Customer Reviews

Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association

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Knowing only of the name "Marcus Garvey," I set about reading this book to get a better understanding of Garvey's beliefs and perceptions on race relations in the 1920's and 1930's. This book fit the billing, with an honest account of the victories, defeats, embarassments, and lasting effects of Marcus Garvey's legacy. Unforunately, Marcus Garvey was never spoken of in my high school or college history courses. This book provides a great starting point for understanding the conditions in 1920's America, which allowed Marcus Garvey to gather such a large and faithful following.

Black Moses was first published nearly 50 years ago. It was based on a masters thesis and for years was the only book available on Marcus Garvey. Since the 1970s several new books on Garvey have appeared, most notably Race First by Tony Martin. These more recent books are much better researched and incorporate a lot of new sources that Cronon was unaware of or did not have access to. These include Garvey's newspaper, the Negro World and various governmenrt records in the US National Archives. It simply is no longer possible to get a really accurate view of Marcus Garvey from Cronon's now woefully out of date work. It served its purpose but should now give way to better books.