Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

by Manning Marable

Overview

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History and a New York Times bestseller, the definitive biography of Malcolm X

Hailed as "a masterpiece" (San Francisco Chronicle), Manning Marable's acclaimed biography of Malcolm X finally does justice to one of the most influential and controversial figures of twentieth-century American history. Filled with startling new information and shocking revelations, Malcolm X unfolds a sweeping story of race and class in America. Reaching into Malcolm's troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents' activism as followers of Marcus Garvey through his own work with the Nation of Islam and rise in the world of black nationalism, and culminates in the never-before-told true story of his assassination. Malcolm X is a stunning achievement, the definitive work on one of our greatest advocates for social change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143120322
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/28/2011
Pages:	624
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 9.04(h) x 1.36(d)

About the Author

Manning Marable (1951-2011) was M. Moran Weston and Black Alumni Council Professor of African American Studies and professor of history and public affairs at Columbia University. He was founding director of African American Studies at Columbia from 1993 to 2003, and directed Columbia’s Center for Contemporary Black History. The author of fifteen books, Marable was also the editor of the quarterly journal Souls.

Table of Contents

Prologue Life Beyond the Legend 1

Chapter 1 "Up, You Mighty Race! " 1925-1941 15

Chapter 2 The Legend of Detroit Red 1941-January 1946 39

Chapter 3 Becoming "X" January 1946-August 1952 70

Chapter 4 "They Don't Come Like the Minister" August 1952-May 1957 100

Chapter 5 "Brother, a Minister Has to Be Married" May 1957-March 1959 130

Chapter 6 "The Hate That Hate Produced" March 1959-January 1961 155

Chapter 7 "As Sure As God Made Green Apples" January 1961-May 1962 180

Chapter 8 From Prayer to Protest May 1962-March 1963 211

Chapter 9 "He Was Developing Too Fast" April-November 1963 235

Chapter 10 "The Chickens Coming Home to Roost" December 1, 1963-March 12,1964 269

Chapter 11 An Epiphany in the Hajj March 12-May 21, 1964 297

Chapter 12 "Do Something About Malcolm X" May 21-July 11, 1964 321

Chapter 13 "In the Struggle for Dignity" July 11-November 24,1964 360

Chapter 14 "Such a Man Is Worthy of Death" November 24,1964-February 14,1965 388

Chapter 15 Death Comes on Time February 14-February 21, 1965 418

Chapter 16 Life After Death 450

Epilogue Reflections on a Revolutionary Vision 479

Acknowledgments and Research Notes 489

Notes 495

A Glossary of Terms 559

Bibliography 563

Index 577

What People are Saying About This

Michiko Kakutani

“In his revealing and prodigiously researched new biography. . . Mr. Marable artfully strips away the layers and layers of myth that have been lacquered onto his subject’s life — first by Malcolm himself in that famous memoir, and later by both supporters and opponents after his assassination.”

Cornel West

“Manning Marable is the exemplary black scholar of radical democracy and black freedom in our time. His long-awaited magisterial book on Malcolm X is the definitive treatment of the greatest black radical voice and figure of the mid-twentieth century. Glory Hallelujah!”

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

“Malcolm X is etched in the American imagination—and the American psyche—in the particular and unyielding terms of radical and militant… Marable brings a lifetime of study to this biography, which is the crowning achievement of a magnificent career.”

Michael Eric Dyson

“Manning Marable’s Malcolm X is his magnum opus, a work of extraordinary rigor and intellectual beauty … This majestic and eloquent tour de force will stand for some time as the definitive work on as enigmatic and electrifying a leader as has ever sprung from American soil.”

Editorial Reviews

In hardcover, this revelatory biography of human rights activist Malcolm X (1925-1965) was hailed as "magisterial...an exceeding brave as well as a major intellectual accomplishment," named as a finalist for the National Book Award and honored as one of the New York Times Top 10 Books of the Year. Now in trade paperback and NOOK Book, this bestseller promises to attract even more readers.

— Edward Ash-Milby

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century

“Malcolm X is etched in the American imagination—and the American psyche—in the particular and unyielding terms of radical and militant… Marable brings a lifetime of study to this biography, which is the crowning achievement of a magnificent career.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University

“Manning Marable is the exemplary black scholar of radical democracy and black freedom in our time. His long-awaited magisterial book on Malcolm X is the definitive treatment of the greatest black radical voice and figure of the mid-twentieth century. Glory Hallelujah!”—Cornel West, Princeton University

“Manning Marable’s Malcolm X is his magnum opus, a work of extraordinary rigor and intellectual beauty … This majestic and eloquent tour de force will stand for some time as the definitive work on as enigmatic and electrifying a leader as has ever sprung from American soil.” —Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown University, author of April 4, 1968

