The book was informative however the foward by Spike Lee was out of place. It breaks my heart that so many people profit from the life and death of Malcolm X other than his family. Although this is a good book do your self and Malcolm justice by getting this book from your public library!

Carson is a well-known Black scholar whose most important work has been organizing and opublishing from the Martin Luther King Papers. This book was an effort on his part to expose how the FBI followed Malcolm X from the time he wrote to a radical youth group for information, long before Malcolm X joined the Muslims until his death, a death Malcolm more and more expected would come from the FBI/CIA. Along the way the FBI has preserved speeches and letters and views of Malcolm as they evolved throughout his life. Anyone who treats Malcolm X as some sort of prefabricated god, and not a man whose views developed over time, over experience, and particularly after his exposure to the struggles of the civil rights movement, and the anti-imperialist struggles ongoing in Cuba, Africa, and Vietnam at the time, is in for a rude shock as this book shows how his ideas changed and grew.
I recommend Pathfinder Press's series of books by Malcolm X. Malcolm selected Pathfinder to publish his speeches before he died. The first book Malcolm X speaks was selected while Malcolm was living, though published after he was murdered. Every book has been published in cooperation and with royalties to Malcolm's family. Pathfinder has gone as far as the jungles of Guyana to find every speech or interview available with Malcolm particularly in the last years of his life.

'Nightfall' is a short novel by David Goodis, written at the height of his career (in the early 1950s). True to form, Goodis focuses on a single character and his angst. This time we have a man who has difficulty remembering the details of his involvement with $300,000 taken in a bank heist. On his tail are the bank robbers and the police. One fully appreciates this man's plight. However this alone didn't capivate this reader. Why?

Authors like David Goodis and Patricia Highsmith who specialise on suspense and apprehension of a leading character (typically a victim or a criminal) succeed when there are additional characters and/or circumstances that 'fill out' the story. However 'Nightfall' is really a one-dimensional story. The author fails to build on an interesting sub-plot involving a police detective, with the help of his wife, chasing our poor central character. Before long I found 'Nightfall' to be a tedious read.

Bottom line: certainly a must read for those into 'noir' fiction. Others will probably find it too dark, depressing and claustrophobic.

Wonderful story of a man on the run from the law, and the sympathetic policeman who takes an interest in his case. A beautiful book, spare and haunting. Not a wasted word. Goodis sometimes reaches for poetry in his tales, but here he achieves it with a delicate poise. Very atypical of the bulk of Goodis's output, and probably not the place to start, but this is one of the great post-WW2 thrillers, and as close as anyone's ever come to evoking film noir on the page.

Canon put in a lot of empirical research and he is to be congratulated. I have seen more writings on this subject that I care to recall, but never as detailed account as one gets here of the deliberations within the North Carolina assembly that led to its infamous ink-blot-like districting map.

Also, Canon presents evidence of something that seems to have come as a surprise to him -- that on a wide range of issues black Americans are not significantly to the political left of white Americans even as a matter of statistical average. He gathered survey data on a wide range of issues he codes as non-racial, including health care, taxes, abortion, etc. He has plotted the results, broken down by race, on a scale from 0 (rightwardmost possible opinion) to 1 (leftwardmost possible opinion). The distribution of white and black opinions on this basket of issues was nearly identical. The "mean" black opinion on that scale was 0.4654. The "mean" white opinion was 0.4653!

Despite such interesting features, the book is marred by some special pleading for Canon's own political views.

David Canon's account of race and representation is an excellent one. His eclectic research methodology engages the reader; personal interviews with congressmen and their staffers complement other, more traditional, analyses very well. In sum, majority-minority districts promote the "politics of commonality," moderating racism and fear on all sides. While Canon's philosophical "pleading" disappointed the previous reviewer, I found his candor quite refreshing. Rare is the scholar who admits personal bias.

For a unique, well-argued, and persuasive study of racial politics, buy this book.

