Rating: 
Summary: An pioneer analysis of the impact of racism on Africa
Review: Fanon's work is one of the most influential works of the 1960's on the impact of racism and colonialism on the thinking of then emerging African states.This is required reading for understanding radical thought among U.S Blacks in the 1960-1970's.
Rating: 
Summary: Wretched of the Earth
Review: Frantz Fanon dropped a gem when he wrote this book. It deals specifically with what he saw while living in Africa, a case of the native and the colonizer. He discusses the issue of violence, the culture of the native, psychological effects (with actual cases he saw while working in an Algerian hospital), and national consciousness. Even though it's specifically about the native and the colonizer, it can be used for something very small in comparison, such as a kid being bullied in a classroom. The root of it is the oppressor and the oppressed. Fanon greatly stresses the importance and normalcy of self-defense, and the importance of organizing and thinking behind it. This is definitely an attack on the "turn the other cheek" method. If you are interested or believe in self-defense towards oppressors, this is definitely a necessity for the subject
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK CHANGES LIVES
Review: Frantz Fanon was an extraordinary man. Passionate, charismatic, brave, deeply moral, profoundly intelligent and exceptionally perceptive and sensative. Those qualities infuse all of his books and its no surprise that all over the world so many good people refer to Fanon's work as "my bible" or "our bible." Everybody should read The Wretched of the Earth. The world has changed since the book was written. The wretched have far less hope now. But Fanon's insights into the nature of oppression and resistance and especially the promises and dangers of nationalism are as fresh and enlightening as they have always been, Most of the 'great' European philosophers thought that it was appropriate to use violence to resist certain types of oppression. Yet John Locke or Karl Marx are not routinely referred to 'apostles of violence' and their work is never reduced to their support for armed resistance to certain types of oppression. It's clear that a lot of people are still horrified at the idea of a black man with a gun - even if he's resisting oppression. Fanon's reception in the West tells us a lot about his continued relevance. This is one of the most important books of the last century. Everybody should read it. Everybody should learn from it.
Rating:
Summary: A medical psychiatrist, Fanon
Review: His statement, not much Marx in it, was that both the tortured
and the torturers needed therapy.Pretty much, you have a headache and neck and back problems if
you watch tv. A lot of snuff tv in the news. Usually shown
at 6 when children are around. The TV as an instrument of forming a sub hypnotic channel
even radio, is a forensic characterisation of the of the
phenomenon of indwelling on electronic mediums. The electronic mediums are, unforturnately, proliferating
in the em band. This trend is not well noted in the
classical news medium. Making electromagnetic mines that attach neuroplasm to
computers, men women, and childrens' minds, is essentially
the industrial black budget of the evolution of surveillance
and em probes. Torture can now be done with electronic eqipment, and
the computer blending of electronics to human minds is
a vast technological black budget infrastructure. It's also curious... you won't read or hear about this
anywhere else... mind control is on the internet.
Not surveillance technology.
Rating:
Summary: A medical psychiatrist, Fanon
Review: His statement, not much Marx in it, was that both the tortured
and the torturers needed therapy. Pretty much, you have a headache and neck and back problems if
you watch tv. A lot of snuff tv in the news. Usually shown
at 6 when children are around. The TV as an instrument of forming a sub hypnotic channel
even radio, is a forensic characterisation of the of the
phenomenon of indwelling on electronic mediums. The electronic mediums are, unforturnately, proliferating
in the em band. This trend is not well noted in the
classical news medium. Making electromagnetic mines that attach neuroplasm to
computers, men women, and childrens' minds, is essentially
the industrial black budget of the evolution of surveillance
and em probes. Torture can now be done with electronic eqipment, and
the computer blending of electronics to human minds is
a vast technological black budget infrastructure. It's also curious... you won't read or hear about this
anywhere else... mind control is on the internet.
Not surveillance technology.
