Loading Search

• Buy this Book
• Book Creators
• Related Blog Posts
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Much more than another breezy list of must reads, this book has a sharp political edge that makes it a summary of the story of black America through literature. The books in The African-American Bookshelf cover everything from politics to sports, from the arts, music, dance, writing, and fine art to civil rights, from cultural trends to military history.Author and scholar Clifford Mason takes titl... More

Much more than another breezy list of must reads, this book has a sharp political edge that makes it a summary of the story of black America through literature. The books in The African-American Bookshelf cover everything from politics to sports, from the arts, music, dance, writing, and fine art to civil rights, from cultural trends to military history.Author and scholar Clifford Mason takes titles both obscure and well known and presents them historically as the essential books that an informed person should be familiar with. Using books written by authors from the beginning of our country's history (poet Phillis Wheatley) to contemporary writers (historian Donald Bogle), and listing titles from the radical (David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World) to the canonical (Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery), Mr. Mason walks the reader through the highlights -- and lowlights -- of the American past.

The African-American Bookshelf illustrates through literature the contributions of black men and women in this nation's wars, the arts and sciences, from the agricultural and industrial ages to the present. It is a book that should be on every American's bookshelf.

You must be a member of JacketFlap to add a video to this page. Please Log In or Register.