Overview

Ishmael Reed has devoted his life to uncovering the neglected cultural and historical record of the United States, no matter how ugly it might be. He uses a full-court press: fiction, poetry, plays, songs, films, interviews, essays, and more. With Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico, Reed is at his best: insightful, hard-hitting, eclectic, refreshing, caustic, entertaining, informative, and, yes, funny. The War of Rebellion still divides the United States. President Trump, and millions of southerners wish to maintain monuments to generals like Robert E. Lee. Yet those who actually fought under them ran away by the thousands. Some rebel generals, whom the famous pro-confederate propaganda film “Gone With The Wind” referred to as “Knights,” earned their massacre bona fides by murdering thousands of blacks, Mexicans, and Native Americans, who were often unarmed. The “Knight” Robert E. Lee fought children during the Battle of Buena Vista in 1847. The children, Los niños heroes (pictured on the cover), refused to surrender and were slaughtered. The subjects addressed in this book of essays are vast. They include white nationalism, Donald Trump, Quentin Tarantino and Django, the musical Hamilton, Ferguson, Missouri, Amiri Baraka/Leroi Jones, a different take on #metoo, the one-at-a-time tokenism of an elite, who chooses winners and losers among minority artists, the Alt-Right, the use of immigrants to shame black America, and much more. After The Complete Muhammad Ali, recognized by many as the “truly definitive book” on the champion, Ishmael Reed is back with another exciting book of essays that will stir up debate in the United States and abroad.

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9781771861854

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Reviews

One of 12 top books of 2019: Ishmael Reed builds on the theme of resisting white supremacy through the power of multi-racial coalitions with pugilistic essays that pull no punches.... His essay White Nationalism's Last Stand is so hopeful that it's worth the price of the ticket alone. --Michael Berry and D. Scot Miller, East Bay Express Ishmael Reed is the purest literary troublemaker we currently have... a book that is arresting... always-bracing and readable. --Jeff Simon, Buffalo News

Author Information

Ishmael Reed is a poet, novelist, essayist, and songwriter. He has won prizes and grants in each category. He is also an illustrator and Jazz pianist. His most recent awards include the Alberto Dubito Award for International Poetry, presented at the Ca’Foscari University in Venice in 2016 and The AUDELCO award for theater presented in 2017. In the Spring of 2019, he will begin his 36th year as a professor at The University of California at Berkeley. He also teaches at the California College of the Arts where he is a distinguished professor. He is author of The Complete Muhammad Ali (Baraka, 2015).

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