Rating:
Summary: The Horde of Rats
Review: I pulled the title of my review from page 130, which states, "This lumpenproletariat is like a horde of rats; you may kick them and throw stones at them, but despite your best efforts they'll go on gnawing at the roots of the tree." One of my favorite lines of many from Fanon that still, and perhaps now more than ever, resonate in the magazines, newspapers and op-ed pages of the West today. "The Wretched of the Earth," along with Dubois' "The Souls of Black Folk," was a book I found repeatedly mentioned both in the "Autobiography of Malcolm X" as well as the writings of Black Panther leaders Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver. I couldn't quite understand some of the ideas of these great black activists until I read Fanon's "Wretched." Now I see that they took many of Fanon's observations and revolutionary theories and applied them to the plight of the African-American of the 1960s. For example, when the Panthers would decry the police as "fascist, gestapo pigs," and demand their withdrawal, they sounded much like Fanon, who writes,"In these poor undeveloped countries (or the slums of Oakland, Chicago, New York), where the rule is the greatest wealth is surrounded by the greatest poverty (the horde of rats), the army and the police constitute the pillars of the regime; an army and a police force(another rule which must not be forgotten) which are advised by foreign experts." This is one example of many of Fanon influence of these men. In the Congo dissidents or opponents had their hands cut off. In Guinea they had their lips pierced and padlocked shut. In Oakland the Panthers were confronted with billyclubs, bullets or bars, and again, they drew the analogy. "Colonialism only loosens its hold when the knife is at its throat...it is violence in its natural state, and it will only yield when confronted with greater violence." The Panthers, who viewed themselves enduring 500 years of colonization, took up arms. "Individualism is the first to disappear," a line seen early on in the work that was echoed by Che Guevara in his heyday, key to coming together collectively, the only means of having a chance at throwing out the imperialists. I don't know which is more beneficial, to read works like the biography of Che, some of the Panthers' biographies, and then Fanon's "Wretched of the Earth," or vice-versa. Regardless, "The Wretched of the Earth" is the Machiavelli of revolutionary theory. I am still, unfortunately, not very versed in African politics and revolutionary movements. However, switching to Latin America, reading the "Wretched of the Earth" feels like being in the hills of Cuba with Fidel. It's practically a play-by-play, giving one greater appreciation for the struggle and the sacrifice. Particularly impressive if Fanon's analysis of the developed versus the underdeveloped world, and the former's contempt for and repression of the latter as the underdeveloped world tries to climb out of their hole, moreso he himself being not a native African, but a Frenchman, knowing both sides equally well. It seems as though there is never any alternative, on the subject of revolutions, to colonialism or communism. Either business continues as usual (colonialism), or nationalist governments are hit with labels such as "upstart," in that time becoming part of the great international conspiracy, in our time anti-capitalist. Fanon is right on when he cites the colonialists as saying,"If you wish for independence, take it and go back to the Middle Ages...since you want independence, take it and starve." The application doesn't end with the '60s but continues on in our day, when the world's major financial players are offering assistance only in exhange for the right to "exploit." There is so much more to be said for this book. Admittedly this is a poor review, unworthy of Fanon's brilliant presentation of how to revolt and succeed doing so. Just read the book, read some of the others on who Fanon had such an impact, and make your own application.
Rating:
Summary: The Way It Really Is
Review: I read this book after finding it on the Rage Against the Machine reading list, and continue to find new depth and relevancy to it even after 5 readings. Fanon exposes the necessity of violence in opposing the colonialist regime and the pitfalls and atrocities of forcing the Western way of life on other people. A must read for those wishing to understand the psychology of the oppressed, not only in other parts of the world, but here in Amerika.
ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Rating:
Summary: The Way It Really Is
Review: I read this book after finding it on the Rage Against the Machine reading list, and continue to find new depth and relevancy to it even after 5 readings. Fanon exposes the necessity of violence in opposing the colonialist regime and the pitfalls and atrocities of forcing the Western way of life on other people. A must read for those wishing to understand the psychology of the oppressed, not only in other parts of the world, but here in Amerika.
ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Rating: 
Summary: Discomfiting and Authoritarian
Review: I wasn't enthusiastic about this book to begin with. Maybe that made me less receptive to Fanon's ideas. I can see why disconsolate university types would get into Fanon, he can dish out the bitter slogans with ease. He does not, however, illustrate that the ends he wishes to achieve with the clarity that could justify his violent means. Thus I see this book as philosophically suspect. Romanticizing the rural mass and then marginalizing their ability to coherently rule themselves, Fanon justifies propagandistic manipulation, nationalized education and infrastructure, marginalization of ethnicity and cultural diversity; essentialy what he advocates is the construction of a technocracy that garbs itself in "revolutionary" euphemisms and uses the rural quantity as a check on the independence and economic and educational flexibility of urbanized elites. My professor saw my perspective as skewed, and perhaps it is. At any rate, given my suspicions about the ends Fanon sees as his structure, I consequently have contempt for his reasoning enunciating violence. First, he eloquently and passionately illustrates the techniques of imperialism in subjugating the colonized. This is his book's greatest strength; however, many readers enamored of this aspect seem incapable of critiquing the rest of the book. From his economic and social analysis of colonialism, Fanon is able to racialize a state of conflict between the oppressed and oppressor. This constructs social identity in a way that is useful for his arguments for violence. What would be called indiscriminate terrorism in many contexts becomes logically justified by Fanon's racial construct. It is the artifice of identity based on race that allows the justification of violence perpetrated on the basis of being black or white. Some would argue that despite Fanon's racialization of the conflict, Fanon always sees it as an economic relationship. Thus, his justification of attack on the urban black and the acceptance of the sympathetic white makes sense. Others would argue that this is just a bone thrown to the theorists that ultimately means nothing to the application of violence. I, however, see it as a verbose argument for terrorism committed on black people without removing the racism from his theory. In essence it is a smokescreen for calling the urban black pursuing economic security as an "oreo." Thus terrorism committed on the independent shopkeeper is an attack on the proxy of the white man; while the white sympathizer is a propaganda tool. In essence, Fanon's theory is a justification for violence based on race; and for the control of people through propaganda and terror while spouting democratic themes. In practice we see this sort of technique used by regimes that prey on their own people and finance their repression with drug smuggling and corruption (re: Myanmar, FARC, the Taleban). If you read Fanon and find this sort of thing making sense, take a good long look in the mirror. It is important to at least be honest with yourself before becoming enmired in hypocrisy. Fanon clearly despised himself; unfortunately he transferred that emotion onto an entire society.
Rating:
Summary: takes the next step of orthodox marxists writing on 3d world
Review: In an attempt to "show us what we've been missing" in terms of Marxist analysis Fanon hits the mark squarely in showing the proletarianized nature of the colonialized states. A must read for anyone interested in contemporary Marxism, interests in the 3d world, or flyfishermen
| 
