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Begin Again

James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own

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Begin Again

By: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
Narrated by: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
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About this listen

 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A powerful study of how to bear witness in a moment when America is being called to do the same.”—Time

James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the civil rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race. What can we learn from his struggle in our own moment?
 
One of the Best Books of the Year: Time, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune • One of Esquire’s Best Biographies of All Time • Winner of the Stowe Prize • Shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice
 
“Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again.”—James Baldwin
 
Begin Again is one of the great books on James Baldwin and a powerful reckoning with America’s ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race. Just as in Baldwin’s “after times,” argues Eddie S. Glaude Jr., when white Americans met the civil rights movement’s call for truth and justice with blind rage and the murders of movement leaders, so in our moment were the Obama presidency and the birth of Black Lives Matter answered with the ascendance of Trump and the violent resurgence of white nationalism.
 
In these brilliant and stirring pages, Glaude finds hope and guidance in Baldwin as he mixes biography—drawn partially from newly uncovered Baldwin interviews—with history, memoir, and poignant analysis of our current moment to reveal the painful cycle of Black resistance and white retrenchment. As Glaude bears witness to the difficult truth of racism’s continued grip on the national soul, Begin Again is a searing exploration of the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America. Americas Art & Literature Authors Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences United States
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I listen to this biography, history and literary master piece and gained knowledge and understanding. This book bears witness of the time and provide an expose as to why 'Black Life Matters'. Exposing the LIE that is the foundation of RACISM, the inability for the racist to LOVE themselves. Exposing the strength, resilience and commitment to the lived experience of those who paid with their life, the price of defining ourselves and our value and not ascribing to the notion of inferiority projected onto Black Bodies. Thank You

A Life Unexamined Is Wasted

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Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again. - Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

James Baldwin felt the pain of black Americans, the ebb and flow of white nationalism, and the white/black value gap in it's history.

Heartbreaking & painful to read into the struggles he witnessed & endured.

A heartbreaking story, experly told.

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Once I started, I could not stop. Listened to the entire performance in one sitting. I sent it to my 78 year old father for his birthday. Will have my 16 year old daughter listen this week.

Riveting, Poignant, Emotional Call to Action.

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