Cornel West

Professor Cornel West

The coauthor of The Future of the Race looks at the issues facing African Americans, including the new Black conservatism, Black-Jewish relations, discrimination, racial sterotypes, and despair. Reprint.

Race Matters

Cornel West is one of the nation's premier public intellectuals and one of the great prophetic voices of our era. Whether he is writing a scholarly book or an article for Newsweek, whether he is speaking of Emerson, Gramsci, or Marvin Gaye, his work radiates a passion that reflects the rich traditions he draws on and weaves togetherÑBaptist preaching, American transcendentalism, jazz, radical politics. This anthology reveals the dazzling range of West's work, from his explorations of ”Prophetic Pragmatism” to his philosophizing on hip-hop.The Cornel West Reader traces the development of West's extraordinary career as academic, public intellectual, and activist. In his essays, articles, books, and interviews, West emerges as America's social conscience, urging attention to complicated issues of racial and economic justice, sexuality and gender, history and politics. This collection represents the best work of an always compelling, often controversial, and absolutely essential philosopher of the modern American experience.

The Cornel West Reader

Prophetic thought in postmodern times

Bell Hooks

Hooks and West share roots in the black church, and have a commitment to the life of the mind and feminism. This book takes the form of a dialog that explores diverse aspects of modern African American culture: the spiritual crisis in the black community; conservatism among the black middle class; the new black nationalism; depictions of African Americans in popular culture; and uses of black icons by modern political leaders. Of particular interest are their discussions of gender and politics; and their hope that their own intellectual engagement can serve as a model for new kinds of relationships between black men and women. ISBN 0-89608-415-9: $25.00.

Insurgent Black Intellectual Life

Breaking Bread

Explores the threats to democracy that exist both in the United States and in the Middle East, discussing the corruption that plagues our own democracy, the failure to foster peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and other crises.

Winning the Fight Against Imperialism

Democracy Matters

Taking Emerson as his starting point, Cornel West’s basic task in this ambitious enterprise is to chart the emergence, development, decline, and recent resurgence of American pragmatism. John Dewey is the central figure in West’s pantheon of pragmatists, but he treats as well such varied mid-century representatives of the tradition as Sidney Hook, C. Wright Mills, W. E. B. Du Bois, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Lionel Trilling. West’s "genealogy" is, ultimately, a very personal work, for it is imbued throughout with the author’s conviction that a thorough reexamination of American pragmatism may help inspire and instruct contemporary efforts to remake and reform American society and culture. "West . . . may well be the pre-eminent African American intellectual of our generation."—The Nation "The American Evasion of Philosophy is a highly intelligent and provocative book. Cornel West gives us illuminating readings of the political thought of Emerson and James; provides a penetrating critical assessment of Dewey, his central figure; and offers a brilliant interpretation—appreciative yet far from uncritical—of the contemporary philosopher and neo-pragmatist Richard Rorty. . . . What shines through, throughout the work, is West's firm commitment to a radical vision of a philosophic discourse as inextricably linked to cultural criticism and political engagement."—Paul S. Boyer, professor emeritus of history, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Wisconsin Project on American Writers Frank Lentricchia, General Editor

A Genealogy of Pragmatism

The American Evasion of Philosophy

This powerful collection of essays ranges widely across politics and philosophy in America, the role of the black intellectual, legal theory and the future of liberal thought, and the fate of African Americans. The author of Race Matters, West lectures widely and appears frequently on TV.

Philosophy and Race in America

Keeping Faith

Andrew Ross

Manning Marable

Nellie Y. McKay

Nell Irvin Painter

Patricia J. Williams

Kendall Thomas

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Homi K. Bhabha

Michael Thelwell

Margaret A. Burnham

Paula Giddings

A. Leon Higginbotham

Claudia Brodsky Lacour

Wahneema H. Lubiano

Gayle Pemberton

Christine Stansell

Carol Miller Swain

Eighteen essays by prominent scholars reflect on the cultural, historical, political, personal, legal, sexual, and linguistic implications of the Thomas hearings and Hill's accusations

Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality

Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power

Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought

"Celebrated intellectual and activist Cornel West offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. In an accessible, conversational format, Cornel West, with distinguished scholar Christa Buschendorf, provides a fresh perspective on six revolutionary African American leaders: Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida Wells-Barnett. West examines the impact of these men and women on their own eras and across the decades. He not only rediscovers the integrity and commitment within these passionate advocates but also their fault lines. West finds that Douglass and, to some extent, Du Bois fall short of the high standards he holds them to, while King has been sanitized and even 'Santaclausified,' rendering him less radical. By providing new insights that humanize all of these well-known figures, West takes an important step in rekindling the Black prophetic fire so essential in the age of Obama"--

Black prophetic fire

words & wisdom

Hope on a tightrope

Nova edição do clássico de Cornel West, Questão de raça se reafirma como uma das mais influentes e originais obras sobre o debate racial nos Estados Unidos. Publicada no Brasil pela primeira vez em 1994, esta coletânea de ensaios logo se tornou um clássico. Nela, o sociólogo norte-americano Cornel West, referência nos estudos de raça nos Estados Unidos, reflete sobre temas como a crise de liderança na comunidade negra, os mitos sobre a sexualidade dos negros e o legado de Malcolm X. Passados mais de vinte anos, as ideias de West continuam relevantes e provocadoras, e são um chamado à luta por todo o mundo. Com um novo prefácio e uma nova introdução, que destacam, entre outros pontos, a importância dos movimentos que têm tomado as ruas nos últimos anos, Questão de raça encontra esperança na resistência coletiva e nos convida a construir uma democracia multirracial para este milênio.

