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Rating: 
Summary: Extremely exciting history of Harlem's culture - 1890-1935.
Review: Beyond the speakeasys, definitive cabarets and birth of contemporary black America based in Harlem, Mr. Lewis has given us a poignant and hard-hitting study that pitifully few whites and most contemporary blacks know about. My God! The story of the 369th Infantry Regiment marching up 5th Avenue raised the hair on my arms. The poets, playwrights, noveslists of the period are still a volatile inspiration today.The roots, "why's" and "who's" of Marxism, Garveyism and "how" they made sense as movements became clear for the first time. This piece of work is a must read for anyone who considers themselves knowledgable about culture of any race in this country. We carry a shameful legacy of mistreatment of ourselves and our brothers, and the thrust of the first Harlem Rennaisance (1920-35) was that art,(literature and the arts) could influence politics and the government in this country to make them more humane and less extreme, whether left or right. The Rennaisance didn't work as effectively as anyone had hoped, but the results of the cultural struggle, as real as the physical struggles, are coming to fruition over the last 60 years. Now maybe the fruit is ripe enough to share between us all. Lewis offers a banquet of information, stories, names, dates and situations that made me wish I could have been a part of the magnificent movements he has so elegantly documented. There was a world before TV and the internet - a world where people had dialogues, exchanged impassioned thoughts and attitudes as a lifestyle, and shared bared Souls in the hope of expanding their minds and freeing a race from the most insulting racial intolerances. To read this book is to be a part of the struggle and to have the opportunity to commit to the ever expanding culture lost to so many generations. Somehow I guess the poetry of Claude McKay could be the root of Hip Hop. Would he approve, and would the current generation appreciate the perspective? Time will tell
Rating:
Summary: A zesty account
Review: Claude McKay and Jean Toomer helped to launch the Harlem Renaissance and chose to live elsewhere. Sterling Brown denied that a Harlem Renaissance had ever existed. It began as a somewhat forced phenomenon. DuBois believed the history of the world was the history of groups. War experiences spurred people to seek decisive change. Unfortunately a number of racial incidents took place directly after Word War I. The historian Carter Woodson was witness to a riot in Washington D.C. Black Harlem ran from 130th to 145th Streets. Jazz and blues in Harlem were produced by persons from the Great Migration--Mamie Smith, Perry Bradford, and others. There were new stars in Harlem. Claude McKay and James Weldon Johnson became personal friends. MacKay's HARLEM SHADOWS appeared in 1922. Countee Cullen said that on the whole he liked CANE by Jean Toomer. Countee Cullen's only serious rival in Harlem was Langston Hughes. Alain Locke and Charles Johnson, a sociologist, made contributions to the intellectual life of the Harlem leadership. Arna Bontemps and Zora Neale Thurston were also notable figures. Many motives animated the Lost Generation Caucasian supporters. The motives included guilt, Christianity, inherited abolitionism. There were rent parties in Harlem and other evidence of stress and overcrowding. Nonetheless the twenties was a time of artistic triumph with such musical personalities James P. Johnson, Willie the Lion Smith, Fats Waller, and Duke Ellington seeking and finding engagements. There were success stories. Even in the Depression people were generally well-dressed and happy. Harlem was filled with strivers and professionals. 1925 was year one of the Harlem Renaissance. James Weldon Johnson's ancestors had been free, literate, and prosperous before the Civil War. He and his brother composed an opera. The mid twenties solidified the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem was Afro-America's Paris. LULU BELLE (1926) sent whites to Harlem in unprecedented numbers. Factually speaking, though, most of Harlem was sober and hardworking. The Rosenwald Fund and the Harmon Fund were influential by promoting and rewarding African American artistic achievement. Alain Locke had been a sort of custodian of the Harlem Renaissance. Claude McKay's last novel appeared in 1933. Sugar Hill, Strivers' Row and the Dunbar were landmarks of the Renaissance. The last novel of the Renaissance was Zora Neale Thurston's JONAH'S GOURD VINE. The book covers other topics interestingly, revealing many bits of information previously unknown to this reader. Photographs are included and an appendix of sources.
Rating:
Summary: A zesty account
Review: Claude McKay and Jean Toomer helped to launch the Harlem Renaissance and chose to live elsewhere. Sterling Brown denied that a Harlem Renaissance had ever existed. It began as a somewhat forced phenomenon. DuBois believed the history of the world was the history of groups. War experiences spurred people to seek decisive change. Unfortunately a number of racial incidents took place directly after Word War I. The historian Carter Woodson was witness to a riot in Washington D.C. Black Harlem ran from 130th to 145th Streets. Jazz and blues in Harlem were produced by persons from the Great Migration--Mamie Smith, Perry Bradford, and others. There were new stars in Harlem. Claude McKay and James Weldon Johnson became personal friends. MacKay's HARLEM SHADOWS appeared in 1922. Countee Cullen said that on the whole he liked CANE by Jean Toomer. Countee Cullen's only serious rival in Harlem was Langston Hughes. Alain Locke and Charles Johnson, a sociologist, made contributions to the intellectual life of the Harlem leadership. Arna Bontemps and Zora Neale Thurston were also notable figures. Many motives animated the Lost Generation Caucasian supporters. The motives included guilt, Christianity, inherited abolitionism. There were rent parties in Harlem and other evidence of stress and overcrowding. Nonetheless the twenties was a time of artistic triumph with such musical personalities James P. Johnson, Willie the Lion Smith, Fats Waller, and Duke Ellington seeking and finding engagements. There were success stories. Even in the Depression people were generally well-dressed and happy. Harlem was filled with strivers and professionals. 1925 was year one of the Harlem Renaissance. James Weldon Johnson's ancestors had been free, literate, and prosperous before the Civil War. He and his brother composed an opera. The mid twenties solidified the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem was Afro-America's Paris. LULU BELLE (1926) sent whites to Harlem in unprecedented numbers. Factually speaking, though, most of Harlem was sober and hardworking. The Rosenwald Fund and the Harmon Fund were influential by promoting and rewarding African American artistic achievement. Alain Locke had been a sort of custodian of the Harlem Renaissance. Claude McKay's last novel appeared in 1933. Sugar Hill, Strivers' Row and the Dunbar were landmarks of the Renaissance. The last novel of the Renaissance was Zora Neale Thurston's JONAH'S GOURD VINE. The book covers other topics interestingly, revealing many bits of information previously unknown to this reader. Photographs are included and an appendix of sources.