"A superbly written and carefully researched biography of the civil rights icon...I can’t recommend it highly enough."—Laila Lalami, The New York Times

“It will be difficult for anyone to better this book... It is a work of art, a feast that combines genres skillfully: biography, true-crime, political commentary. It gives us Malcolm X in full gallop, a man who died for his belief in freedom.”—The Washington Post

“In his revealing and prodigiously researched new biography. . . Mr. Marable artfully strips away the layers and layers of myth that have been lacquered onto his subject’s life — first by Malcolm himself in that famous memoir, and later by both supporters and opponents after his assassination.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Unlike Bruce Perry’s 1991 biography, Malcolm, which entertained the most outlandish stories in an attempt to present a comprehensive portrait, Marable’s biography judiciously sifts fact from myth.”—The Atlantic

“Magisterial…Marable’s biography is an exceedingly brave as well as a major intellectual accomplishment.”—Boston Globe

“Marable has crafted an extraordinary portrait of a man and his time…A masterpiece.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“This book is a must read.”—Ebony

“Thankfully, we have Manning Marable's new biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention — which is, simply put, a stunning achievement — to help us better understand Malcolm’s complex life.”—The Philadelphia Tribune

“The book also has much to recommend it for its history of orthodox Islam, the perspective it offers on the black political movements of the 1950s and 1960s that changed America, and its insights into the development and inner workings of the Nation of Islam.”—The Financial Times

“Manning Marable’s scholarship was as provocative and profound as it was prodigious.”—Newsday

“[Marable] devoted his magnificent career—more than most scholars do—to living what he wrote and what he thought. His commitment not only to equality of opportunity but also to the exposure of falsehood and hypocrisy was a hallmark of his pathbreaking work.”—The Chronicle of Higher Education

“Marable accomplishes the difficult task of showing the bad boy of the civil rights era as an actual human being . . . Each page almost secretes the formidable research into hard facts. Marable lets the chips fall where they may because he is interested in the humanity of Malcolm X, as all true scholars should be.”—New York Daily News

“This is history at its finest—written with passion and attention and drive. It is a fitting testament to the lives and the legacies of both subject and author.”—TheBarnesandNobleReview.com

“Marable’s definitive biography is now the standard by which scholars can evaluate, not just what Malcolm X said, but what generations of others have said about him.”—The National

“This book is not the only representation of Manning's brilliance… it is a culmination of a lifetime of scholarship and activism, a larger project devoted to telling the stories of a people engaged in an epic, painful and beautiful struggle for freedom.”—BlackVoices.com

“This superbly perceptive and resolutely honest book will long endure as a definitive treatment of Malcolm’s life, if not of the actors complicit in his death.”—The Wilson Quarterly

“The book is cause for celebration . . . The book is full of revelations, big and small, and amounts to a full-on reconsideration of Malcolm’s life and death.”—VeryShortList.com

“As Malcolm lived on through his best-selling autobiography, so will Marable, through his unmatched body of writing, his educational contributions, his illuminations on Malcolm X's legacy and his devoted students.”—CNN.Com

“Manning was an unflinching and breathtakingly prolific scholar whose commitments to racial, economic, gender, and international justice were unparalleled . . . That we will have his long-anticipated, great and final work even as he leaves us is so classically, tragically appropriate.”—The Nation

“While Marable himself is irreplaceable, he has provided a foundation for future generations and will continue to shape our understanding of social change and justice.”—TheRoot.com

“A prolific scholar.”—The Columbia Record

From the Publisher

A prolific scholar.

The Columbia Record

As Malcolm lived on through his best-selling autobiography, so will Marable, through his unmatched body of writing, his educational contributions, his illuminations on Malcolm X's legacy and his devoted students.

CNN.Com

This is history at its finest—written with passion and attention and drive. It is a fitting testament to the lives and the legacies of both subject and author.

TheBarnesandNobleReview.com

While Marable himself is irreplaceable, he has provided a foundation for future generations and will continue to shape our understanding of social change and justice.

TheRoot.com

This book is not the only representation of Manning's brilliance… it is a culmination of a lifetime of scholarship and activism, a larger project devoted to telling the stories of a people engaged in an epic, painful and beautiful struggle for freedom.

BlackVoices.com

The book is cause for celebration . . . The book is full of revelations, big and small, and amounts to a full-on reconsideration of Malcolm’s life and death.

VeryShortList.com

Marable’s definitive biography is now the standard by which scholars can evaluate, not just what Malcolm X said, but what generations of others have said about him.

The National

This superbly perceptive and resolutely honest book will long endure as a definitive treatment of Malcolm’s life, if not of the actors complicit in his death.