Questão de raça

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Draws on the ideas of W.E.B. Du Bois to study the hopes and fears of the African American community at the dawn of the twenty-first century

The Future of the Race

Sylvia Ann Hewlett

The authors advocate changing the society that they suggest has undermined the accessibility and importance of parents

What We Can Do for America's Beleaguered Moms and Dads

The War Against Parents

bell hooks

A Conversation

In Solidarity

Roberto M. Unger

Unless Americans prove themselves willing to be as open-minded about the institutional arrangements of the country as they have been about almost everything else, they will continue to find their hopes frustrated. It is not enough to rebel against the lack of justice unless we also rebel against the lack of imagination. Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Cornel West argue that the path to progressive reform goes through reorganization of our economic and political instutitions; tax and spending are not enough. Breaking with the conventional ideas of American progressive politics, they show how we can stimulate economic growth and guarantee a minimum of resources for all citizens.

An Initiative for Political and Economic Reform

The Future of American Progressivism

Tavis Smiley

Record unemployment and rampant corporate avarice, empty houses but homeless families, dwindling opportunities in an increasingly paralyzed nation—these are the realities of 21st-century America, land of the free and home of the new middle class poor. Award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West, one of the nation’s leading democratic intellectuals, co-hosts of Public Radio’s Smiley & West, now take on the "P" word—poverty. The Rich and the Rest of Us is the next step in the journey that began with "The Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience." Smiley and West’s 18-city bus tour gave voice to the plight of impoverished Americans of all races, colors, and creeds. With 150 million Americans persistently poor or near poor, the highest numbers in over five decades, Smiley and West argue that now is the time to confront the underlying conditions of systemic poverty in America before it’s too late. By placing the eradication of poverty in the context of the nation’s greatest moments of social transformation— such as the abolition of slavery, woman’s suffrage, and the labor and civil rights movements—ending poverty is sure to emerge as America’s 21st‑century civil rights struggle. As the middle class disappears and the safety net is shredded, Smiley and West, building on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., ask us to confront our fear and complacency with 12 poverty changing ideas. They challenge us to re-examine our assumptions about poverty in America—what it really is and how to eliminate it now.

The Rich and the Rest of Us

Nancy Rankin

Taking Parenting Public makes a compelling case that parenting has become dangerously undervalued in America today. It calls for a new investment--both personal and public--into the work of raising children and argues that we are all 'stockholders' in the next generation. With a foreword by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Cornel West, Taking Parenting Public crosses boundaries to bring together thinkers from diverse fields spanning the political spectrum. It features contributions from distinguished experts in economics, political science, public policy, child development, public health, history, and the media. While recent books have focused on working mothers or absent fathers, Taking Parenting Public is the first volume to take a comprehensive look at the common struggles of parents. These essays go beyond the usual chest-beating about busy parents torn between work and family demands to suggest bold solutions. Instead of the typical call for 'parent replacement'--more child care, more after school programs and more mentors--the contributors offer fresh strategies for 'parent replenishment, ' ways to put mothers and fathers back into the lives of their children not only as economic providers, but also as emotional and moral providers.

The Case for a New Social Movement

Taking Parenting Public

Quinton Hosford Dixie

In this unique collaboration, the most prized and esteemed scholars in theology, religious history, and sociology offer a new understanding of American spiritual life by placing African-American religious experience at its center. Moving from specific cases in African-American history and theology to discussions of how African-American experiences can and should inform all studies of American life, they uncover the spiritual human soul that unites all of us. The editors call this project a "testament of hope," and it is a powerful tribute to the late James M. Washington, whose works were an inspirational search for universality. Contributors include James H. Cone, David D. Daniels III, Walter E. Fluker, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, E. Lee Hancock, Dale T. Irvin, Carolyn Ann Knight, Charles H. Long, Sandy Dwayne Martin, Genna Rae McNeil, Richard Newman, Albert J. Raboteau, Gary V. Simpson, Mark V.C. Taylor, Judith Weisenfeld, and Lucas Wilson.

From Black Suffering to Human Redemption

The Courage to Hope

Jillian Hanesworth

The revolution will be led by Black women who are just tired enough to do it ourselves Welcome to the revolution! In her second collection, Jillian Hanesworth explores the idea of revolutionary change through a personal and community lens. The internal revolution details some of her most personal thoughts, insecurities, pains, and triumphs, while the external revolution displays her work and love for her community by speaking truth to power, calling for change, recounting history, and empowering people to walk in their own light. This book also features a transcribed conversation with Dr. Cornel West about using the arts to build political power. The revolution starts now.

Cornel West

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