From Publishers Weekly
West's collection of eight cogent and profoundly moral essays on American race relations was a one-week PW bestseller. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-Thought-provoking essays that address a number of controversial issues of concern to African Americans. West analyzes such subjects as nihilism in black America, the crisis of black leadership, affirmative action, black-Jewish relations, sexuality, and the legacy of Malcolm X. His writing style is scholarly and sparse-he does not waste words, and his prose is easy to read. Yet his viewpoints are radical and passionately felt. He is not afraid to speak frankly and, while he presents many criticisms, he also offers many solutions. Not everyone will agree with his point of view, but if one of his objectives is to make readers at least think about the problems he has dissected, then he has succeeded admirably.Pat Royal, Crossland High School, Camp Springs, MDCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this collection of essays, many of which have previously appeared in journals, West, the director of Afro-American studies at Princeton and the author of several books, including Prophetic Fragments ( LJ 3/1/88) and Breaking Bread with bell hooks ( LJ 12/91), addresses a number of issues of concern to black Americans: the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King verdict; Malcolm X; Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill; and black street life. These topics are all timely yet timeless in that they represent the continuing struggle to include African Americans in mainstream American political, economic, and social life without destroying their unique culture. West's essays have the feel of a fine sermon, with thought-provoking ideas and new ways of looking at the same old problems. They can be quickly read yet take a long time to digest because of West's unique slant on life. Already well known in scholarly circles, West is increasingly becoming more visible to the general public, and this book should make his essays more accessible to a greater number of people. Recommended for all types of libraries.- Anita L. Cole, Miami-Dade P.L. System, Fla.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
In essays that challenge the nature of racial discourse in America, the director of Princeton's Afro-American Studies program, professor of religion, and self-described ``intellectual freedom- fighter'' calls for moral regeneration and profound social change. Scheduled to appear on the anniversary of the L.A. riots (when the nation presumably will take stock of America one year after), this collection (much of which appeared previously in The New York Times Magazine, Dissent, Z, etc.) is consistently effective at pointing out how the intellectual frameworks used by both whites and blacks as well as by liberals and (neo)conservatives impede true progress and understanding--whether the issue is affirmative action, black nihilism, or the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. West identifies the valuable insights of black conservatives while taking their conclusions to pieces and sees black anti-Semitism as threatening the ethical nature of the black struggle (if it ``becomes simply a power-driven war...that pits xenophobia from below against racism from above, then David Duke's project is the wave of the future''). While unsparing in his critique of black leadership and American racism, West situates the crisis in black America inside our market-driven culture, a world of ``random nows'' and the ``empty quest for pleasure, property and power''--a pervasive spiritual impoverishment that transcends race but is most devastating among the poorest, most powerless, and most despised. Aiming at accessibility, West perhaps too much curtails his customary intellectual range; but with clear thinking and sensible analysis being in short supply these days, his words are welcome nonetheless. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


From Book News, Inc.
Accessible, pointed essays on race in America by esteemed African- American intellectual West--professor of religion and director of Princeton's Afro-American Studies program. Most have been previously published in earlier versions. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.


Publishers Weekly, September 1994
"West's densely worded and intellectually irascible narration is broken up with poignant quotes read by his mother, Irene West. The sum production in this effort, while biting in its various social criticisms, is at heart a spirited call to social action. Reading aloud, Professor West builds his arguments with handsome verbal acuity that exhibits a deep grasp of the beauty of the spoken word."


Washington Post Book World
"As moving as any of the sermons of the Rev. Martin Luther King, as profound as W.E.B. DuBois's The Souls of Black Folks, as exhilarating in their offering of liberation as James Baldwin's early essays."


U.S. Senator Bill Bradley
"Few Americans speak about race with Cornel West's clarity, humanity, and intellectual rigor. His presence on the scene, plus the knowledge that his best years lie ahead of him, should give hope to all of us who believe that America's racial diversity is our strength."


Kliatt, July 1996
"This...is the most cogently argued, insightful, honest, yet healing essay on the issues of race in America that I have ever experienced...The narration by West and his mother, Irene West, who reads the introductory quotations at the start of each chapter, is clear, evenly and appropriately read."

