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More About This Textbook
Overview
In a vibrant and passionate exploration of the twentieth-century civil rights and black power eras in American history, Waldo Martin uses cultural politics as a lens through which to understand the African-American freedom struggle.
In black culture, argues Martin, we see the debate over the profound tension at the core of black identity: the duality of being at once both American and African. And in the transformative postwar period, the intersection between culture and politics became increasingly central to the African-American fight for equality. In freedom songs, in the exuberance of an Aretha Franklin concert, in Faith Ringgold's exploration of race and sexuality, the personal and social became the political.
Martin explores the place of black culture in this vision and examines the multiple ways in which various forms of expressive culture and African-American cultural figures influenced consciousness and helped effect social action. From the music of John Coltrane and James Brown to the visual art of Jacob Lawrence and Betye Saar to the dance movements of Alvin Ailey and Arthur Mitchell, Martin discusses how, why, and with what consequences culture became a critical battle site in the freedom struggle. And in a fascinating epilogue, he draws the thread of black cultural politics into today's hip-hop culture.
This engaging book brings a new perspective to the civil rights and black power eras, while illuminating the broader history of American and global freedom struggles.
Editorial Reviews
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Waldo E. Martin, Jr. draws on the development of postwar black aesthetic-cultural forms to read African-American political history. He argues that what developed between the 1940s and 1970s was a "distinctive black cultural politics" where culture and politics overlapped and merged...He keeps the reader focused on his central themes of hope and possibility for black political and cultural struggle between 1940 and 1979 and the drive for freedom, equality, and justice underlying cultural politics and the political culture...No Coward Soldiers constitutes a strong addition to cultural studies and analyses of African-American politics alike. While it doesn't seek to replace more detailed historical studies of black power and civil rights that already exist, it does provide a new outlook on those histories. It is indeed an important book that ought to be read by academics and students with an interest in either or both disciplines.
— Kalbir Shukra
Journal of American History
No Coward Soldiers...is a fine representation of contemporary efforts in history, ethnic studies, and American studies to examine the cultural dimensions of politics, the politicization of culture, and the interaction between the two arenas...The work is a remarkable synthesis in its analysis of different facets of black culture. Martin's canvas is rather extensive. Besides examining the artistic and political aspects of blues, spirituals, jazz, soul, rock and roll, funk, and hip-hop, he looks at sports heroes and the works of artists in different media.
— Douglas Henry Daniels
Library Journal
In this series of three essays developed from his Nathan I. Huggins Lectures at Harvard University, Martin (history, Univ. of California, Berkeley; The Mind of Frederick Douglass) examines the lived experience and historical memory of the Civil Rights/ black power era (1945-75). Focusing on the battleground of cultural politics, he traces and contextualizes what he sees as a profound shift in blacks' embracing themselves through the poetic and the political. Rooted in activism rather than fantasy, he argues, blacks fought their way through this tangled duality to imagine, realize, and transcend vital new expressions in contested and constructed notions of race and culture. Their resulting social connection and self-identification resonated with authenticity and representation, particularly in black music, from jazz to Motown to hip-hop. Martin extends his survey of this pivotal terrain by drawing lines to the provocative works of Hazel Carby, Vincent Harding, Cornel West, and others. Recommended for collections in black, cultural, and modern U.S. history.-Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.Product Details
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Meet the Author
Waldo E. Martin, Jr. is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.
Table of Contents