Exodus! : Religion, Race, and Nation in Early Nineteenth-Century Black America

Rating:
Summary: Promised Land Revisited
Review: Eddie Glaude's book is a lucid examination of the connection between the Exodus myth and Afro-American politics. Its subject and critical approach are unique, and its insights into the relationship between religion and politics in 19th century black America are priceless. In limpid, concise prose--unadorned with the jargon that bogs down so many academic books--Mr. Glaude provides us with a new lens through which to view the origins of black political life and, by extension, to understand the full-fledged nationalist movements that were to take hold in the 20th century. I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it is a ground-breaking work written with the confidence of a Baldwin, with the trenchant vision of an Isaiah Berlin, and with a spirited energy that evokes the eponymous Bob Marley song.

Rating:
Summary: "New author, same ol' same . . . "
Review: Merely a re-hash of ol' work. The book's helpful only if you don't intend to read the original work found in the writings of Cornel West, A. Kwame Appiah, Henry L. Gates, Adolph Reed, David Levering Lewis, Albert Rabeteau, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Franz Fanon, etc.