A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X

by Jared Ball (Editor), Todd Steven Burroughs (Editor)

A Lie of Reinvention is a response to Manning Marable’s biography of Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Marable’s book was controversially acclaimed by some as his magna opus. At the same time, it was denounced and debated by others as a worthless read full of conjecture, errors, and without any new factual content.

In this collection of critical essays, editors Jared Ball and Todd Steven Burroughs lead a group of established and emerging Black scholars and activists who take a clear stance in this controversy: Marable’s biography is at best flawed and at worst a major setback in American history, African American studies, and scholarship on the life of Malcolm X.

In the tradition of John Henrik Clarke’s classic anthology William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond, this volume provides a striking critique of Marable’s text. In 1968, Clarke and his assembled writers felt it essential to respond to Styron’s fictionalized and ahistorical Nat Turner, the heroic leader of one of America’s most famous revolts against enslavement. In A Lie of Reinvention, the editors sense a different threat to an African American icon, Malcolm X. This time, the threat is presented as an authoritative biography. To counter the threat, Ball and Burroughs respond with a barbed collection of commentaries of Marable’s text.

The essays come from all quarters of the Black community. From behind prison walls, Mumia Abu-Jamal revises his prior public praise of Marable’s book with an essay written specifically for this volume. A. Peter Bailey, a veteran journalist who worked with Malcolm X’s Organization for Afro-American Unity, disputes how he is characterized in Marable’s book. Bill Strickland, who also knew Malcolm X, provides a personal critique of the biography. Younger scholars such as Kali Akuno, Kamau Franklin, Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Christopher M. Tinson, Eugene Puryear and Greg Thomas join veterans Rosmari Mealy, Raymond Winbush, Amiri Baraka and Karl Evanzz in pointing out historical problems and ideological misinterpretations in Marable’s work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Islam, The United States Of America, African American

308 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2012

Reviews

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Marable's greatest contribution has been to resurrect Malcolm X." p.179

If you are planning to read or have read `Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention' by Manning Marable, I suggest upon completion you follow up with this book.

'A Lie of Reinvention' is a compilation of essays by noted writers & scholars addressing Marable's biography on Malcolm X. Convincing arguments are made here; some quite scholarly, but not unpredictable given what Marable wrote. The critiques vary from highlighting inconsistencies, challenging the information sources and even Marable's intent or rationale for inclusion of certain information.

As I stated in my review of `Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention': one book or one author is not enough to contain this man and his transformation. As many of the writers here noted, the biggest positive stemming from Marable's biography - some contend it is the only positive - is it brings Malcolm X and his legacy back into the conversation. I believe critical review and rebuttal is important in order to keep the discussion going, unfortunately Marable is no longer with us to defend his work. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

[Miroku Nemeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished reading Marable's slanderous and salacious (and laughable as far as "scholarship") "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention" last week, and I just finished the collection of essays "A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X" tonight. I've been teaching "The Autobiography" for over a decade and a half at high schools and colleges, and Marable's lies, slants, agendas, and vicious slanders must be called out. This book has a wide range of scholars, journalists, and old school activists who do this very clearly and effectively. Marable's book has been aggressively marketed in an effort to "own" Malcolm, and perhaps to take the place of "The Autobiography" as the definitive work on Malcolm's life, and it seems that will work on much of the uninformed, especially when the holy trinity of contemporary Black academics like Gates, Dyson, and West have praised it publicly and provided blurbs to be used promiscuously by the publisher. Ball's book provides an essential corrective to this, and I strongly encourage people who care about Malcolm, social justice, or history to read it.

[Timothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tend to expect that countering a book you don't like by publishing an entire new book trashing it is probably a losing prospect in most cases. It certainly turned out to be so here, even though there is plenty to criticize about Marable's biography of Malcolm X. I think in theory putting all of these essays in one place should have been a valuable contribution, but the plain truth is that most of them are quite bad.

The editors seem to favor big names over solid content, so there's a piece by Mumia Abu-Jamal that reads like he dashed it off in ten minutes, plus an incoherent rant by Amiri Baraka that raises some questions about his mental soundness in his last years. Unsurprisingly, the articles by people you haven't heard of are much more likely to be decent; I'd hesitate to single out any of them as particularly great, but about half of the book is of actual publishable quality. And while it took two guys to edit this book, it appears that zero people proofread it. This reads like a rush job through and through, not something a publisher could have been proud of.

If I were teaching Marable's biography, I might assign individual students to read some of these essays and summarize them for the sake of class discussion. I would absolutely not recommend this book to the casual reader. There have to be more succinct analyses out there of Marable's flaws as a researcher.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this book while reading Manning Marabale's critically acclaimed A Life of Reinvention biography on Malcolm X. A compendium of various essays, opinion pieces and other critical readings of Marable's book, it offers a somewhat compelling, albeit mixed bag, response to issues and problems many critics have pointed to in his book. Be aware though that most of the writers in this collection come from a deep Black Nationalist, radical activist or liberation point of view so if you tend not to be sympathetic to viewpoints on that part of the political/intellectual spectrum, this book may not appeal. Is it worth checking though? I'd say yes, as it provides a valuable counterpoint to the Marable book, which, while I thought was solid, I'd agree with many of writers in the collection who argue that it displayed questionable scholarship and editorial decisions in parts and ultimately, does not usurp Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcolm X as the 'go to' book on this legendary Black political icon as many critics have contended.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A major theme of this book is the fact that much of its information is derivative; outside of academia nobody cares about that. Many of the essays in this volume come across as angry and overly theoretical ("pseudo-bourgeois" etc.) and the man on the street has no idea who Foucault was for example. It's not a newsflash that biographers mold their subjects in their own image. There also seems to be huge issues with speaking ill of the dead. On the other hand, the essays by Peter Bailey, Karl Evanz, and the late Amiri Baraka are very much worth reading.

[Leesa Hampton]

I've done serious research on Malcom X so naturally that I would want to read this book.Manning took a lot of flack over it though and I'm enjoying this different side.Malcoms daughters were not in favor of the book but so far I haven't gotten to the controversy .