The Wilson Quarterly

Thankfully, we have Manning Marable's new biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention — which is, simply put, a stunning achievement — to help us better understand Malcolm’s complex life.

The Philadelphia Tribune

[Marable] devoted his magnificent career—more than most scholars do—to living what he wrote and what he thought. His commitment not only to equality of opportunity but also to the exposure of falsehood and hypocrisy was a hallmark of his pathbreaking work.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

In his revealing and prodigiously researched new biography. . . Mr. Marable artfully strips away the layers and layers of myth that have been lacquered onto his subject’s life — first by Malcolm himself in that famous memoir, and later by both supporters and opponents after his assassination.

Michiko Kakutani

Unlike Bruce Perry’s 1991 biography, Malcolm, which entertained the most outlandish stories in an attempt to present a comprehensive portrait, Marable’s biography judiciously sifts fact from myth.

The Atlantic

Manning Marable’s Malcolm X is his magnum opus, a work of extraordinary rigor and intellectual beauty … This majestic and eloquent tour de force will stand for some time as the definitive work on as enigmatic and electrifying a leader as has ever sprung from American soil.

Michael Eric Dyson

Manning Marable is the exemplary black scholar of radical democracy and black freedom in our time. His long-awaited magisterial book on Malcolm X is the definitive treatment of the greatest black radical voice and figure of the mid-twentieth century. Glory Hallelujah!

Cornel West

This book is a must read.

Ebony

The book also has much to recommend it for its history of orthodox Islam, the perspective it offers on the black political movements of the 1950s and 1960s that changed America, and its insights into the development and inner workings of the Nation of Islam.

The Financial Times

It will be difficult for anyone to better this book... It is a work of art, a feast that combines genres skillfully: biography, true-crime, political commentary. It gives us Malcolm X in full gallop, a man who died for his belief in freedom.

The Washington Post

Marable has crafted an extraordinary portrait of a man and his time…A masterpiece.

San Francisco Chronicle

Manning was an unflinching and breathtakingly prolific scholar whose commitments to racial, economic, gender, and international justice were unparalleled . . . That we will have his long-anticipated, great and final work even as he leaves us is so classically, tragically appropriate.

The Nation

Marable accomplishes the difficult task of showing the bad boy of the civil rights era as an actual human being . . . Each page almost secretes the formidable research into hard facts. Marable lets the chips fall where they may because he is interested in the humanity of Malcolm X, as all true scholars should be.

New York Daily News

Malcolm X is etched in the American imagination—and the American psyche—in the particular and unyielding terms of radical and militant… Marable brings a lifetime of study to this biography, which is the crowning achievement of a magnificent career.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Manning Marable’s scholarship was as provocative and profound as it was prodigious.

Newsday

Magisterial…Marable’s biography is an exceedingly brave as well as a major intellectual accomplishment.

Boston Globe

Starred Review.

It is truly a shame that Marable passed away just days before this epic masterwork reached stores. This is a book whose reputation preceded itself and would have required little promotion; allegations by Marable that Malcolm both participated in a homosexual encounter with an early patron and was unfaithful to his wife Betty had already raised the ire of two of Malcolm's daughters, as well as others in the black community for whom Malcolm X has been raised to near-sainthood over the 40-odd years since his assassination. But neither claim is based on much evidence, and neither takes away from the overall impact of the work. Indeed the towering achievement of this book, which took Marable almost two decades to complete, is his ability to present Malcolm X as a flawed, struggling human being, as much at odds with his government as with himself. Marable deftly follows the same narrative path as did Haley's autobiography, but filling in the gaps and fine-tuning the exaggerations of that best-selling volume. Combing through FBI and NYPD files, gathering Nation of Islam interviews, and fleshing out Malcolm's post-NOI activities abroad, Marable succeeds spectacularly in painting a broader and more complex portrait of a man constantly in search of himself and his place in America.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Manning Marable is the exemplary Black scholar of radical democracy and Black freedom in our time. His long-awaited magisterial book on Malcolm X is the definitive treatment of the greatest Black radical voice and figure of mid-twentieth century. Glory Hallelujah!”

Princeton University Cornel West

Malcolm X is etched in the American imagination—and the American psyche—in the particular and unyielding terms of radical and militant. Manning Marable has written the definitive biography of this outrageously misrepresented figure. He has plumbed countless historical records to bring out what is there, not what is imagined, about this dominant figure of the twentieth century. Marable brings a lifetime of study to this biography, which is the crowning achievement of a magnificent career.”

Henry Louis Gates

Absorbing and well-written, passionate but painstakingly evenhanded…The resulting portrait is that of a man not distorted but more dynamic than we realized, in evolution at every point in his brief but exceptional public life.”

|Los Angeles Times

Thankfully, we have Manning Marable’s new biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention—which is, simply put, a stunning achievement—to help us better understand Malcolm’s complex life.”

