The Fire Next Time in Around the Year in 52 Books

Aug 25, 2023 Blaine rated it really liked it

Shelves: trade-paperback, 2023

I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has escaped it. And I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history will forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it.
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If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this

I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has escaped it. And I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history will forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it.
…
If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.
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The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
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Whoever debases others is debasing himself.

The Fire Next Time consists of two articles James Baldwin published in 1962. The first part, called “My Dungeon Shook,” is a letter Mr. Baldwin wrote to his 15-year-old nephew. It’s quite short, but it tries to educate his nephew on his family’s history, and exhorts him to turn his anger about America’s mistreatment of African-Americans into taking positive action to improve society.

The second part of The Fire Next Time, which is the great majority of the book, is an open letter titled “Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in my Mind.” This article covers three main themes. First, It explores Mr. Baldwin’s personal history and how he turned from being a young Christian preacher into a man who rejected the Christian church. Next, it recounts an evening he spent with Elijah Muhammad, then-leader of the Nation of Islam, in discussion of whether African-Americans would be better served by Islam than it had been by Christianity. Finally, the book concludes with something of a call to arms. Mr. Baldwin argues that African-Americans should reject the then-trendy idea of creating a separate country for African-Americans, and that African-Americans must recognize their current situation and their history and then work to build an America in which they have true equality.

A book like this could be dry and boring or, worse, shrill and preachy. But The Fire Next Time is none of those things. James Baldwin was a truly gifted writer, and his testimonial style in these letters draws the reader in. It’s hard to imagine it now, but this book—with its personal and persuasive depiction of systemic racism—was apparently eye-opening in 1963, a time when the Civil Rights movement had not yet realized it big successes of that decade.

I’ll admit that I preferred Between the World and Me, this book’s spiritual successor, written in 2015 by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Just by virtue of have been written so recently, instead of sixty years ago, I think it better speaks to the problem of racism in America today. But this is definitely one of those situations where Coates saw farther because he stood on Baldwin’s shoulders. The Fire Next Time is a powerful book that is, sadly, still terribly relevant. Highly recommended. ...more

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Nov 17, 2021 Tania rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-nf, 2021-ps

James Baldwin writes on a topic many would like to ignore, in a way that makes it absolutely impossible to ignore. He speaks truth, and he speaks it openly and honestly and without mincing words or making excuses. Everyone should read this, but sadly many would not make it through the first few pages because it's simply too uncomfortable - it's too true. I hate that it is still as relevant a book today as when it was first published, but it is and you should read it. ...more

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Oct 27, 2017 Marie (UK) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017-reading-challenge

I don't know why but this book does not seem to have the power behind its words that the much later book on the same issue Between the World and Me has. This one suggests that the mindset of the negro has to change as much as that of the white man before integration can be achieved. It felt dry ...more

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