Nothing Personal

by James Baldwin, Imani Perry, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Narrated by JD Jackson

Overview

James Baldwin's critique of American society at the height of the civil rights movement brings his prescient thoughts on social isolation, race, and police brutality to a new generation of readers.

Available for the first time in a stand-alone edition, Nothing Personal is Baldwin's deep probe into the American condition. Considering the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020-which were met with tear gas and rubber bullets the same year white supremacists entered the US Capitol with little resistance, openly toting flags of the Confederacy-Baldwin's documentation of his own troubled times cuts to the core of where we find ourselves today.

Baldwin's thoughts move through an interconnected range of questions, from America's fixation on eternal youth, to its refusal to recognize the past, its addiction to consumerism, and the lovelessness that fuels it in its cities and popular culture. He recounts his own encounter with police in a scene disturbingly similar to those we see today documented with ever increasing immediacy. This edition also includes a new foreword from interdisciplinary scholar Imani Perry and an afterword from noted Baldwin scholar Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Both explore and situate the essay within the broader context of Baldwin's work, the Movement for Black Lives, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the presidency of Donald Trump.

Nothing Personal is both a eulogy and a declaration of will. In bringing this work into the twenty-first century, readers new and old will take away fundamental and recurring truths about life in the US. It is both a call to action, and an appeal to love and to life.

Editorial Reviews

JULY 2021 - AudioFile

Narrator JD Jackson has a way of projecting a calm yet alert tone of awareness. This short piece, which James Baldwin wrote in the 1960s, is philosophical. His thoughts on America’s material conditions and how people love and don’t love one another are just as relevant now. Jackson delivers a sense of clarity and urgent thoughtfulness when he speaks. His tone is reflective, given the topics—history, mortality, identity, and love. Such complexities are brought together at the end when Princeton professor Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., provides an afterword, which Jackson narrates masterfully. Listeners will enter Baldwin’s mind as they enjoy Jackson’s well-paced and probing narration. T.E.C © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

Listeners will enter Baldwin’s mind as they enjoy JD Jackson’s well-paced and probing narration.”
—AudioFile Magazine

“In this short, stunning work, with his inimitable use of language, Baldwin distills the essence of his pain and wisdom and points a way for our own time.”
—New York Journal of Books

“James Baldwin’s Nothing Personal has to be read more than twice, the spare sentences, the far less than spare thoughts and beliefs aren’t absorbed like a Brawny towel absorbs a spill.”
—Portland Book Review

JULY 2021 - AudioFile

Narrator JD Jackson has a way of projecting a calm yet alert tone of awareness. This short piece, which James Baldwin wrote in the 1960s, is philosophical. His thoughts on America’s material conditions and how people love and don’t love one another are just as relevant now. Jackson delivers a sense of clarity and urgent thoughtfulness when he speaks. His tone is reflective, given the topics—history, mortality, identity, and love. Such complexities are brought together at the end when Princeton professor Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., provides an afterword, which Jackson narrates masterfully. Listeners will enter Baldwin’s mind as they enjoy Jackson’s well-paced and probing narration. T.E.C © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176182026
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	05/04/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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