Synopses & Reviews
Keeping Faith is the richest account available of the work of Cornel West, one of today's leading African American intellectuals. This powerful collection of essays ranges widely across politics and philosophy in America, the role of the black intellectual, legal theory and the future of liberal thought, and the fate of African Americans. In West's hands issues of race and freedom are inextricably tied to questions of philosophy and, above all, to a belief in the power of the human spirit.
West situates the current position of African Americans, tracing the genealogy of the Afro-American Rebellion from Martin Luther King to the rise of black revolutionary leftists. He explains both the opportunities and limitations of liberalism and nationalism, and offers strategies for a new generation of African Americans.
West insists that African American oppression be understood within the larger crises of North Atlantic civilization. While maintaining the specificity of black identity and resistance, he provocatively suggests alliances with other intellectual and communal forms of American radicalism. Writing on the new cultural politics of difference, the critical legal studies movement, American pragmatism, or race and social theory, West sustains the difficult balance between a subtly argued critique of the past and present, and a broadly conceived, daring vision of the future.
Synopsis
In Keeping Faith, Cornel West - author of the bestselling Race Matters - puts forward his ideas about race and about philosophy. West's powerful voice ranges widely across issues of race and culture, the role of the black intellectual, politics and philosophy in America, art and architecture, questions of legal theory, and the future of liberal thought. In a time of decay and discouragement in the black community and among progressive forces at large, Keeping Faith offers new strategies to galvanize and propel a new generation of African Americans. Yet, West argues, racial subordination must be understood within the larger crises of our society. Maintaining the uniqueness of black identity and resistance, he provocatively suggests alliances with other intellectual and community-based forms of American radicalism. Keeping Faith offers West's distinctive mix of political passions and careful scrutiny. Whether exploring 'the new cultural politics of difference', American pragmatism, or race and social theory, he sustains a difficult balance between a subtly argued critique of the past and present, and a broadly conceived, daring vision of the future. Both troubling and exhilarating, Keeping Faith maps not only the concerns of one of the most significant public intellectuals of our time, but issues crucial to Americans of all races.
Synopsis
In this powerful collection by one of today's leading African American intellectuals, Keeping Faith situates the current position of African Americans, tracing the geneology of the Afro-American Rebellion from Martin Luther King to the rise of black revolutionary leftists. In Cornel West's hands issues of race and freedom are inextricably tied to questions of philosophy and, above all, to a belief in the power of the human spirit.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [293]-308) and index.
Table of Contents
Cultural criticism and race -- The new cultural politics of difference -- Black critics and the pitfalls of canon formation -- A note on race and architecture -- Horace Pippin's challenge to art criticism -- The dilemma of the black intellectual -- Philosophy and political engagement -- Theory, pragmatisms and politics -- Pragmatism and the sense of the tragic -- The historicist turn in philosophy of religion -- The limits of neopragmatism -- On George Lukâacs -- Fredric Jameson's American Marxism -- Law and culture -- Reassessing the critical legal studies movement -- Critical legal studies and a liberal critic -- Charles Taylor and the critical legal studies movement -- The role of law in progressive politics -- Explaining race -- Race and social theory -- The paradox of the African American rebellion.