Class Notes: Posing As Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene [Paperback]

Adolph Reed Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001

A "must read for thinking leftists" (Katha Pollitt of The Nation) from one of America's most insightful intellectuals. Hailed by Publishers Weekly for its "forceful" and "bracing opinions on race and politics," Class Notes is critic Adolph Reed, Jr.'s latest blast of clear thinking on matters of race, class, and other American dilemmas. The book begins with a consideration of the theoretical and practical strategies of the US left over the last three decades: Reed argues against the solipsistic approaches of cultural or identity politics, and in favor of class-based political interpretation and action. Class Notes moves on to tackle race relations, ethnic studies, family values, welfare reform, the so-called underclass, and black public intellectuals in essays called "head-spinning" and "brilliantly executed" by David Levering Lewis. Adolph Reed, Jr. has earned a national reputation for his controversial evaluations of American politics. These essays illustrate why people like Katha Pollitt consider Reed "the smartest person of any race, class, or gender writing on race, class, and gender."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Eschewing both left-wing political clichés and stereotyped opinions derived from the 1960s civil rights era, Adolph Reed Jr. has forged his own intellectual path. In this impressive collection of essays, Reed turns his keen intellect on a variety of issues, many of which revolve around the decline of the American Left since the '60s and the rise of race-based demagogues like Louis Farrakhan. He also examines what he sees as the hopeless nihilism expressed in hip-hop music, debunks the belief that black anti-Semitism is on the rise, and analyzes the phenomenon of black intellectuals acting as cultural gatekeepers for whites all the way back to Booker T. Washington. A political science professor at New York City's New School of Social Research and the author of W.E.B. Du Bois and American Political Thought and Stirrings in the Jug, Reed confronts fellow thinkers such as Robin D.G. Kelley, William Julius Wilson, and others on the topic of American poverty in a firm, though respectful, way. Reed has carefully observed what has been going on in the United States for nearly 35 years and is capable of expressing cultural highs and lows with admirable clarity and sensitivity. "The failure of disciplined strategic thinking on the left is a serious problem," he writes. "It reflects and stems from the extreme demoralization and isolation that has plagued us for two decades. We'll never be able to build the kind of movement we need unless the left can find its moorings and approach politics once again as an instrumental, rather than an expressive, activity." --Eugene Holley Jr. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Reed (The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon) doesn't have much patience with what he views as the mushy liberals of the Democratic Party and black intellectuals like Michael Dyson and Cornel West. In these essays (most of which have appeared in publications such as the Progressive and the Village Voice), Reed offers his bracing opinions on race and politics in the 1990s from a "left-critical perspective." Black "leadership" substitutes for popular mobilization, he argues, while nostalgia for black unity under segregation falsifies the past and serves reactionary interests. He finds consonance between the black establishment and Louis Farrakhan in that they consider the inner-city poor "morally defective," and contends that the white Left won't confront the complexity of black politics ("They simply do not see political differences among black people"). In perhaps the most memorable essay, Reed pungently analyzes what he calls the "crisis of black intellectual [life]" (in which a "lucky few," West and Henry Louis Gates Jr., for instance, direct themselves more to a white audience than to blacks). The author, a leader in the nascent Labor Party, values the primacy of class politics over so-called cultural or identity politics ("If we don't organize on a class basis, we'll be picked off one at a time, as we were with 'welfare reform' "), preferring "real" class politics, based on people's daily lives. But his snapshots of such organizing based on class are too briefly presented for readers to evaluate. Similarly, his forceful but too-brief argument against stigmatizing the "underclass" ("poor people are just like everyone else") invites a deeper critique of the work of those (e.g., Nicholas Lemann) whom he attacks.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565846753
• ISBN-13: 978-1565846753
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #935,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Class Notes: Posing as Politics, August 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene (Hardcover)

Adolph Reed looks at issues, getting past media representations and demagoguery to consistently, doggedly return the reader to the fact that poverty is not the fault of the poor, and the only way to improve things is to do the hard work of organizing active political bodies and force change. He is succinct, accurate, and appropriately scathing. Give this book to someone who gets their politics via the major media; it should at least make him or her angry.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forceful and Honest, August 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene (Hardcover)

"Class Notes" should be read by everyone, especially those who identify with the left and care about the state of black politics. Reed maintains that he is toward the statist end of the left and he debunks the current conservative ideology that "Big government" is a failure. But Reed saves his best ammunition for so-called black leaders and intellectuals such as Louis Farrakhan,Jesse Jackson,Cornel West,and Henry Louis Gates Jr. In order for any progressive movement to succeced it needs to be class-based, but with a concern for those still suffering discrimination. This book is essential reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars refreshingly intelligent, August 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene (Hardcover)

It's really wondeful to read someone who is committed to both class-based politics and electoral politics. Though I did have my disagreements with some of his arguments, I appreciated reading someone who was neither blithe nor bleak about the possibility of social change.