James Baldwin

All the grief, grit, and unassailable dignity of the civil rights movement are evoked in this illustrated edition of James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, with photographs by Steve Schapiro. Together, Baldwin's frank account of the black experience and Schapiro's vital images offer poetic and potent testimony to one of the most important...

The Fire Next Time

With clarity, conviction, and passion, James Baldwin delivers a dire warning of the effects of racism that remains urgent nearly sixty years after its original publication.

In the first of two essays, "My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation," Baldwin offers kind and unflinching counsel on what it means to be Black in the United States and explains the twisted logic of American racism.

In "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind," Baldwin recounts his spiritual journey into the church after a religious crisis at the age of fourteen, and then back out of it again, as well as his meeting with Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Throughout, Baldwin urges us to confront the oppressive institutions of race, religion, and nationhood itself, and insists that shared resilience among both Black and white people is the only way forward. As much as it is a reckoning with America's racist past, The Fire Next Time is also a clarion call to care, courage, and love, and a candle to light the way.

Emiley Jones

Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace—not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.

I speak of change not on the surface but in the depths—change in the sense of renewal. But renewal becomes impossible if one supposes things to be constant that are not—safety, for example, or money, or power. One clings then to chimeras, by which one can only be betrayed, and the entire hope—the entire possibility—of freedom disappears.

The subtle and deadly change of heart that might occur in you would be involved with the realization that a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.

Maricruz

If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.

The powerful evocation of a childhood in Harlem that helped to galvanize the early days of the civil rights movement examines the deep consequences of racial injustice to both the individual and the body politic. Reissue. 20,000 first printing.

Helen 

Colour is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.  

 There is absolutely no reason to suppose that white people are better equipped to frame the laws by which I am to be governed than I am. It is entirely unacceptable that I should have no voice in the political affairs of my own country, for I am not a ward of America; I am one of the first Americans to arrive on these shores. 

The sunlight came into the room with the peacefulness one remembers from rooms in one's early childhood- a sun- light encountered later only in one's dreams. 

And the blood of the Lamb had not cleansed me in any way whatever. I was just as black as I had been the day that I was born. 

In any case, white people, who had robbed black people of their liberty and who profited by this theft every hour that they lived, had no moral ground on which to stand. They had the judges, the juries, the shotguns, the law-in a word, power.  

 There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must acept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. 

Sabrina D. 

Marcos Rodriguez

First published in 1963, James Baldwin's A Fire Next Time stabbed at the heart of America's so-called ldquo;Negro problemrdquo;. As remarkable for its masterful prose as it is for its uncompromising account of black experience in the United States, it is considered to this day one of the most articulate and influential expressions of 1960s race relations. The book consists of two essays, ldquo;My Dungeon Shook mdash; Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation,rdquo; and ldquo;Down At The Cross mdash; Letter from a Region of My Mind.rdquo; It weaves thematic threads of love, faith, and family into a candid assault on the hypocrisy of the so-say ldquo;land of the freerdquo;, insisting on the inequality implicit to American society. ldquo;You were born where you were born and faced the future that you facedrdquo;, Baldwin writes to his nephew, ldquo;because you were black and for no other reason.rdquo; His profound sense of injustice is matched by a robust belief in ldquo;monumental dignityrdquo;, in patience, empathy, and the possibility of transforming America into ldquo;what America must become.rdquo;

Stephen Schenkenberg

Listened to this one on audio but am absolutely going to need to reread a physical copy. So much importance in his words.  

Laura Walden

Irene

Megan Parrott

Baldwin's letter to his nephew feels like it was written yesterday. Since the first time I read the essay a few months ago, I find myself rereading it over and over. It's just so heartbreakingly beautiful and on point.

highlighted and underlined so many parts. such a short book but every page is filled with relevant musings on race, politics, and human experiences. 

why did it take me so long to read this!? i love the way he talks abt love as something that is constant, along with birth and death and life! and how he sees it as a sense of growth. great eloquent and thoughtful read. i honestly feel like i could reread it and still gain so much more from it on the second time around

Ellie Younger

kayla 

Baldwin is ridiculously eloquent on a complex, charged topic.

Maximus

A harrowing, educational and imperative read that exquisitely showcased Baldwin's earlier days. 

Baldwin is as intelligent and insightful as he is candid. This books really demonstrates that.

