Manning MarableReseñas

This is a brilliant biography that is beautifully written. The deep level of research and analysis really comes through and provides a rich new understanding of Malcolm X.

I feel inadequate to really review this work, but it struck me deeply all the same. Its encyclopedic coverage of the history and development of African American political activity, the growth of academic study of the African Diaspora, and analysis of blackness in American politics is fascinating, but I feel that this edition, which stops at the election of Barack Obama, is sadly outdated.

The final essay ends with a look at how an Obama presidency could be a starting point for greater social change, and multicultural unity to help counter the Neoliberal capitalistic word order, but we see now that the potential there was never realized.

It's almost sad to end there, where some hope was seen, when we know now how much worse things were going to get. But perhaps the author's passing in 2011 was a kind of blessing, since he was spared the sight of the racist backlash that lead to our current administration.

I see this as an invaluable resource in understanding the history of American politics and its impact on the lives of black Americans, especially as an examination from a Marxist understanding of class struggle.

Biografia ganhadora do prêmio Pulitzer de 2012 revela as muitas transformações e lutas na vida do mais radical militante antirracista dos Estados Unidos.

Numerosas personagens compõem as metamorfoses sofridas por Malcolm Little, o franzino filho de uma família de negros pobres nascido numa pequena cidade do Centro-Oeste americano, até sua conversão decisiva em Malcolm X, o religioso muçulmano e incendiário combatente da revolução mundial que morreu como apóstolo da paz entre os povos.
O mártir pioneiro dos direitos civis nos Estados Unidos foi sucessivamente Homeboy, Jack Carlton, Detroit Red, Big Red e Satan; Malachi Shabazz, Malik Shabazz e El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Esses nomes de sonoridades e sentidos tão contrastantes entre si indicam os rumos contraditórios assumidos pela vida de Malcolm até o encontro definitivo com o Islã, que o levaria ao ativismo político. Ladrão, agenciador de prostitutas e viciado em drogas na década de 1940, quando também conheceu os horrores da prisão, ele abandonou o crime para abraçar com sua oratória brilhante, amparada em leituras autodidatas e nos ensinamentos do Corão, uma luta sem quartel contra o racismo e a injustiça social.
Entretanto, como demonstra Manning Marable, a mesma personalidade profundamente contestadora sempre esteve por trás das diversas máscaras sociais usadas por Malcolm. O autor acompanha os passos desse gigante afro-americano ao longo de dezenas de cidades dos Estados Unidos, além das viagens à África, à Europa e ao Oriente Médio como porta-voz da revolta dos descendentes de escravos e dos direitos dos oprimidos.

"In the 1990s, new forms of racism structure the lives of people of color in ways that are simultaneously less obvious and more treacherous. Black Liberation in Conservative America chronicles these developments -- including the globalization of capital and an expanding prison system -- against the backdrop of rising conservatism and the insinuation of rightwing ideologies into Black community formations. Marable contests what he considers to be an ineffectual emphasis on electoral politics and argues that the future of black liberation will have to be fought out on a civil terrain. This work offers invaluable theoretical and practical guidance to scholars and activists alike." -- Angela Davis

"Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" by Manning Marable is the definitive biography of Malcolm X. This book is a tomb and was much longer than my usual audiobooks.

Malcolm X was a complex man who was constantly thinking and growing. Many remember only his hateful comments and his murder, and he was not the best husband and father. However, Malcolm X improved the world in his short life. How much more could he have done?

The book showed the weeds with the roses. I got to know who Malcolm X was. I am glad I read it.

Manning Marable has written a scholarly biography of a controversial civil rights figure. Unlike the Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley, this book tries to separate facts from how Malcolm and Alex chose to portray him. After a few years of petty crime, Malcolm Little was convicted of a series of home thefts and sentenced to prison, where he converted to Muslim and became a devotee of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam (NOI). After his parole, Malcolm X rose to prominence as an evangelist, recruiting members and building temples (mosques) in cities in the Mid-west and East. Malcolm X's main messages of self respect, discipline, economic development and empowerment were overshadowed by his rhetoric of violence. He was unwilling to work within the system, like other black leaders during this era (notably Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others), because he did not think white America (the so-called "white devils") would ever recognize blacks as their equal. Malcolm X advocated for separation, not integration. Eventually, his political views became as important in his message as his religious devotion to Elijah Muhammad, causing an irreparable rift. After learning of Muhammad's multiple infidelities and his growing personal wealth, which he felt were inconsistent with Muslim values and beliefs, Malcolm journeyed to Africa and the Middle East (including a Hajj), meeting with religious and political leaders overseas, leading to the formation of his own religious clique (Muslim Mosque, Inc.) and a political clique (the Organization of African American Unity.) Preaching Black Nationalism, Malcolm X was a polarizing figure, creating enemies within the black community (NOI, certain moderates) and within the law enforcement community too. Yet, throughout his tumultuous years, Malcolm X worked with a broad cross-section of leaders in Harlem and elsewhere on secular issues such as education, voting registration, police brutality, etc. I think the book's subtitle "A Life of Reinvention" may be a bit idealistic as I think "A Life of Contradiction" is more apt. There are many instances where his sexist or anti Semitism are obvious, but as his assassination approached, Malcolm X's views moderated to judging a person based on their actions, not the color of their skin or religious affiliations.

