Racism and the Class Struggle - by James Boggs (Paperback)

About the Book

A collection of essays written in the 1960s by author and activist James Boggs, who discusses the problems of the specific character of American capitalism and American democracy, the historic mission of the black revolution in the United States, and the need for the 1960s black movement to develop theoretically and organizationally.

Book Synopsis

The first collection of James Boggs' essays, which became seminal texts for the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement activism of the 1960s

James Boggs wrestles with the problems of the specific character of American capitalism and American democracy, the historic mission of the black revolution in the United States, and the need for the 1960s black movement to develop theoretically and organizationally. This collection of essays includes Bogg's remarkable "The City Is the Black Man's Land," an article anticipating the black nationalist programs that were to emerge in the later 1960s. Boggs hails the coming of what was at the time the new slogan of the black revolution with an essay called, "Black Power: A Scientific Concept Whose Time Has Come." In further essays, he hammers at his theme of the "second civil war" and black control of the cities. In his concluding piece, written especially for this book, Boggs evaluates and analyzes the movement of the late 1960s and its various groups.

Review Quotes

"Boggs's new book is heady, controversial writing--pungent polemical essays and speeches--which spells out forcefully his Marxist-Fanonist thesis that 'the issues of the black revolt are fundamentally rooted in the American system itself.'"

-- Publishers' Weekly