What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace [Hardcover]

Walter Mosley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 29, 2003

In What Next, Walter Mosley -- New York Times bestselling author -- has crafted a deeply personal and political proposal, offering a commonsense approach to the challenge of finding world peace in a post-9/11 world. Mosley recalls his father’s story about not feeling like an American until German soldiers shot at him during World War II. Now the younger Mosley explores what the terrorist attacks meant to him, and challenges African Americans to use their unique position to help create a new kind of peace between the U.S. and the rest of the world. What Next examines this and other questions in a powerful polemic and call to action for African Americans and freedom-loving people everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This impassioned essay urges black Americans to take the lead in shaping America's response to the September 11 attacks. Mosley, author of the Easy Rawlins mystery series, puts forth a radical critique of U.S. foreign policy, recalling U.S. interventions in Indochina, Central America and the Middle East to assert that America often acts as a "pillager-nation" concerned more with corporate profits and cheap oil than with democracy and human rights; Arab antipathy towards the U.S. is thus more a response to U.S. economic imperialism than to religious or cultural antagonisms. Drawing on memories of his father's struggle against racism, he argues that blacks' experience of racial injustice in the United States obligates them to sympathize with oppressed peoples elsewhere and to understand (although Mosley does not condone) the murderous rage directed at America by many in the Muslim world. He exhorts blacks to take the lead in resisting the current militaristic response to terrorism and to demand that America harmonize its foreign policy with its humanitarian ideals and with the interests of the downtrodden "from Africa to Afghanistan." Interweaving the personal and the polemical, Mosley aims to shock readers out of their moral complacency; "It is up to me," he writes, "to make sure that my dark-skinned brothers and sisters around the world...are not enslaved, vilified, and raped by my desire to eat cornflakes or take a drive." Although his exclusive focus on economic motives somewhat oversimplifies U.S. foreign policy, he raises a compelling and eloquent challenge to America's role in the world.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Mosley, noted for his Easy Rawling mysteries set in black Los Angeles from the 1940s to the 1960s, draws from the roots of his folk experience to challenge black Americans to do their part for world peace. He notes the lack of black engagement or dialogue since 9/11 and asserts that such is a loss for all Americans, if not the world. Mosley draws on the folk wisdom and struggle of his father and grandfather's generations, who came to know a sense of Americanness and freedom denied to previous generations. Mosely argues that it is, in fact, the profound awareness of this nation's flaws that sustains an African American consciousness and provides a more complete perspective that is missing in the American narrative. The black experience of the terror of lynching, Jim Crow, and slavery are experiences to which most of white America is blind. Yet African Americans have lived with a sense of hope and faith in American ideals. Mosley believes that African Americans' sharing this experience benefits the nation and the prospects for world peace. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 124 pages
• Publisher: Black Classic Press; 1 edition (January 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574780204
• ISBN-13: 978-1574780208
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,964,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Walter Mosley is one of America's most celebrated and beloved writers. His books have won numerous awards and have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Mosley is the author of the acclaimed Easy Rawlins series of mysteries, including national bestsellers Cinnamon Kiss, Little Scarlet, and Bad Boy Brawly Brown; the Fearless Jones series, including Fearless Jones, Fear Itself, and Fear of the Dark; the novels Blue Light and RL's Dream; and two collections of stories featuring Socrates Fortlow, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, for which he received the Anisfield-Wolf Award, and Walkin' the Dog. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading..., April 16, 2003

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace (Hardcover)

WHAT NEXT is a slim book that is chock full of large, common sense ideas about how world peace can be achieved. Walter Mosley starts off with a scene from his life. His father is explaining to him that he had never felt like an American even though he was fighting for America in the Second World War until he realized that the Germans were actually shooting at him. That must make him a real American. Finding that he could not live among people in the South who could not accept what he had become under fire, he left the South for Los Angeles.

Mr. Mosley gives us an idea of the perceptions of African Americans, being careful to note that African Americans do see themselves as Americans, they do not want to leave this country, nor do they wish to abandon its ideals of freedom. African Americans are aware of the pitfalls of unevenly applied laws and philosophies and they have never had the luxury of self-deception but they are still willing to work to make this country a better place.

He outlines several simple solutions to working for world peace. One such idea is getting several people into study groups. Each person takes a different aspect of the news and reports on it to the group. That way, everyone will have a wide range of knowledge about what is going on in the world without being burdened with searching out every detail for themselves. He feels that African Americans can use their many experiences to improve the world.

It is a book well worth reading and everyone, not just African Americans, would find it beneficial.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Message That Is Not Just For African Americans, March 22, 2003

By 

Bruce Crocker "agnostictrickster" (Whittier, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace (Hardcover)

Walter Mosley's monograph What Next is an impassioned call to African Americans to use their collective experience and history to move this country and the world towards being a more peaceful place. Mosley uses his own history with his father as a jumping off point to help him sort out his feelings towards 9/11, the war on terrorism, and [what was then the impending] war with Iraq. In writing this monograph, Mosley is letting us in on his ruminations. And what wise ruminations they are. Even though I didn't always totally agree with Mosley and even though I'm not African American, I found a lot of good points to think about in this short, but thoughtful book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars REFLECTION ON PEACE, May 25, 2003

By 

Bonita L. Davis - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace (Hardcover)

Walter Mosley is one who moves beyond the tag of being a mystery writer. In this slender volume he shares his reflections and thoughts on how to achieve world peace.According to Mosley African-Americans hold the key in achieving world peace due to their unique experience in America.

How does Mosley get to this idea? He shares with us a story told to him by his father. LeRoy Mosley shares his epiphany of being an American through his World War II experience. He states, "It was the Germans and the Americans who were at war... I didn't know I was an American until they ( the Germans) started shooting at me." The senior Mosley reveals the paradox of being Black in America. Blacks are seen as outsiders by the majority population but those who are America's enemies don't make a distinction between Black and White. Regardless of ethnicity, Americans are seen as the enemy.

Using his father's story as the launching point, Mosley looks at the events of September 11th and sees that blacks are identified with the oppressor even if they are considered outsiders. Since Blacks occupy a precarious position in the society they can understand the anger of the enemy. As Americans Blacks can no longer remain silent about world affairs. They must become key players for America's fate is tied to African-Americans.

Mosley calls for grassroots organization, the utilization of the media and political action in order for African-Americans to engage America in promoting piece. You don't have to be a political science major to realize the need for such actions. Mosley has some good thoughts but he rambles and at times you wonder how he got from point A to point B. He speaks about the silence of Blacks concerning 9-11 but fails to point out that the so-called silence was due to the media and not passivism on the part of African-Americans. His ideas are so general as to be useless. After all, haven't these steps have already been taken?

I applaud Mr. Mosley for starting the conversation about peace but he needs to add more depth and detail into what he feels African-Americans can do to achieve it.