ANNOTATION

The scholar, theologian, and activist who has been acclaimed as one of the most eloquent voices in our ongoing racial debate now bridges the gulf between black and white America in a work of enormous resonance and moral authority. West takes on the questions of politics, economics, ethics, and spirituality and addresses the crisis in black leadership.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

First published in 1993 on the one-year anniversary of the L.A. riots, Race Matters was a national best-seller, and it has since become a groundbreaking classic on race in America.

Race Matters contains West's most powerful essays on the issues relevant to black Americans today: despair, black conservatism, black-Jewish relations, myths about black sexuality, the crisis in leadership in the black community, and the legacy of Malcolm X. And the insights that he brings to these complicated problems remain fresh, exciting, creative, and compassionate. Now more than ever, Race Matters is a book for all Americans, as it helps us to build a genuine multiracial democracy in the new millennium.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In eight brief but powerful essays, West, director of Afro-American Studies at Princeton, delivers innovative analyses of our nation's racial dilemmas. West is insistently moral, criticizing racial hierarchy and black leaders who cannot transcend race to fight for ``fundamental social change.'' Though he does not spare black liberals, he more harshly criticizes ``new black conservatives'' who in his view ignore the damaging cultural force of black sexual and military images as employed in advertisements and mass media. Exploring black-Jewish relations, he suggests that the moral voices in black America have been drowned out, and in ``Black Sexuality,'' takes on what has long been considered a taboo subject. These essays, none written in the first person, can have an air of detachment: when West calls for a ``politics of conversion'' to fight black nihilism, his best example comes from Toni Morrison's novel Beloved; when he criticizes Malcolm X for having ignored the culturally hybrid character of black life, he proposes the figure of ``jazz freedom fighter'' as one who could ``promote critical exchange and broad reflection.'' But West is more healing visionary than historian. These essays, most of which first appeared in such magazines as Dissent and Z , solidify his position as one of the nation's leading public intellectuals. 40,000 first printing; paperback rights to Vintage; BOMC selection; QPB featured selection; author tour. (Apr.)

Library Journal

In this collection of essays, many of which have previously appeared in journals, West, the director of Afro-American studies at Princeton and the author of several books, including Prophetic Fragments ( LJ 3/1/88) and Breaking Bread with bell hooks ( LJ 12/91), addresses a number of issues of concern to black Americans: the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King verdict; Malcolm X; Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill; and black street life. These topics are all timely yet timeless in that they represent the continuing struggle to include African Americans in mainstream American political, economic, and social life without destroying their unique culture. West's essays have the feel of a fine sermon, with thought-provoking ideas and new ways of looking at the same old problems. They can be quickly read yet take a long time to digest because of West's unique slant on life. Already well known in scholarly circles, West is increasingly becoming more visible to the general public, and this book should make his essays more accessible to a greater number of people. Recommended for all types of libraries.-- Anita L. Cole, Miami-Dade P.L. System, Fla.

School Library Journal

YA-Thought-provoking essays that address a number of controversial issues of concern to African Americans. West analyzes such subjects as nihilism in black America, the crisis of black leadership, affirmative action, black-Jewish relations, sexuality, and the legacy of Malcolm X. His writing style is scholarly and sparse-he does not waste words, and his prose is easy to read. Yet his viewpoints are radical and passionately felt. He is not afraid to speak frankly and, while he presents many criticisms, he also offers many solutions. Not everyone will agree with his point of view, but if one of his objectives is to make readers at least think about the problems he has dissected, then he has succeeded admirably.-Pat Royal, Crossland High School, Camp Springs, MD

Booknews

Reprint of a 1993 work, with a new (4p.) preface. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Sacred Fire

Cornel West is one of the most recognized of American public intellectuals. His message of social liberation, rooted deeply in the black Baptist tradition, strikes a chord among an audience of lay readers and academics because it is equally intellectual and accessible. And because of its inherent humanism, it crosses racial and cultural lines as well.

In Race Matters, West asks for a renewed engagement on the question of race and presents a bracing call to action to establish a new framework from which to discuss the issue. West believes race represents a dire paradox for the nation: either America recognizes the common humanity of all of its citizens, acknowledges its spiritual impoverishment, and overturns a political environment dominated by image rather than substance, or it risks the unmaking of the democratic order.