Kelley unearths freedom dreams in this exciting history of renegade intellectuals and artists of the African diaspora in the twentieth century. Focusing on the visions of activists from C. L. R. James to Aime Cesaire and Malcolm X, Kelley writes of the hope that Communism offered, the mindscapes of Surrealism, the transformative potential of radical feminism, and of the four-hundred-year-old dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow. From'the preeminent historian of black popular culture' (Cornel West), an inspiring work on the power of imagination to transform society.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

**

From Booklist

Kelley, a history professor and a writer with a progressive political slant, analyzes the black radical tradition within the context of a higher consciousness that imagines how society should and could be and lets that dream dictate action. This pursuit of freedom and equality underlies, if not justifies, the basis of measuring the success of black radical movements. He takes the reader on a survey of black radical movements--Back to Africa, the Garvey movement, associations with communism and Marxism, local protests, Third World consciousness and identification, reparation, and black feminism--finding a common core centered on the dream of freedom. In one section, Kelley connects the black radical tradition with surrealism, focusing on freedom as a concept that initiates in the mind and has a nontraditional manner of self-manifestation. Kelley sees such mindscapes as the counterbalance to what many perceive as the failure of certain movements. However, Kelley's capacity to integrate these imaginative mindscapes into the freedom quest allows the reader to perceive the continuity and ultimate success of these freedom movements. Vernon Ford
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Review

'Based on Kelley's belief that to make a better world we must first imagine it, this brilliantly conceived and written book recounts the accomplishments of black activists and thinkers over the past century who have been committed to remaking the world.' --Library Journal