A Brief and Tentative Analysis of Negro Leadership [Hardcover]

Ralph J. Bunche (Author), Jonathan Scott Holloway (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0814736645 | ISBN-13: 978-0814736647

A world-renowned scholar and statesman, Dr. Ralph J. Bunche (1903—1971) began his career as an educator and a political scientist, and later joined the United Nations, serving as Undersecretary General for seventeen of his twenty-five years with that body. This African American mediator was the first person of color anywhere in the world to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. In the mid-1930s, Bunche played a key role in organizing the National Negro Congress, a popular front-styled group dedicated to progressive politics and labor and civil rights reform.

A Brief and Tentative Analysis of Negro Leadership provides key insight into black leadership at the dawn of the modern civil rights movement. Originally prepared for the Carnegie Foundation study, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, Bunche’s research on the topic was completed in 1940. This never-before-published work now includes an extended scholarly introduction as well as contextual comments throughout by Jonathan Scott Holloway.

Despite the fact that Malcolm X called Bunche a “black man who didn't know his history,” Bunche never wavered from his faith that integrationist politics paved the way for racial progress. This new volume forces a reconsideration of Bunche's legacy as a reformer and the historical meaning of his early involvement in the civil rights movement.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In a memo prepared to assist Gunnar Myrdal's study on American Negroes, Bunche offered biting insights into black leadership in the 1940s and glimpses of his own thinking as he too was developing as a black leader. Bunche was a renowned scholar later named undersecretary to the UN and the first person of color to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In this previously unpublished work, Bunche outlined six very basic leadership types: dynamic and aggressive, cautious and timid, stooges and professional politicians, symbolically important, prestigious, and those appointed by whites. He saw black leadership as motivated primarily by notions of escape--either from racism and oppression or from the deprivations suffered by blacks as a whole. He contrasted the race man and the Uncle Tom, examining idealists, political prostitutes, and self-appointed leaders and giving as much attention to local lights as to national figures. Given Bunche's eventual rise to prominence as a black leader, and the criticism his integrationist politics engendered from black nationalists, it is particularly revealing to read this early work. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“Given Bunche’s eventual rise to prominence as a black leader, and the criticism his integrationist politics engendered from black nationalists, it is particularly revealing to read this early work.”
-Booklist

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“A timely and penetrating appreciation of Ralph Bunche’s benchmark study of the African American leadership class in the early decades of the last century.”
-David Levering Lewis,Julius Silver University Professor and Professor of History, NYU

“Jonathan Holloway has performed a wonderful service in editing and introducing Bunche’s A Brief and Tentative Analysis of Negro Leadership. For scholars and teachers in the field it has long been a source of frustration that this material has not been available. Bunche’s insights and interpretations provide an important perspective on a key moment in the shaping of modern black American politics, and Holloway's introduction very usefully situates Bunche and his analysis in the context of the time.”
-Adolph Reed,Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and author of W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought: Fabianism and the Color Line

“Ralph Bunche’s stature as one of the key African American intellectuals of the twentieth-century continues to grow. Jonathan Holloway has done a great service by bringing Bunche’s unpublished work on leadership to light. Skillfully guiding the reader, Holloway’s introduction and editorial notes provide a perfect balance of information and interpretation, adding much to our understanding of this important and yet often neglected figure.”
-Nikhil Pal Singh,author of Black is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy

“This work is a welcome addition to African American studies as well as to social and cultural history.”
-CHOICE

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 247 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814736645
• ISBN-13: 978-0814736647
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,311,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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