Good Morning, Revolution Uncollected Writings of Social Protest

by Langston Hughes

Poems and prose writings published between 1925 and 1957 cover the full spectrum of Black feelings toward white domination in America

Genres: Poetry, Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Literature

145 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1973

About the author

Through poetry, prose, and drama, American writer James Langston Hughes made important contributions to the Harlem renaissance; his best-known works include Weary Blues (1926) and The Ways of White Folks (1934).

People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto...

Reviews

[Jim O'Loughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though this book was published in 1973, it's amazing how much of it remains absent from most accounts of Langston Hughes. His radical work of the 1930s is important in its own right and for how it complicates our understanding of his Harlem Renaissance years. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Hughes.

[Mikayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with delightful poetry & essays, Hughes never seems to fail. Because of the content of this book, it's unfortunately one of his lesser known books, but ultimately, one of the greatest.

[Ellice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an endlessly fascinating book. Not because every piece was a winner—because a lot of the poetry, especially, felt tendentious, and fell way, way short of Hughes’ best work. But it was a look at incredibly tumultuous decades of political upheaval from the perspective of an intelligent, artistic man. It might be shocking to many people today to learn that Hughes felt a great admiration for communist societies such as Russia and China, which he did. Yet Hughes was in high school during the Russian Revolution, and was born less than 40 years after slavery was abolished. He didn’t have the benefit of historical hindsight on repressive communist regimes as we do today, but was intimately familiar with the racism of Jim Crow America. He wished, as other Black luminaries have, that tackling inequity and poverty for the common worker would bond African Americans and whites in a struggle that would ultimately benefit both—as a better alternative to allowing race to supersede class as the biggest divider of Americans.

It seems Hughes had a complicated relationship with these works later in life—perhaps he knew they were not his best work, or did not want to relive his admiration for Russia in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was becoming obvious there were substantial issues with that country. But his last volume of poems did contain some pretty radical pieces itself, so perhaps he came full circle.

In any case, this volume should be of interest to fans of Hughes, those trying to educate themselves on Black political thought, and anyone interested in evaluations of early 20th century political happenings—as they were indeed happening.

[Katie Fustich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stray thoughts:

-So many wonderful political poems here. Hughes poems on topics like unions, Marxism, revolution, racism, colonization, and xenophobia all still feel so fresh and relevant. His "folk poem" style is very well suited to these topics. Also makes a great case against anyone who says rhyming poetry is passé.

-The prose had so much to offer as well, though it was sometimes lacking in context. The best of these selections were travelogues of his time in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Some of the other pieces felt too compressed.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profoundly changed my life

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and important words. I found the prose to be more powerful than most of the poems included.