Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination [Paperback]

Robin D.G. Kelley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0807009776 | ISBN-13: 978-0807009772 | Edition: New edition

Kelley unearths freedom dreams in this exciting history of renegade intellectuals and artists of the African diaspora in the twentieth century. Focusing on the visions of activists from C. L. R. James to Aime Cesaire and Malcolm X, Kelley writes of the hope that Communism offered, the mindscapes of Surrealism, the transformative potential of radical feminism, and of the four-hundred-year-old dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow. From'the preeminent historian of black popular culture' (Cornel West), an inspiring work on the power of imagination to transform society.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Kelley, a history professor and a writer with a progressive political slant, analyzes the black radical tradition within the context of a higher consciousness that imagines how society should and could be and lets that dream dictate action. This pursuit of freedom and equality underlies, if not justifies, the basis of measuring the success of black radical movements. He takes the reader on a survey of black radical movements--Back to Africa, the Garvey movement, associations with communism and Marxism, local protests, Third World consciousness and identification, reparation, and black feminism--finding a common core centered on the dream of freedom. In one section, Kelley connects the black radical tradition with surrealism, focusing on freedom as a concept that initiates in the mind and has a nontraditional manner of self-manifestation. Kelley sees such mindscapes as the counterbalance to what many perceive as the failure of certain movements. However, Kelley's capacity to integrate these imaginative mindscapes into the freedom quest allows the reader to perceive the continuity and ultimate success of these freedom movements. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'Based on Kelley's belief that to make a better world we must first imagine it, this brilliantly conceived and written book recounts the accomplishments of black activists and thinkers over the past century who have been committed to remaking the world.' --Library Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; New edition edition (June 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807009776
• ISBN-13: 978-0807009772
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robin D. G. Kelley never met Thelonious Monk, but he grew up with his music. Born in 1962, he spent his formative years in Harlem in a household and a city saturated with modern jazz. As a child he took a few trumpet lessons with the legendary Jimmy Owens, played French horn in junior high school, and picked up piano during his teen years in California. In 1987, Kelley earned his PhD in History from UCLA and focused his work on social movements, politics and culture--although music remained his passion.

During his tenure on the faculties of Emory University, the University of Michigan, New York University, and Columbia University, Kelley's scholarly interests shifted increasingly toward music. He has written widely on jazz, hip hop, electronic music, musicians' unions and technological displacement, and social and political movements more broadly.

Before becoming Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, Robin D. G. Kelley served on the faculty at Columbia University's Center for Jazz Studies, where he held the first Louis Armstrong Chair in Jazz Studies. Besides Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, Kelley has authored several prize-winning books, including Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (University of North Carolina Press, 1990); Race Rebels: Culture Politics and the Black Working Class (The Free Press, 1994); Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Beacon Press, 1997), which was selected one of the top ten books of 1998 by the Village Voice. He is currently completing Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2011), and a general survey of African American history co-authored with Tera Hunter and Earl Lewis to be published by Norton.

Kelley's essays have appeared in several anthologies and journals, including The Nation, Monthly Review, The Voice Literary Supplement, New York Times (Arts and Leisure), New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Color Lines, Code Magazine, Utne Reader, Lenox Avenue, African Studies Review, Black Music Research Journal, Callaloo, New Politics, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noir, One World, Social Text, Metropolis, American Visions, Boston Review, Fashion Theory, American Historical Review, Journal of American History, New Labor Forum, Souls, Metropolis, and frieze: contemporary art and culture, to name a few.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring vision for radical struggles, July 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Hardcover)

While Robin Kelley might claim this book is not a "true" intellectual history, there's an awful lot of intellect packed inside. His profound thoughts, engaging writing, and motivating ideas all find focus with his idea that the center of any movement for change has to be love -- love of self, love of people, love of place. Jammed with interesting historical notes and biographies, his sweeping perspective on what it has meant to be black and, perhaps more importantly, identified as such, would serve every citizen of the world well. And if Mayor Mike B. and his constitutents would read Kelley's idea for downtown NYC, New York -- and the world -- might have a chance.

20 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dream Your way out of our Constrictions, June 21, 2002

By 

Carmen (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Hardcover)

This is the BEST book I've read in the last 20 years!! A must read for anyone interested in the Utopian vision of radical movements. I learned a great deal about the reparations movement, Black feminism, and a movement no one is talking about-Surrealism. And it's beautifully written.

5.0 out of 5 stars Freedom Dreams, September 1, 2009

By 

Jessica Hammond "KrazyKieka" (Santa Barbara, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Paperback)

This book is beyond excellent. It covers the topics that are not usually covered in regards to the political activity and productions of African Americans. GREAT READ! For those not as radical as I it may be a challenge, however, that makes it all the more important for you to dive into!