In Love and Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives of James & Grace Lee Boggs

Justice, Power, and Politics

by Stephen M. Ward

James Boggs (1919-1993) and Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015) were two largely unsung but critically important figures in the black freedom struggle. Born and raised in Alabama, James Boggs came to Detroit during the Great Migration, becoming an automobile worker and a union activist. Grace Lee was a Chinese American scholar who studied Hegel, worked with Caribbean political theorist C. L. R. James, and moved to Detroit to work toward a new American revolution. As husband and wife, the couple was influential in the early stages of what would become the Black Power movement, laying the intellectual foundation for racial and urban struggles during one of the most active social movement periods in recent U.S. history.

Stephen Ward details both the personal and the political dimensions of the Boggses' lives, highlighting the vital contributions these two figures made to black activist thinking. At once a dual biography of two crucial figures and a vivid portrait of Detroit as a center of activism, Ward's book restores the Boggses, and the intellectual strain of black radicalism they shaped, to their rightful place in postwar American history.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Social Justice, History

433 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2016

Reviews

[BMR, LCSW · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography was incredibly detailed and thoroughly researched. I know woefully little about the history of labor struggles in the US, this filled in a lot of holes in my understanding. I read a LOT of non-fiction and history books, but didn't previously know that over time labor split from civil rights activism, to narrowly focus on specialty interests confined to the workplace.

A great primer on the differences between Communism and Socialism, activism and revolution, and the factions of Black civil rights groups.

I may have to buy this one and underline the crap out of it. Highly recommended for history geeks, labor scholars, and anyone interested in the struggle to make America live up to its promise of liberty and justice FOR ALL.

[Robert Rauschenberg]

Recommended by ill Weaver (complex movements).

[Dawne · Rating 1 out of 5]

An usual intellectual history that's also a family story and a love story--although this is barely stated. Beautifully composed, well written. Such an interesting story about lives built around ideas, ideas as life and death matter worth wrestling with and evolving and using as a means to reimagine a future. James Boggs was a self-made intellect from an obscure farming town in Alabama's Black Belt. His daily work on the production line of a car factory gave him deep insight into Marxism and its theories on work and productivity. Grace Lee was an equally rebellious woman and thinker. Together, they laid the intellectual groundwork for the Black Power movement.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dense book with a bit more emphasis on the couple’s political philosophies and writing than I expected, but a fascinating look at a couple who were intellectual lifelong partners and had a shared commitment to the struggle for justice and also a city: Detroit.

The author talks about Grace as someone who “insisted that we question old ideas about the purpose and practice of revolution, allowing our creativity and imagination to envision new ways of relating to each other and the earth, new ways of building our communities, and in the process chalking ourselves to create the world anew.” Powerful stuff.

[aa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book succeeds presenting the Boggs' experiences and shifting ideas until roughly the 1967 Rebellion in Detroit. No complaints there.

I was hoping for more elaboration for how they navigated the city as it experienced even more capital flight due to businesses and the white middle class leaving, and the hostility from the suburbs to the city. The author touches on this in the closing chapter, and I appreciate that, but I would've liked to see more. I plan to read Grace Lee Boggs' autobiography and final 2011 work for more on that.