Philadelphia Tribune

Marable accomplishes the difficult task of showing the bad boy of the civil rights era as an actual human being…Each page almost secretes the formidable research into hard facts. Marable lets the chips fall where they may because he is interested in the humanity of Malcolm X, as all true scholars should be.”

New York Daily News

It will be difficult for anyone to better this book. It goes deeper and richer than a mere homage to Malcolm X. It is a work of art, a feast that combines genres skillfully: biography, true-crime, political commentary. It gives us Malcolm X in full gallop, a man who died for his belief in freedom, a man whom Marable calls the ‘fountainhead’ of the black power movement in America.”

Washington Post

G. Valmont Thomas’s tone of gravitas embodies Malcolm’s strengths and flaws: among them, his powerful drive and his failure to envision the possibility of integration. The momentum of Thomas’s voice keeps the listener on track with the decades of personal, historical, and political details. Also impressive is Thomas’s ability to shade in the voices of diverse African Americans, including well-known figures such as Maya Angelou and Muhammad Ali.”

AudioFile

The Malcolm book stands as the greatest testament we could have to Manning Marable’s brilliance, his passion, and his intellectual fortitude. He devoted his magnificent career—more than most scholars do—to living what he wrote and what he thought. His commitment not only to equality of opportunity but also to the exposure of falsehood and hypocrisy was a hallmark of his pathbreaking work.”

Chronicle of Higher Education

Unlike Bruce Perry’s 1991 biography, Malcolm, which entertained the most outlandish stories in an attempt to present a comprehensive portrait, Marable’s biography judiciously sifts fact from myth.”

Atlantic

In his revealing and prodigiously researched new biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, Manning Marable…vividly chronicles these many incarnations of his subject…Mr. Marable artfully strips away the layers and layers of myth that have been lacquered onto his subject’s life—first by Malcolm himself in that famous memoir, and later by both supporters and opponents after his assassination in 1965 at the age of thirty-nine.”

New York Times

Marable asserts that Malcolm X wrote his 1965 autobiography to demonstrate through his own story the transformative power of the black nationalist organization the Nation of Islam. Here Marable more objectively reexamines the series of reinventions of self that took Malcolm from the streets to a position of national leadership in the Civil Rights movement. G. Valmont Thomas’s tone of gravitas embodies Malcolm’s strengths and flaws: among them, his powerful drive and his failure to envision the possibility of integration. The momentum of Thomas’s voice keeps the listener on track with the decades of personal, historical, and political details. Also impressive is Thomas’s ability to shade in the voices of diverse African-Americans, including well-known figures such as Maya Angelou and Muhammad Ali. E.K.D. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

MAY 2011 - AudioFile

A candid, corrective look at the Nation of Islam leader and renegade—and a deeply informed investigation of the evolution of his thinking on race and revolution.

For decades, distinguished scholar Marable (African-American Affairs/Columbia Univ.;Living Black History: How Re-Imagining the African-American Past Can Remake America's Racial Future, 2006, etc.) studied the life and work of Malcolm X (1925–1965), and this meticulous sifting of the fact from the fictionexpertly places him within the civil-rights movement of the time and as catalyst for the emerging Black Power struggle. The author looks beyond the myth that "Malcolmites" have woven around their leader and returns to original sources, such as NOI members and former members; Malcolm's widow and their children; African and Islamist chiefs Malcolm met on his extensive travels abroad; civil-rights activists, who were wary of his views on racial separatism; and files by the FBI and New York Police Department, who may have been complicit in his assassination by NOI operatives on Feb. 21, 1965. First and foremost, Marable deconstructs Alex Haley's masterlyAutobiography of Malcolm X (1965), which he and Malcolm collaborated on for years before Malcolm's death, but which exaggerates the exploits of Malcolm's earlier manifestation as "Detroit Red," probably in order to render more powerful the conversion to Islam of this hustler, pimp and thief incarcerated at the Norfolk Prison Colony. For years, Malcolm was NOI's exalted evangelical front man and first minister, broadcasting the organization's anti-white, anti-political doctrine before Malcolm's recognition of the crucial work of the civil-rights activists and the need for global black political engagement prompted his break with the NOIto embrace what Marable terms Pan-Africanism. Moreover, Malcolm could not sanction Elijah Muhammad's extramarital affairs and out-of-wedlock children, setting in motion a perilous countdown to NOI retribution. The Malcolm X revealed here was troublingly misogynist and occasionally precipitous in action and speech, but possessed a dauntless sincerity and intelligence that was only beginning to shape and clarify his message for humanity.

A bold, sure-footed, significant biography of enormous depth and feeling.

Kirkus Reviews