In this powerful collection by one of today’s leading African American intellectuals, Keeping Faith situates the current position of African Americans, tracing the geneology of the “Afro-American Rebellion” from Martin Luther King to the rise of black revolutionary leftists. In Cornel West’s hands issues of race and freedom are inextricably tied to questions of philosophy and, above all, to a belief in the power of the human spirit.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Indeed, readers who find Race Matters provocative but thin, a tasty but unfilling appetizer, will find KeepingFaith to be a much more satisfying main course.” — Harvard Review “West brings an acute intelligence, wide reading, and training in philosophy and theology to bear on the irrationalities in all political camps…The left, the black movement and all others would profit by a careful reading of Keeping Faith.” — Boston Globe “Well-informed and provocative, aware both of the power and the dangers of cultural criticism. An important book.” — Library Journal “This book provides uncommon insight into what West calls `prophetic criticism’–critical analysis that inspires as well as condemns.” — Los Angeles Times
From the Back Cover
In Keeping Faith, Cornel West – author of the bestselling Race Matters – puts forward his ideas about race and about philosophy. West’s powerful voice ranges widely across issues of race and culture, the role of the black intellectual, politics and philosophy in America, art and architecture, questions of legal theory, and the future of liberal thought. In a time of decay and discouragement in the black community and among progressive forces at large, Keeping Faith offers new strategies to galvanize and propel a new generation of African Americans. Yet, West argues, racial subordination must be understood within the larger crises of our society. Maintaining the uniqueness of black identity and resistance, he provocatively suggests alliances with other intellectual and community-based forms of American radicalism. Keeping Faith offers West’s distinctive mix of political passions and careful scrutiny. Whether exploring ‘the new cultural politics of difference’, American pragmatism, or race and social theory, he sustains a difficult balance between a subtly argued critique of the past and present, and a broadly conceived, daring vision of the future. Both troubling and exhilarating, Keeping Faith maps not only the concerns of one of the most significant public intellectuals of our time, but issues crucial to Americans of all races.
About the Author
Cornel West is Professor of Afro-American Studies and Religion at Harvard University. He lectures widely and appears frequently on television, including Conversationswith Bill Moyers.
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