Building upon a unique framework for understanding black history from slavery to Jim Crow to the modern urban ghetto, Marable charts a new course for racial progress. ... In his boldest and most accessible book to date, Manning Marable lays out a new way to think about the past and the future of race in America.

Manning’s thorough investigation into the life and legacy of Malcolm X, at first admittedly rubbed me the wrong way, but with further reading Marable redeems himself through from the madness of his methods in explaining the many transformations of Malcolm X. The subtle element of superciliousness throughout the book is nothing more than the attempt to refute the mischaracterization of Malcolm X and his beliefs purported by others over the years and not aimed directly at Malcolm X, the man, himself. Having read The Autobiography and now Marable’s tome, I’m struck at how alone Malcolm had to have been throughout his life, precipitated by his intellectual journeys and interpersonal conflicts—from being immersed in a Black Supremacist cult, to embracing iconoclastic Pan-Africanist humanism, while concurrently dealing with familial abandonment and personal betrayals. In the end, A Life of Reinvention effectively manages to reinvent an accurate retelling of the life of Malcolm X by revealing in, vivid detail, the brutally honest truth in the life of a revolutionary, often misunderstood and miscalculated, man.

First of all my review takes into account two aspects: First and foremost Manning Marable's work as a biographer and to a lesser extent Malcom's journey itself.

As a biographical piece I love what Marable did here. He is in no way trying to paint a glorified picture of Malcom X. His own political views affect the work to some extent but these do not overshadow the biography. At points he actually makes Malcom look worse than what I would had expected. His insight into Malcom's journey is quite objective and if he does romanticize the subject a little it is only towards the epilogue.

I got into this biography knowing very little of who Malcom X was and most of what I heard was the negative aspects of his political career. Today I cannot say I admire the man, but I can admire the message he was communicating towards the end of his life. Self pride, self determination, self sufficiency are messages I can get behind as a libertarian. The fact that he abandoned his pro segregation and racist message is something that I can admire. But there are aspects to his character that do not permit me to give him the same level of admiration I feel towards Marin Luther King Jr.

9/10 and a great read for anyone interested in knowing more about the icons of the civil rights era.

Couldn't not give this five stars. A huge window into the development of black Islamic culture in the USA. At the same time it's a page-turner, covered with the sense of impending doom.

So many good things to say about this book.

A facinating read that helped me to better understand my country's history and to gain a greater respect for the civil rights movement, and those involved in it. It is amazing how Religion can be twisted and how violent opposite views of a situation often have the same feelings at the root of them yet can never see that. This book helped me understand my parents and grandparents generations better.

I can see why some Nation of Islam (NOI) members and Malcolm X partisans might find fault with this book. But it is no fault of the research or the author. They just don't like the stories, narrative, or conclusions. I myself find no problems, though I might not buy everything Marable concludes one hundred percent.

By-and-large, this is the finest biography of Malcolm X available, explaining his life, his times, his motivations, his thoughts, his thought, and his milieu like no other biography up till now. It will probably stand as the standard biography of Malcolm X for decades to come.

Manning Marable's overall thrust is encapsulated in his subtitle: "A Life of Reinvention." Malcolm X changed and rolled with the punches every step of his life. An intelligent and passionate man who stepped into every role he undertook with gusto and aplomb.

