No Way But This: in search of Paul Robeson

by Jeff Sparrow

Paul Robeson was an actor and performer, a champion athlete, a committed communist, a brilliant speaker, and a passionate activist for social justice in America, Europe, and Australia. Hailed as the most famous African American of his time, he sang with a voice that left audiences weeping, and, for a period, had the entire world at his feet – and then lost everything for the sake of his principles.

Robeson’s storied life took him from North Carolina plantations to Hollywood; from the glittering stages of London to the coal-mining towns of Wales; from the violent frontiers of the Spanish Civil War to bleak prison cells in the Soviet Union; from Harlem’s jazz-infused neighbourhoods to the courtroom of the McCarthy hearings. Yet privately Robeson was a troubled figure, burdened by his role as a symbol for the African American people and an international advocate for the working class. His tragedy was to battle ambition and uncertainty, ultimately clinging to his beliefs even as the world changed around him. As optimistic ideals of communism turned to repression under the Cold War, his public decline mirrored that of the world around him.

Today Robeson is largely unknown, a figure lost to footnotes and grainy archival footage. But his life, which followed the currents of the twentieth century, reveals how the traumas of the past still shape the present.

Jeff Sparrow follows the ghosts and echoes of Robeson’s career, tracing his path through countries and decades, to explore the contemporary resonances of his politics and passions. From Black Lives Matter to Putin’s United Russia, Sparrow explores questions of race and representation in America, political freedom in Moscow, and the legacy of fascism and communism in Europe. Weaving travelogue with biography, In Search of Paul Robeson is a story of political ardour, heritage, and trauma — a luminous portrait of a man and an urgent reflection on the politics that define us today.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Australia, African American, Biography Memoir, Race

304 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 2017

About the author

Writer, broadcaster, nogoodnik.

Reviews

[Paul Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was received as a free review copy for the Big book Awards


I tend to avoid biography as a genre, usually limiting my non-fiction reading to history or science, so wasn’t sure how much I’d like reviewing a biography, but when I opened the package and saw that it was about Paul Robeson I was intrigued.


Straight away, I was engaged. The single page prelude is a brief scene from the House Unamerican Activities Committee in 1956 before, in his introduction, Jeff Sparrow writes about a performance of Robeson’s for workers building the Sydney Opera House in 1960, and carefully sets the tone for what is to come, hinting at the hardships and activism of Robeson’s life, and their modern parallels. This is a biography of a man, but Sparrow also uses it a framework to view the times in which he lived and compare them to our own. To contrast the discrimination that Robeson experienced and the activism through which he fought it to a world today that is still built upon many of the same prejudices, for all it has changed.


For each stage of Robeson’s life - his childhood in Princeton, and the Harlem renaissance and early success, and then London and increased fame at home, his time in Moscow and his subsequent character assassination when the USSR became the enemy and Joseph McCarthy created the spectre of a red under every bed, his years in the wilderness and brief return before the decades of stress and disappointment took their toll - the author cleverly weaves the strands of pure biography with what might have been no more than background information and colour, but becomes a solid examination of the time and place itself, and a shadow thrown forward to the present day.


The portrayal of Robeson - referred to as Paul almost exclusively - verges on hero worship, but shows enough of his flaws to just stop short. And this is understandable; he was not only a man of prodigious talent and strength, but used those to fight throughout his life for the discriminated and disenfranchised - his own people as well as those he met elsewhere, such as the striking Welsh miners with whom he found such a bond.


Perhaps partly as this is as much a history book as a biography - and certainly because of the skill of the author - I enjoyed this far more than I expected. Both Robeson’s life and the ideals for which he fought will stay with me, so job done Mr Sparrow.

[Lesley Halm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to read an early proof of this book, and I constantly find myself thinking about it. It's fascinating, and has disturbing echoes of what's still taking place around the world today. Sparrow travels to the various places that shaped Robeson's life, his career, his politics, talking with people who were there at the time, and tracing the man's steps. Even if you've never heard of Paul Robeson, as I hadn't really (except I recognised the song, of course), this is an engaging and relevant read. Depressing how relevant these conversations around race, war, and basic human dignity still are. The writing is good, and Sparrow's passionate about his subject. The narrative does wander off into places that had little or nothing to do with Robeson, becoming more about Sparrow's emotional journey with history, but it's still interesting and blends into the larger picture of the politics and events of the time. Great for anyone interested in history, race (from slavery until now), travel, current affairs, music. Basically everyone. Just a tip: have Google handy so you can look up all the people, music, events, and places peppered throughout. So much to sink your teeth into here. Take the time to chew over it slowly. (p.s. I maaaay work for the publisher, but there's not a job anywhere that would make me recommend a book I didn't like.)

[Dermot · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this, as it was more about the times Robeson lived than about the man himself. At times there were several pages where he was not even mentioned e.g. section on the Spanish Civil War and parts on Russia.
Also, there was no Index for the chapters, which was frustrating as I usually like to go back to chapters where a character was mentioned but it meant trying to guess where that was.
Overall seemed at times like a travel book.
Going to have to look for another book on Robeson.

