patients, and Caregivers

Historical Dictionary of Explosives

Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest

Lift the Flap Questions & Answers

Lift the Flap

Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fashion

The Vocabulary of Clothing in Four Languages

A Black Queer History of the United States

Revisioning History

No Human Involved

The Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference

This product is categorised by