I first read this book about 15 years ago........it was my first introduction to serious cultural critique .

David Toop is a very intelligent and knowledgable man , and his theories on the African Origins of Rap Music are a must read for anyone seriously interrseted in the Music........rather than the commercial phenomenan ( it is now) that WAS hip hop.

I still have my copy after 18 years. No matter what edition you have of this book, it's all you need to understand the origins of hip-hop.

Why was this pithy review of an entirely mediocre David Goodis novel published, while my legitimate review was not?

David Goodis is an aquired taste, no question. To appreciate him, it helps to have a sympathetic ear for the downtrodden, the lost and desperate, the tragic and the downright masochistic. If you look for an upbeat mood in your stories, don't come to these mean Philadelphia streets, where Goodis' winos and criminals live. Go elsewhere for your happiness pill, here lies misery and alcohol and lost dreams. Now, if you're still with me, then you can be sure that "Street of No Return" is Goddis' finest work, and well worth the search required to find a copy (I recommend the search services listed in the back of "The Armchair Detective"). The story concerns a down-and-outer who leaves his hobo buddies one night in search of liquor, takes us on a journey through his once-promising life and subsequent fall, his brutalization at the hands of the most god-awful band of scarred, obese, sadistic and cold-hearted criminals you could ever hope not to meet, in the coldest and bleakest of landscapes that ever came out of a downtrodden, brilliant mind. 175 pages later he returns to his buddies, his life as depressing and hopeless as ever, and it's just where he wants to be. Not a care. Not a care on the world. This character, this writer, just doesn't give a damn. David Goodis' writing is instantly recognizable, and that is the mark of genius -- when you write like absolutely no one else. Highly recommended.

Since our arrival, Black Americans have imagined utopias and asked ourselves where else can we live beside the US. Most have answered France. (Please see Stovall's excellent book.) However, many have suggested Brazil. This book is a collection of writings from African-Americans about their experiences in Brazil. It proves that we have the power to dream and to think globally. This book, in many ways, reflects Black American hopes rather than Brazilian realities. In fact, all the gushy writings from deceased, bourgeois, light-skinned, Black conservatives will rub most living progressives of color bonkers. Still, this was an important book. I read it for an African-American studies course on Brazil at Brown University. I am glad I had a chance to peep it.

Even if Black Friday isn't Goodis best, it is surely a good introduction to his dark and rich universe. Almost unknown in America before the 60's or 70's, Goodis is one of the best author of what French critics have call "roman noir", and possibly the missing link between Dash Hammett and Ray Chandler, and today's authors like Block and Ellroy. In Black Friday, Goodis write about his own great obsession: bad things happens to good poeple. It's the same story he tells over and over again, in Cassidy's Girl, or in Shoot The Pianist. The heroes is caught in a situation where there is almost no chance to escape. You'll read in two or three hours, praying for the poor guy (even if you'll know from the first page that he will fail). The book is also speaking of euthanasia, in a discreet but sensible way.

Knowing only of the name "Marcus Garvey," I set about reading this book to get a better understanding of Garvey's beliefs and perceptions on race relations in the 1920's and 1930's. This book fit the billing, with an honest account of the victories, defeats, embarassments, and lasting effects of Marcus Garvey's legacy. Unforunately, Marcus Garvey was never spoken of in my high school or college history courses. This book provides a great starting point for understanding the conditions in 1920's America, which allowed Marcus Garvey to gather such a large and faithful following.

Bositis is considered the leading academic on African-American voting behavior. As important as the CBC is, I'm glad to see an analysis of their work out there. Nowadays, this book may seem dated. Still, if you want to know about black politics and black elected officials as a group, this is a good selection to peep. Bravo, Bositis!

A compilation of quotes that have come back to haunt the Stardusted one, in his own words. (And for someone else's profit, too.) A biography based on Bowie's handling of the media? We all know Bowie lies to the press (or used to), daily (and justifiably so). It's hard to separate fact from fiction.