Review
"... a fresh and realistic look at the Black Panther Party and its historical impact. - Library Journal, 11/2000."
"The most important collection of work on the Black Panther Party to date. It covers the full range of the complex politics that shaped their struggles for freedom and justice and we learn just how far away we are from achieving their vision of liberation. - Hazel V. Carby, , Chair, Department of African American Studies, Yale University."
"The history of the Black Panther Party is an indispensable part of the dramatic account of black struggle in this country, and this book is an important contribution to that history. The essayists have impressive credentials as either members of the Party or keen observers of its activities, and because they carry the story into the present day the book becomes especially valuable. -Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States."
"If this volume of essays only offered us documentation and insight into the contributions and wide-ranging influence of the Black Panther Party, it would have immense historical significance. But Kathleen Cleaver's and George Katsiasficas's collection does much more. It creates intriguing and provocative conversations among scholars, activists, contemporary political prisoners and original members of the BPP that invite us to extricate ourselves from the numbing nostalgia that often accompanies invocations of black berets and leather jackets. It invites us reimagine our relationship to this past and to think critically about the meaning of liberation today." -- Angela Y. Davis, Professor, History of Consciousness, UC Santa Cruz
"If this volume of essays only offered us documentation and insight into the contributions and wide-ranging influence of the Black Panther Party, it would have immense historical significance. But Kathleen Cleaver's and George Katsiasficas's collection does much more. It creates intriguing and provocative conversations among scholars, activists, contemporary political prisoners and original members of the BPP that invite us to extricate ourselves from the numbing nostagia that often accompanies invocations of black berets and leather jackets. It invites us reimagine our relationship to this past and to think critically about the meaning of liberation today. -Angela Y. Davis, Professor, History of Consciousness, UC Santa Cruz."
About the Author
Kathleen Cleaver, currently Professor of Public Policy at Emory University, worked full time with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and afterwards became the Communications Secretary of the Black Panther Party. Returning to the United States after sharing years of exile with her former husband Eldridge Cleaver, she subsequently earned both a B.A. and J.D. from Yale University. George Katsiaficas is a long-time activist as well as Editor of the journal New Political Science and author of The Imagination of the New Left: A Global Analysis of 1968. His book, The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life, won the APSA's 1998 Michael Harrington book award. He teaches at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.
