Black against empire : the history and politics of the Black Panther Party

"There have been at least a half dozen books and films by former Panthers, or about them, over the last decade. 'Black Against Empire,' however, is unique among them in the scope and depth of its scholarship." -- Hector Tobar Los Angeles Times Book Review "Vivid renderings of scene make this scholarly tome thoroughly accessible; a "you are there" tone adds immediacy to the ideological concerns underpinning Black Panther Party history... [the authors] make comprehensible both the movement and the times." STARRED REVIEW Publishers Weekly "A comprehensive and compelling history of the Black Panther Party ... it is the book I would recommend to anyone wanting to read just one book about the Black Panthers." -- Ron Jacobs Counterpunch "Twelve years of archival research helped the authors produce this first comprehensive book on the Black Panther Party, its members, its leaders, and its resistance to the politics of the American government." Los Angeles Magazine "Lets you understand what happened-and why." American History "An account that should be called, above everything else, 'definitive.' ... A downright scientific analysis of a subject that leaves most readers understandably unable to stay neutral." -- Cord Jefferson Bookforum "Black against Empire breaks new scholarly ground in providing the first comprehensive history of the Black Panther Party." -- Jeremy Kuzmarov History News Network "A welcome addition to the literature about the Oakland-born organization that spread across the country like a prairie fire in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968 and that altered the consciousness of African Americans." -- Jonah Raskin San Francisco Chronicle "What Bloom and Martin have given us is as authoritative, respectful and complete a record of the Black Panther Party's workings as we are likely to get." -- Mark Reynolds Pop Matters "A comprehensive history." New Yorker "Black Against Empire may well become the definitive document of one of the most important American social movements of the 20th century." -- Justin Remus Smooth Magazine "The first comprehensive history of the party, a history which, as Bloom and Martin explain, has been mostly 'forbidden'." -- Fredrick Harris London Review of Books "In their thoroughly researched, definitive history of the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party, Bloom and Martin offer a fascinating, compelling analysis of the politics of armed self-defense against police brutality... Exceptional. A must read." -- W. Glasker Choice "A riveting and thoughtful narrative of the Party's formation and ideational evolution... Black Against Empire is essential reading for those looking to understand the rise and fall of movements for social change." -- Mary Potorti Confluence "Future historians of the Panthers and American radicalism will find Black Against Empire a foundational text." -- Michan Connor Southern California Quarterly "A bracingly narrated, voluminously researched history of the Black Panther Party. It plumbs rare archives and provides trenchant analysis of how and why the Panthers tapped the historical moment and emerged as a potent force." FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2013 -- Christopher D. Cooke Progressive "The first high-quality history of the Black Panther Party... For the first time, one can read, in a single volume, a well-researched history that explains the origins of the Panthers in the context of Oakland neighborhood politics and the group's transformation into a social service organization. For that reason alone, the book will become a classic in the growing black power scholarship." -- Fabio Rojas American Historical Review "Black against Empire is easily the most impressive, sweeping, and substantive scholarly history of the BPP... Black against Empre is a masterful work. It is analytically sophisticated, superbly researched, and a fine addition to the disparate histories of the most audacious and significant black leftist group of the period." -- Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar Journal of American History The Panthers have been finding an interested audience in a new generation of activists looking to redress police violence, massive inequality, and a political establishment unresponsive to the desires of the vast majority of American citizens. The Beyonce event comes on the heels of Stanley Nelson's film The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which like The Black Power Mixtape has reanimated a discussion on the legacy of the Panthers. If Zirin is going to be proven correct, and discussions about the Panthers are going to be "bracing" and constructive, participants will need a better understanding of the complex politics of the Party. There is no better place to begin this reassessment than Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party, Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin's comprehensive account of the movement, from its inception out of the Civil Rights Movement to its undoing in the mid-70s." -- Michael Schapira Full Stop Read more...