Cody Degen

Wish I could read this rather than listening, feel like I would appreciate it a lot more. Nevertheless, really really good

jennifer 

“I know how black it looks today, for you. It looked bad that day, too, yes, we were trembling. We have not stopped trembling yet, but if we had not loved each other none of us would have survived. And now you must survive because we love you,”

Excerpt From
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin

my 2nd baldwin and he’s shaping up to be one of my most favorite ppl ever. great articulation of experiencing the racial injustices of the world while still providing wonderful optimistic relief as consolation. much more heart than sociology which i always love and want to seek out. not sure if i can fully agree with his sympathy for aggressors but i was glad to hear it out. overall the most profound 90 pages of phone reading ever. got through it so fast on a walk. highly recommend

Andrew John Kinney

Lamia Hajani

So much of Baldwin’s words ring true to this day. I’m surprised by how moderate he seemed on so many divisive issues. Great read especially amidst current events.

Matthew Royal

"White Americans congratulate themselves on the 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in the schools; they suppose, in spite of the mountain of evidence that has since accumulated to the contrary, that this was proof of a change of heart— or, as they like to say, progress."

camilla

a visão dele de que o que brancos não sabem sobre os pretos é justamente o que não sabem sobre si mesmos.. triste que o mundo não evoluiu como ele acreditava que seria possível, mas feliz que ele tenha vivido pra saber que foi muito relevante em todas as lutas que seguia. 

esse homem era e sempre vai ser completamente INDISPENSÁVEL, a capacidade que ele tinha de articular suas percepções com uma eloquência que eu acho que nunca vi antes.. fora o jeito de sintetizar sentimentos tão específicos e bonitos na escrita. só queria que ele fosse mais falado fora do nicho de leitores pretos também pq as pessoas brancas tem muito a aprender com ele.

The author I've been waiting for ! He's eloquent and puts to word ideas that have been floating around in the ether. The notion of innocence and the horrors of history and where they create a cognitive dissonance in their friction.

Jiji

Cindy Lieberman

Powerfully persuasive and highly personal. Mr Baldwin shares a letter to his nephew and a reflection on the 100th anniversary of the emancipation from slavery some 60 years ago. He talks about his early years, his father the Preacher and his own turn at the pulpit; attending schools with white Christians and Jews, meeting Nation of Islam leaders, and how these experiences shaped how he felt about religion. He focuses most significantly on the lack of progress in race relations and what whites and blacks must do to bring about change.

eliz

3.5 

my favorite part of this essay is unquestionably the letter for his nephew. random excerpts: "to be born under conditions," "limits of your ambition," "to be loved, to strengthen you against this loveless world," "the very time I thought I was lost, my dungeon shook and my chains fell off," "the slow crumbling of my faith, the pulverization of my fortress—from the time when I began to read again," "if one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving."

content is strong but the long sentences structure kind of bothered me

Haley Murray

Jayme Bosio

This book is beautiful and heartbreaking. Everyone should read this.

Omar AlHashmi

Eloquent. That's the best word I can use to describe this book. Baldwin's writing flows like water. Definitely give it a try if you are interested in this topic

Fraser Simons

It is striking that—aside from Baldwin talking about meeting Malcolm X and things that insinuate a specific time and place in the past—it might have been written today, so little has changed. Published in ‘62 yet still with a bluntness and conciseness explains exactly the numerous problems that outline things that have not even remotely been addressed as a culture. Especially western views of masculinity, land ownership, and a staunch refusal to even view reality as it is when systemic issues are concerned.

Jenna

James Baldwin gets me every time. The Fire Next Time cuts to the bone. The two “letters” that condemn racism and white supremacy are incredibly powerful. It’s so painfully relevant still today, which makes it that much more affecting. So compelling and so moving, Baldwin is rightfully angry yet remains so incredibly eloquent.

Baldwin has quickly become one of my all time favorite, most revered writers. I’m so moved and inspired by his courage as a queer black man in the 1960s. Every book is so potent, so articulate and expressive.

This book is a must read. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I finished it. Do yourself a favor and read some Baldwin.

Kathleen Mullins

This is an important read, and felt just as relevant today as it was when it was written. I was especially interested hearing about how religion shaped people's perspectives on race, and how Baldwin's thoughts came up against those of Elijah Muhammed.

The Fire Next Time

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