The Fire Next Time
Sep 2013 · Sold by Vintage
4.7star
112 reviews
Ebook
128
Pages
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Eligible
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About this ebook
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movementin the 1960s—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. • "The finest essay I’ve ever read.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates
At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.
Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle … all presented in searing, brilliant prose," The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of literature.
At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.
Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle … all presented in searing, brilliant prose," The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of literature.
Ratings and reviews
4.7
112 reviews
Peter Milley
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November 14, 2015
Only halfway through, this book is wrecking me. At the time I'm reading this, there have just been horrific terrorist attacks in Beirut and Paris. By some alchemy, these are exactly the words I needed to read to process those events. I wish I could explain it better than that.
11 people found this review helpful
Cristine F
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February 23, 2017
I come back to this book often, Baldwin's words speak to me like few others do. Read it. You will be changed in ways you can't even imagine.
34 people found this review helpful
Arik D. Brown
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September 22, 2020
Excellent. What is sad is that this is applicable today. Our country has not evolved and gotten past the "color line". What he wrote is the same anger, and disbelief of why some white people can't acknowledge we have a race problem when it stares us in the face every day.
23 people found this review helpful
About the author
JAMES BALDWIN (1924-1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.
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