The story of Malcolm X is widely known in its particulars, so I need not rehash it. What does Marable bring to the table that may be different or significant. Malcolm Little's early childhood is detailed well, even to the point of debunking some of Malcolm's stories about his youth. His life of petty crime as "Detroit Red" is discussed. Here Marable points out some of the incorrect details Malcolm pumped into his biography to make his crimes seem more grandiose (and thus his subsequent conversion to the NOI and morality all the more miraculous). It seems he truly had genuine affection for his white girlfriend (Spike Lee's movie, following X's autobiography, makes her appear to be a demonic succubus). He may have maintained a homoerotic relationship with a rich white man for the money. His stories as the prison "Satan" may be embellished, but it is in prison he learns of the NOI and its "God" W. Fard Muhammad and "prophet" Elijah Muhammad. His subsequent conversion and work in the NOI is then detailed. His relationship with Elijah Muhammad and his circle, his relationship with Louis X (originally surnamed Wolcott, later to be Farrakhan), his seemingly ambivalent relationship with his wife and children. On the last of these, Malcolm X seems committed to his work and ideas more than his family: aiding the Blackman and Blackwoman in the wilderness of white America through the hybridized Islam of the Nation. For the first time we have a detailed and balanced account of his eventual break from Elijah Muhammad and the NOI, and the tensions that lead to it. His embrace of orthodox Sunni Islam and his evolution from a "all means necessary" and maybe violent racial liberation to a hopefully non-violent civil rights reconciliation. Marable does fine job here, likening Malcolm's later ideas on racial and civil rights for black Americans to the post-colonial liberation movements of Africa. Like the struggle of Africans to free themselves from colonial rule and strictures, restoring their culture, vitality, and rights, Malcolm viewed the struggle of African Americans as one of liberation from racial rule and strictures, restoring their culture, vitality, and rights. Marable's account of Malcolm X's assassination, a murky historical area still, is serviceable. There are still questions, "what ifs," and unknown details in the story, but likely these are issues that will never be resolved.

(And by gosh, the damnable NOI. They foster this talent, drive this talent away, and now that Malcolm X is in the pantheon of American and African American greats/heroes, they embrace him again. Shocking. Elijah Muhammad, his entourage, and Louis Farrakhan, the whole ilk, do not shine when the light of facts and truth are shined upon them.)

Grounded in excellent primary and secondary research, extensively noted (not footnotes, not endnotes, but that stupid and insufferable system of page numbers-snippets-sources), this biography is the place to start, even before reading the famed autobiography he dictated to Alex Haley. Decent images, but more and better ones could have been added (Malcolm as a kid, Malcolm on the football team, the famous pic of Malcolm X and the rifle? where are these?).

In the end, what to think of Malcolm X? I find his story one of lost potential. A man of his intelligence and ability, so blinded by the indignities and injustices of racist white America, alongside the soul-crushing effects of poverty, that he would latch onto a theologically spurious cult, attach himself to an unscientific anti-white counter-racism, and then adopt the destructive tenets of Marxist-inspired post-colonial despots.

But I understand WHY, thanks to Marable's prose. Early in the book young Malcolm Little, straight A student, athlete, popular with boys and girls black and white, tells his English teacher he wants to be a lawyer (p. 38):

"But now Malcolm was keenly aware of the social distance between himself and others. An English teacher, Richard Kaminska, sharply discouraged him from becoming a lawyer. 'You've got to be realistic about being a nigger,' Kaminska advised him. 'A lawyer—that's no realistic goal for a nigger.... Why don't you plan on carpentry?' Malcolm's grades plummeted and his truculence increased. Within several months, he found himself expelled."

Imagine a world in which young Malcolm Little became a lawyer and you never heard of him. Or he ran for office. Or he won an important civil rights case. Different world.

What to think of Malcolm X? His story is one of success and failure. A lesson on what to do and what not to do. A story of both how the deck can be stacked against you and a story on how perseverance and grit can win the day. It is a human story, and a distinctly American story. It is one you can learn from and appreciate, whether you buy into it all or not. And Marable's engaging storytelling is a good place to get that story. Capital.

While Marable's writing definitely keeps you interested, I have mixed feelings about the "revelations" Marable offers. Much of it is nothing more than speculation and hearsay (he uses the phrase "Malcolm may..." quite a bit) and while Marable offers a lot in the way or citations, I was not satisfied with his proof. I found myself often wondering what his motive was as there seems to be hints of classism and elitism. And the judgmental tone is a bit much after a while. Nonetheless, interesting read!

While Marable's writing definitely keeps you interested, I have mixed feelings about the "revelations" Marable offers. Much of it is nothing more than speculation and hearsay (he uses the phrase "Malcolm may..." quite a bit) and while Marable offers a lot in the way or citations, I was not satisfied with his proof. I found myself often wondering what his motive was as there seems to be hints of classism and elitism. And the judgmental tone is a bit much after a while. Nonetheless, interesting read!