[Scribe Publications]

Sparrow shows how this admittedly splendid actor, this marvelous singer, this charismatic speaker, had somehow evolved into something more: he had for many people become the embodiment of the global longing for a better world, a juster dispensation … Sparrow has made perfect and haunting sense of him.
Simon Callow, New York Review of Books

In a chronologically methodical and delightfully insightful approach that might best be described as “bio-tourism”, Australian author, journalist, and broadcaster Sparrow tells the story of preternaturally gifted Paul Robeson … [A]n excellent and perhaps timely reboot of Robeson’s singularly incredible life, especially as its trajectory now intersects with contemporary racial issues.
Library Journal

Written with an exhilarating combination of insight and passion … A necessary book. A social movement that calls itself “Black Lives Matter” exists because those lives are being treated as if they don’t. Sparrow knows that when he writes of the past, “If you believed in nothing, you’d fall for anything,” he is also writing about now.
Anna Funder, Author of Stasiland

With sensitive inquisition; fierce curiosity; razor-sharp observation; crisp, engaging prose; and a fondness and respect for his subject that fairly sings, Sparrow once again proves himself one of the finest nonfiction writers we have.
Maxine Beneba Clarke, Author of The Hate Race

Urgent and compelling ... A mix of essay, journalism, history and biography [that is] engaging, original and insightful ... Fascinating, instructive and full of astute observations on race and politics, No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson will appeal to readers passionate about social justice and the history of 20th-century political movements.
Books + Publishing

Jeff Sparrow's No Way But This is a major addition to what we know of, and how we may know, this 20th-century giant ... It’s impossible to do justice in a brief space to such a life of commitment – or to suggest just what a compelling narrative Sparrow has made of it. He has aptly brought this giant to the attention of later generations.
Sydney Morning Herald

Paul Robeson was truly a giant of a man, in physical stature, courage, intellect, and creative endeavour. With this intimate and engaging portrait, we are able to gain an invaluable insight into a major political and artistic talent of the twentieth century. Ours is a time requiring inspiration, affiliation, and solidarity. Paul Robeson surely provides the inspiration we desperately need.
Tony Birch, Author of Blood and Ghost River

An amazing story I didn’t even know I didn't know. Jeff pulls us through the grubby terrain of race, Jesus, prison, and fascism.
John Safran, Author of Murder in Mississippi

Part journalist, part historian, Jeff Sparrow writes with loving discernment about a remarkable man and the forces that shaped his unmistakable voice. [This is] a gripping story of courage and commitment, told by one of our finest chroniclers of the human capacity for tenderness amid the squalor. Sparrow takes us on a global journey, revealing that beyond an old man and a river, there lies a deep valley of hatred and hope, sadness and solidarity.
Claire Wright, Stella Prize-winning Author of The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka

Brilliantly told by Jeff Sparrow, Paul Robeson's story is compelling and important. No Way But This is a challenge to history and a reminder of what unites us.
Owen Jones, Guardian Columnist and Author of The Establishment

This is an inspiring biography of a really remarkable human being.
Johann Hari, Author of Chasing the Scream

Both moving and illuminating ... It is timely that in an era when there are more African-American men in jail or on parole in the United States than there were men in bondage at the height of slavery and when the Black Lives Matter movement is gathering momentum that there is a book to remind us about this astonishing individual and the political climate in which he used his popular voice to highlight systemic inequality.
Readings

A great book about a fascinating man. Read it and be inspired!
Srdja Popovic, Author of Blueprint for Revolution

An illuminating look at the life of a frankly remarkable man.
The AU Review,Five Books You Need to Read this Month

Remarkable ... It revives Robeson as a model of integrity and bravery – someone who, despite the precarity of his social position, risked his life and career for the ideas of workers’ rights, black liberation, anti-colonialism and international socialism. As Robeson’s story unfolds, the ghosts of past struggles unite with those who fight for political emancipation around the world today. By naming and connecting these diverse groups, Sparrow opens a space for a new public to be formed. Robeson, with his integrity, struggles and flaws, provides a powerful model for the kinds of political action we so desperately need.
Sydney Review of Books

Told sensitively and often movingly by a writer awake to the nuances of the political and social contexts in which Robeson moved, this is a story that reverberates today, full of tragedy but also exhilaration and promise. It is the story we need to hear.
Overland

Sparrow's lively portrait should restore a little of the fame the great man deserves.
Weekend Herald(Auckland)

Book of the week … [A] conscientious and often painful biography.
Daily Mail

Robeson’s character, art, principled politics and legacy of extraordinary courage all come vividly to life in No Way But This. There are many worthy books about the life of Paul Robeson, but this is one not to be missed.
Red Flag

A thoughtful, sensitive and respectful examination of the life and work of Paul Robeson ... More than the biography of one remarkable man, the book is a testament to Robeson’s conviction that despite it all, there was no way but to struggle for a better world.
Green Left Weekly

