Overview

During the 1960s, a period of global upheaval and heightened Canadian and Quebec nationalism, Montreal became a central site of Black and Caribbean radical politics. Fear of a Black Nation paints a history of Montreal and the Black activists who lived, sojourned in, or visited the city and agitated for change. Drawing on Saidiya Hartman's conception of slavery's afterlife and what David Austin describes as biosexuality-a deeply embedded fear of Black self-organization and interracial solidarity-Fear of a Black Nation argues that the policing and surveillance of Black lives today is tied to the racial, including sexual, codes and practices and the discipline and punishment associated with slavery. In reflecting on Black self-organization and historic events such as the Congress of Black Writers and the Sir George Williams Protest, the book ultimately poses the question: what can past freedom struggles teach us about the struggle for freedom today? Featuring two new interviews with the author and a new preface, this expanded second edition enriches the political and theoretical conversation on Black organising and movement building in Canada and internationally. As the Black Lives Matter and abolition movements today popularize calls to disarm and defund the police and to abolish prisons, Fear of a Black Nation provides an invaluable reflection on the policing of Black activism and a compelling political analysis of social movements and freedom struggles that is more relevant now than ever.

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9781771136334

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Reviews

“David Austin’s Fear of a Black Nation is an impressive achievement: original, important, and timely. The analysis of Black politics in Montreal in the late 1960s is quite sophisticated theoretically but accessible. The book will speak to a void in the study of Quebecois and Canadian politics (especially with regard to studies of the left and radical movements), the 1960s, Caribbean politics, U.S. African American politics, and Black diaspora politics.”– Richard Iton, professor of African American studies and author of In Search of the Black Fantastic (1961-2013) // “Fear of a Black Nation is a powerful reclaiming of the history of radical Black organizing in 1960s Montreal and an insightful analysis of its global ramifications … This book makes a major contribution to the fields of Black history and political studies; it also challenges conventional and left race-blind readings of the histories of Quebec and Canada.” – Sunera Thobani, Associate Professor of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia // At the heart of this big-hearted book is Austin’s insistence on history, or as he puts it, the “lived experience of Blacks,” against silence and the abstractions or chimeras of ideology. Readers will learn much about Canada’s black history here, but they will also learn about why it matters to everyone. – Karen Dubinsky, Professor of Global Development Studies / History, Queen's University

David Austin's Fear of a Black Nation is an impressive achievement: original, important, and timely. The analysis of Black politics in Montreal in the late 1960s is quite sophisticated theoretically but accessible. The book will speak to a void in the study of Quebecois and Canadian politics (especially with regard to studies of the left and radical movements), the 1960s, Caribbean politics, U.S. African American politics, and Black diaspora politics. - Richard Iton, professor of African American studies and author of In Search of the Black Fantastic (1961-2013) // Fear of a Black Nation is a powerful reclaiming of the history of radical Black organizing in 1960s Montreal and an insightful analysis of its global ramifications ... This book makes a major contribution to the fields of Black history and political studies; it also challenges conventional and left race-blind readings of the histories of Quebec and Canada. - Sunera Thobani, Associate Professor of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia // At the heart of this big-hearted book is Austin's insistence on history, or as he puts it, the lived experience of Blacks, against silence and the abstractions or chimeras of ideology. Readers will learn much about Canada's black history here, but they will also learn about why it matters to everyone. - Karen Dubinsky, Professor of Global Development Studies / History, Queen's University

Author Information

David Austin is the author of Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution and editor of Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness and You Don't Play with Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James. Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal is the 2014 winner of the Casa de las Americas Prize. His writing engages the work of C.L.R. James, Frantz Fanon, Sylvia Wynter, Hannah Arendt, Walter Rodney, and Linton Kwesi Johnson in relation politics, poetry and social movements. A former youth worker and community organizer, he has also produced radio documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Ideas on C.L.R. James and Frantz Fanon. He currently teaches in the Humanities, Philosophy, and Religion Department at John Abbott College and in the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

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