The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader

by Harold Cruse, Stanley Crouch (Foreword), William Jelani Cobb (Editor)

In 1967, as the movement for civil rights was turning into a bitter, often violent battle for black power, Harold Cruse’s The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual burst onto the scene. It was a lacerating attack on integration, and set the agenda for black cultural, social, and political autonomy. A classic of African American social thought, the book and its author went on to influence generations of activists, artists, and scholars. Cruse’s intelligence, independence, and breadth of vision virtually defined what it meant to be a black intellectual in modern America. Here is a powerful introduction to Cruse’s wide body of work. This first anthology of Cruse’s writing includes published material such as excerpts from Crisis , as well as unpublished essays, speeches, and correspondence. The Essential Harold Cruse is certain to become standard reading for anyone interested in race in American society.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction

310 pages, Hardcover

First published February 23, 2002

About the author

Harold Wright Cruse was an American academic who was an outspoken social critic and teacher of African American studies at the University of Michigan until the mid-1980s. The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967) is his best-known book.