This book was very well written and easy to follow. I started out really disliking Malcolm ( I knew very little about him before reading this) but came to sympathize with him and admire his willingness to admit he had been wrong on many key tenets of his beliefs and strive to change them.

This book was very well written and easy to follow. I started out really disliking Malcolm ( I knew very little about him before reading this) but came to sympathize with him and admire his willingness to admit he had been wrong on many key tenets of his beliefs and strive to change them.

Malcolm X's autobiography is a fascinating portrait of a man trying to find his way in a deeply racist state, but it's also frustratingly incomplete or inaccurate in many ways: exaggerating his early criminal career, eliding most of his political activities over the last year of his life, and haunted throughout by the unknown influence of Alex Haley on the narrative and emphases. Manning Marable's biography would be a triumph on those grounds alone, but Marable has the added benefit of a historian's toolkit and the innumerable documents that have become available since X's death, especially FBI dossiers and others that Malcolm could have never had access to or known about.

Yet that also seems to sell Marable's biography short, as he lays out the story of a man searching for any way to fight the racial oppression in America—first pursuing religious black separatism, wading into political organizing, then switching to Pan-African ideology, and finally forging an alliance with the integrationist movement that he'd repudiated for so long. Far from erratic, Marable dramatizes the changes as a day-by-day process of a man trying to keep an ever-growing number of balls in the air, and the often-pragmatic steps that he took to keep going. X would not only modulate his rhetoric based on the audience, but also his ideology itself, often endorsing more radical steps when abroad but more cautious among traditional domestic crowds. That was how he tried out new ideas, and where he started to give the hints of changing views that would eventually lead to his break from the Nation of Islam.

Highly recommended.

Manning Marable was my professor in college, so I was forced to buy the book for his class. But I'm so happy that it is part of my collection. I still refer to this book today.

This is an absorbing and meticulously detailed biography of Malcolm X. It isn't definitive, as Marable readily admits, largely because how much FBI documentation on Malcolm's life remains classified. It's still an impressively thorough biography; while I haven't read the Autobiography, it's clear that Marable is attempting to write a counterpoint to that work which strips away much of the hagiographical mystique that has come to surround Malcolm in the years since his murder. Marable follows Malcolm through his life's numerous "reinventions": from the young Malcolm Little of Omaha, Nebraska, to zoot-suited petty criminal to divisive, conservative black nationalist to orthodox Muslim campaigner for human rights. The man Marable writes about is a profoundly flawed individual who was nonetheless brilliant and committed to his work, a polished rhetorician, who was clearly killed just at the moment when he was about to reinvent himself again. Definitely recommended.½

I found myself talking back to Malcolm X a lot in this book.

Malcolm X achieved fame as a Minister in the Nation of Islam, which is not to be confused with the orthodox or mainstream version of that religion. Rather, it was a Black separatist religion that included a mythology called "Yacub's History", in which an evil black scientist named Yacub was supposed to have created the white man "the Devil" as sort of a lab experiment. After serving a few years in prison in the early fifties and converting to the NoI while incarcerated, Malcolm Little, or Malcolm X, as he later came to be known, became a minister in the faith and preached this hateful doctrine for about ten years.

Malcolm made his first journey to the Middle East in 1959 and saw how orthodox Islam was practiced and by whom (all races, including whites). In Spike Lee's film, it was presented that it was this first trip that converted Malcolm away from his hateful views, toward a message of tolerance. I was disappointed to read in this book that that wasn't strictly true. It wasn't until his third trip to the Middle East, in 1964, that Malcolm dropped the hate rhetoric.

He was eventually shunned by the NoI and marked for death, as many heretics of that faith were. In Malcolm's case, he earned an especial vehemence of hatred from the NoI because he exposed the adultery of its leader, Elijah Mohammed. He was killed by NoI members, perhaps with the aid of federal and local authorities, depending on who you believe. Current NoI offshoot leader Louis Farrakhan, originally a friend and protege of Malcolm's was one of the voices calling for his death.

I guess I feel more respect than admiration for the man. To my mind, he preached hate for far too long, and didn't turn it around into positive action until much too late. I understand that the time of his dying was not of his own choosing, but there were so many wasted years there.

Loved the book though. It presented me with a character with whom I disagreed, and with who I carried on hours of spirited debate in my mind before I closed the covers.

