The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership

Published in 1967, as the early triumphs of the Civil Rights movement yielded to increasing frustration and violence, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual electrified a generation of activists and intellectuals.

The product of a lifetime of struggle and reflection, Cruse's book is a singular amalgam of cultural history, passionate disputation, and deeply considered analysis of the relationship between American blacks and American society.

Reviewing black intellectual life from the Harlem Re...