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Begin Again

James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Today

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Begin Again

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

Brought to you by Penguin.

The New York Times best seller.

A Time 100 must-read book of 2020.

A Washington Post notable work of non-fiction 2020.

A searing indictment of racial injustice in America - inspired by the life and work of James Baldwin - to help us understand the present moment and imagine a new future into being.

The struggles of Black Lives Matter and the attempt to achieve a new America have been challenged by the presidency of Donald Trump, a president whose time in the White House represents the latest failure of America to face the lies it tells itself about race.

For James Baldwin, a similar attempt to force a confrontation with the truth of America's racism came in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement and was answered with the murders of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. In the years from the publication of The Fire Next Time in 1963 to that of No Name in the Street in 1972, Baldwin - the great creative artist, often referred to as 'the poet of the revolution' - became a more overtly political writer, a change that came at great professional and personal cost. But from that journey, Baldwin emerged with a sense of renewed purpose about the necessity of pushing forward in the face of disillusionment and despair.

America is at a crossroads. Drawing insight and inspiration from Baldwin's writings, Glaude suggests we can find hope and guidance through our own era of shattered promises and white retrenchment. Seamlessly combining biography with history, memoir and trenchant analysis of our moment, Begin Again bears witness to the difficult truth of race in America. It is at once a searing exploration that lays bare the tangled web of race, trauma and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we all must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a more just future.

'Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again.' (James Baldwin)

©2021 Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Black & African American Racism & Discrimination United States Social Movement Civil rights Martin Luther King
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Critic reviews

"Begin Again is that rare thing: an instant classic." (Pankaj Mishra)

What listeners say about Begin Again

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Tough, Ambitious, Important read

Not a perfect work and not an easy one, but so timely, and equally so well researched and articulated that any flaws are well worth the eventual destination.
The writer is definite about our way forward. “We need to gather ourselves, for we are in the eye of the storm... we must not shrink from our rage.’
Glaude Jnr notes of the writing experience: “I feel a bit wiser, like I’ve gone through a gauntlet and made it to the other side.” The reader is similarly edified after this book.
Reading Baldwin, he writes, “demanded a level of honesty in me that threatened to crack the very foundation of the world I had created”.
“He exposes your private lies and forces you... to confront your deepest wounds as a pre-condition for saying anything about the world.” The reading of this book does likewise. It’s not easy. But the unvarnished truth never is.

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Highly charged and powerful book

The narration is wonderful, the life story is incredible and I feel such a warmth for James Baldwin.

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