Rating:
Summary: The Roaring Twenties- a culturally vital era
Review: Harlem's gaudiest and best-known nightspot was a "whites only" nightclub serving Vaudevillian-style black entertainment to the white patrons that flooded into Harlem from downtown Manhattan. Everybody was swinging and boozing. They were high times and they were really hopping. Alcohol sales and consumption climbed rapidly. Nightclubs, cabarets and after-hours clubs, on the strip of 133rd Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenues, thrived with the influx of white trade. Jazz, big bands, blues, and high-steppin', "high-yeller" girls set the tone. Money flowed in like water and the Mob's power grew. In the midst of all that was occurring, black artists, intellectuals and social activists flourished throughout Harlem in what is now called The Harlem Renaissance. Very well researched vital to learning about the richness of American life and character
Rating: 
Summary: Long and Boring
Review: I had to read this book for a history class in college, and I must say it was a poor choice for the class. The author throws out many obscure names, and expects you to know who they. He goes on and on about the authors of the period and their respective eccentricities. The reader is treated to countless pages about who so-and-so was friends with, and what tea party they attended that evening. It simply fails to help the reader appreciate this remarkable period in America's history.
Rating:
Summary: Long and Boring
Review: I had to read this book for a history class in college, and I must say it was a poor choice for the class. The author throws out many obscure names, and expects you to know who they. He goes on and on about the authors of the period and their respective eccentricities. The reader is treated to countless pages about who so-and-so was friends with, and what tea party they attended that evening. It simply fails to help the reader appreciate this remarkable period in America's history.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring Style, Difficult to get through.
Review: I originally read this book for a class in college, but was unable to finish it due to deadlines. With more time on my hands, I picked up the book recently and attempted to read through it. I found the book had a great deal of history, including names, dates, and facts that are difficult to find elsewhere. However, the book was very difficult to read due to the style. It was very long and monotonous and I found myself getting very bored with it at times. Lewis should have written with a style that engaged the reader more since many of the interesting facts were lost in the endlessly long discussions about each black writer. Also, the book included many of the writers in the Harlem Rennaissance, but it barely talked about Harlem at all. Many of the writers during the Harlem Rennaissance did not even live in Harlem. It seemed to be more of a history about African Americans in the literary world at that time. I picked up the book because I wanted to read about Harlem -- not the Harlem Rennaissance. I wanted to read about the everyday residents of Harlem. Overall, the book had some interesting facts, but it is a very boring read and very difficult to sift through. If you ever got bored reading your history textbooks, I would not recommend this book since it is written in the same style.
Rating:
Summary: Boring Style, Difficult to get through.
Review: I originally read this book for a class in college, but was unable to finish it due to deadlines. With more time on my hands, I picked up the book recently and attempted to read through it. I found the book had a great deal of history, including names, dates, and facts that are difficult to find elsewhere. However, the book was very difficult to read due to the style. It was very long and monotonous and I found myself getting very bored with it at times. Lewis should have written with a style that engaged the reader more since many of the interesting facts were lost in the endlessly long discussions about each black writer. Also, the book included many of the writers in the Harlem Rennaissance, but it barely talked about Harlem at all. Many of the writers during the Harlem Rennaissance did not even live in Harlem. It seemed to be more of a history about African Americans in the literary world at that time. I picked up the book because I wanted to read about Harlem -- not the Harlem Rennaissance. I wanted to read about the everyday residents of Harlem. Overall, the book had some interesting facts, but it is a very boring read and very difficult to sift through. If you ever got bored reading your history textbooks, I would not recommend this book since it is written in the same style.
Rating:
Summary: history book for the historians
Review: This book can be described as a history book for the historians for the simple fact that it has too much information for the regular reader. The book reads more like a text book then anything. The author will mention name after name, but without giving proper introduction of who the people are, leaving the reader lost unless they know their history to a great length. The book also has some shortcomings on how much of it is about harlem, rather it is about the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. As the preface mentions the book could have been subtitled (or titled) Civil Rights by copywrite. This would have been a more fitting title for the author focuses more on the great literature at the time and its authors then anything else. While the book has a ton of facts, and an indepth look into many works, I failed to gain much insight into the events that the book is writing about.
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