Black Nationalism: The Search for an Identity

By E.U. Essien-Udom

Book Overview

One of the first studies of the organization, life and meaning of the Nation of Islam and, by extension, all Black Nationalist movements, this classic work dispels the still common conception that the movement functioned primarily for political purposes. By observing the daily life of its members, Essien-Udom demonstrates that the Nation of Islam served primarily as a means for poor urban blacks to attain a national identity, a sense of ethnic consciousness, and empowerment in a society that denied them these privileges. Black Nationalism continues to hold profound implications for our understanding of the appeal of Black Nationalism as an ideology and a political force.

"An excellent standard treatment of black nationalist belief and practice in the 50's."-Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times Book Review

"This is an absorbing exercise in first class reporting. . . . In the light of his scrupulous fairness, the book is another illustration of how the press prejudges a story. And most provocatively, Essien-Udom has emphasized that even after the current campaigns for wide-scale integration are won, there will be an even wider chasm between the 'liberated' Negro middle class and the rootless Negro poor."-Nat Hentoff, Commonweal

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226218538
• ISBN13: 9780226218533
• Release Date: July 1995
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An Excellent expose of the Black Muslim Movement

In trying to understand the Nation of Islam as a Socio-Religious Movement I came across this book. I read it alongside other works like the Black Muslim authored by the recently deceased and foremost Black Religious scholar, Eric Lincoln. I found Prof.Essien-Udom's work very fascinating, scholarly and rich in scientific and ethnographic content. The work traced the origins of the Nation of Islam, one of the foremost, and albeit to say, most singularly forceful black organization in the United States. Though the present edition is a re-issued one, indicating no radical redaction by the author from what he wrote in the 1960s, the content of the book is very informative and greatly enriching in history and critical analysis. The author did not only recount the historical and sociological processes that occurred within the movement but he went further to provide critical analysis and interpretation of the movement, its practices and orientations. In this way, this book is very useful for anyone who wants to find out about the Nation of Islam from its origin until the 1960s. However, one particular intriguing aspect of the book is that it analytically raised in and indicated in a prophetic manner the orientation of the movement. These events has come to passed in the life of the movement. What a book!!! It is a work that is worth reading by anyone who is interested, not just in knowing about the Nation of Islam, but about the history and ingenuity of the Black diaspora, and their contribution to American national and international life and development. It is worth buying this book and looking at the content to see what the author is saying- or attempted to say long time ago but which remains critical for its heuristic value. Don't hesitate to read this text, it would be worth a good time spent on something exciting. You will agree with me that the book is in a class of its own. Thread the road of excitement and knowledge and you will never regret you did. Hasta luego, Bon appetite!!!!