Will be returning to this. The narrative is not exactly fast-paced, but smooth and almost conversational. Lots of interesting background on various black rights movements, race politics at the time.

Incendiary biography of a powerful and complex man. I felt somewhat disheartened to read some of the things I did about him, but then again, few of the figures around him were free of faults. The fact still remains that Malcolm X was a visionary who rose up from nothing and was willing to die for what he believed in.

Cover a famous song and people will test its merits. Reboot a loved film and fanboys will let you know what they think. Write a biography that re-explores a very respected autobiography and you are guaranteed to elicit comparison.

It seems perhaps unfair to compare Manning Marable's biography of Malcolm X to The Autobiography of Malcolm X published in 1965. The Autobiography... as told to Alex Haley has sold several million copies and been named one of the most important and influential biographies ever written. It is a hallmark work of non-fiction and continues to be celebrated nearly fifty years after its publication. And yet, a comparison between the two books is in order. What better do we have to measure Marable's work by?

The difference between the two works is as obvious as the covers. The most circulated cover of The Autobiography of Malcolm X features a color painting of a thoughtful Malcolm X, his hair dissolving into the swirl of clouds in the blue sky above, two more images of his face in the background that perhaps show his more revolutionary side and his gentler side.


The first edition cover of Marable's Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention shows a black-and-white photograph of the contemplative, teacher Malcolm. The cover features little flair, almost no color, its straight lines box the name of Malcolm X and give the image of Malcolm little room to move.

This is exactly what you should expect from these two books.

While The Autobiography... was a beautiful and organic declaration of faith, moving and inspiring in its execution, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention is a detached, yet very meticulous portrayal of Malcolm X, as well as those who surrounded him. Though not “definitive,” Malcolm X provides a detailed account of Malcolm's life, from an exploration of his parents' lives to every step Malcolm, his advisers, and his enemies took in the final hours of his life. Marable fills in all those facts Malcolm X and Haley couldn't have known, i.e. who among Malcolm's entourage may have been an informant (for the FBI, the NYPD, the NOI, etc.), and those details no one would've divulged at the time, .i.e. who slept with whom. It nearly completes the image we have of Malcolm. It is a high resolution photograph of his life. But it lacks all the magic and wonder of The Autobiography....

Both books have their place, and I don't think Marable should be faulted for creating such an intricate mapping of Malcolm's life, a task which Marable apparently spent decades on. Marable's work should be praised, but it will never be what The Autobiography... was and is. Though it provides a more complete picture, it should always be read secondary to the 1965 autobiography. Before you learn about Malcolm's life, you really need to be introduced to Malcolm's soul.

In Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, Manning Marable set out to honestly portray a man and to humanize an icon. Marable intended on filling in holes left by truth-bending and necessary lack-of-future-knowledge in The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Since I am not an expert on the subject, I have to say that Marable's book seemed very thorough and well-researched. It was also an engrossing narrative. I feel it well-deserves its Pulitzer Prize. My only complaint was towards the beginning of the novel, Marable inserted some innuendo about Malcolm X's sexuality - which was unnecessary, and rather rude since he didn't have any hard evidence to support his claims. That innuendo was referenced obliquely a few times in the first quarter of the book. Luckily, those references stopped for the last three quarters of the book, or I would have been left with a very bad taste in my mouth.

The only reason I bring up that complaint is because I was looking for hints to why there's a controversy about this book. I was wondering if there was anything I, personally, could pick up. I'm not very familiar with what the controversy is about - and I haven't seen any controversial reference to the innuendo that bothered me. Mostly, the controversy seems to be about Marable's lack of respect for the impact Malcolm X had on the Black Liberation Movement. There's a book entitled A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X, if you really want to delve into the issue. However, I am satisfied that Marable did a lot of really good research, and wrote an interesting and informative book. The issue of exactly what long-term impact Malcolm X had on the Civil Rights Movement and the country as a whole is an opinion, in my opinion.

This book starts with 2 shorter essays. I don't remember them. (I read them too long ago.It took me a long time to finish this book.) The major essays are "Resurrecting the Radical DuBois" and "Malcolm X's Life-After-Death." The final essay is on Brown vs. and how it has been overturned in practice, along with the end of affirmative action. I found the Malcolm X essay helpful because recently I was trying to understand how Malcolm X had become a civil rights leader standing next to MLK Jr. and how a visit by Malcolm X's daughter to our University could be greeted by so many people as an exciting happy event. Prof. Marable puts them together, but over closer to where Malcolm stood.