Martha Lee paints a vivid and accurate picture of the early days and development of the Nation of Islam. Her text was required reading in a sociology of religion course at the university. However, her first chapter that attempts to psychologically tie American Muslims with millenarian cults fails the test of logic. Her relationship between American Muslims and cults predicting the end of the world and subsequently dealing with the "cognitive dissonance" that results does not fit the facts.

That said, her book answered many questions for me about the dissonance between Middle Eastern and American Muslims. It appears that Elijah Mohammad was reaching rather desparately for a means by which to empower African-American people who were under seige in the 1930s and 1940s. It appears that without clearly understanding what he was grabbing, he caught hold of Islam. Islam for Elijah was the antidote to "white" man's Christianity. Elijah saw Islam as the "black" man's religion. It appears that he failed utterly to understand Islam as the continuation and extension of Christianity. The idea that all the prophets of Christianity are also prophets of Islam was lost on Elijah. The realization that Mohamed is simply the last in a long line of what Egyptians call the "Ebrahamic faith" prophets, which include both Christianity and Judeism was lost on Elijah.
This historical and spiritual information was not, however, lost on Malcom X who was much more erudite than Elijah. The book as well as the movie Malcom X illuminates a man who had just come into his greatest realization of his own spirituality and the world around him at the time of his death. Had Malcom X lived, he might very well have become a powerful force not only the Black community, but also in the Nation and perhaps even the globe.
Martha opens doors for me into the history of American Muslims to details I had never before dreamed. Islam provided the impetus for thousands of African-Americans to empower themselves with unity, education, professionalism. It was a positive and powerful force in the lives of many. Whatever mistakes Elijah may have made in his misunderstanding of this religion have been corrected by the new generation of American Muslims who have since joined with Arab scholars to better understand their faith and their religion.
This book is really excellent.