Herbert Aptheker on Race and Democracy A Reader

Barred from the academy for most of his life because of his political views, Herbert Aptheker (1915-2003) nevertheless forged a path in the field of African American studies decades before the civil rights movement reached fruition. On Race and Democracy collects fourteen of his essays. Written with passion and eloquence, they are full of ideas originally dismissed by a white, segregated academy that have now become part of the scholarly mainstream. Covering topics including the maroons, black abolitionists, Reconstruction, and W. E. B. Du Bois, the essays of On Race and Democracy demonstrate the critical connection between political commitment and the advancement of scholarship, while restoring Aptheker's central place in the development of African American studies.