A splendid account of this fabulous figure ... This is an intriguing life, beautifully realised by a fine writer, and should be widely read and appreciated.
The Minder

The book gripped me. I read excerpts to The Spouse over breakfast; I neglected the ironing, forgot to water the vegetable patch ... Now that’s a book well worth reading!
ANZ LitLovers

An entertaining, informative and important book.
Kit de Waal, Author of My Name is Leon,

Sparrow has eloquently portrayed Robeson as a giant of a man who was prepared to kill off his career for his political beliefs. He emphasises that past struggles should inform today; we need not just inspiration to act but affiliation to organise and solidarity to withstand.
Morning Star Online

Absolutely wonderful.
Simon Callow

Sparrow’s account not only soars, it sings.
Sight and Sound

Jeff Sparrow is the latest biographer to tackle this riveting subject and he ably demonstrates how journalistic method can contribute to historical understanding.
TLS

Sparrow has made a worthy effort, joining other recent work, including Jordan Goodman’s Paul Robeson: A Watched Man, and Gerald Horne’s Paul Robeson: the Artist as Revolutionary. Each is worth reading.
Paul Buhle

[Kathryn Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding! Part biography, part travelogue, and for me personally, a mystery: how did such a great man fade into relative obscurity? Unfortunately, the answer is, very deliberately, and by people who sought to punish a man who refused to abandon his principles and his truth. In some ways, then, this book is an exhumation.

[Martin Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

15 October 2019
Martin Kerr

Paul Robeson was more than a hero

No Way But This
By Jeff Sparrow
Scribe, Melbourne, 2017, 291 pp

Paul Robeson sang to workers on the Sydney Opera House site in 1960. I remember this big black man in a beret, his deep resonant voice, his power of presentation. He had mana and he was banned in the 1950s from leaving the United States. Robeson died a psychological wreck in 1975 aged 77. It must have been a TV replay I had seen.
Jeff Sparrow recounts this man’s visit in Black Lives Matter terms with No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson (Scribe, Melbourne, 2017). He wants racism to be exposed for what it is, with the support of subtle observations by black, brown and white interviewees. We live in a democracy free of state sponsored racism. Bias develops in most people’s psych. But humans are human, all to be treated with respect. And there is plenty of empathy with the people Sparrow meets and interviews. The author describes racism, fascism and other isms as to render his book ideal for anxiety-riven year 11s and 12s to read.
Sparrow’s account of New York’s Harlem rings a few bells. I visited New York in 1981 and walked with my son David (then 11), who gifted me Sparrow’s book, all the way from the Twin Towers as far as W 98 Street, not quite as far as Harlem. Blacks sat in the back of the Greyhound bus all the way from Los Angeles. We white aliens sat up front for lack of seating choice. We watched drugs being exchanged or gifted, with much laughter and some singing. A black youth hassled me in a toilet. ‘Fuck off!’ Police took him off the bus at the next stop. No fuss. The driver had discreetly made his observations and our relieved, happy, amusing and friendly fellow passengers carried on.
Harry Brutnall spoke fondly of Harlem in his book, Brutnall’s Follies (2008) when he visited as a sailor on HMAS Perth in 1939. Duke Ellington introduced him to Ella Fitzgerald who offered to take him home. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man introduced me to a political Harlem, a place now gentrified and expensive in which to purchase or rent. In a later visit to New York I ran the circuit round Central Park. Few runners then, as walking had become the fad. I did, however, get into some respectful competition with a black fellow jogger. I played jazz on a hotel’s grand piano off Broadway to a couple of Japanese tourists and a possé of fashion buyers from California.
Jeff Sparrow of Melbourne is a writer-historian. He had sponsorship funds to travel the world to investigate Robeson’s background and career from United States to the United Kingdom, Europe, Russian Federation and Spain. The author’s account breathes history and its airbrushing.
Managing a sporting team in 1991, just prior to the Olympic Games in Barcelona, we toured the building of Europe’s first parliament but never to anything remotely referring to the bombing, battles, Anarchist-Communist rivalry and murders during the Spanish Civil War. The Catalans had other fish to fry.
Sparrow is to be congratulated on his effort to find evidence of American and African Americans’ contribution to the International brigades fighting for the Republic. George Orwell’s and Ernest Hemingway’s accounts sat less vaguely in my reading memory. While visiting the Russian Federation Sparrow observed some of the features of the USSR’s ‘successful’ communism morphing into Putin’s ‘dictatorship’ of the Federation. Robeson and his wife visited Moscow first in 1934 before Stalin’s pogrom of undesirables and would-be opposition. They educated their son in the same up-market school as Stalin’s two children before returning to America. Robeson’s popularity and efforts to support America and the USSR as its ally during the War are well documented.
It was in the United Kingdom that Robeson found his mojo, being heralded as an actor playing Othello with a white Desdemona, something that would never have happened in America. But rejected in love by an upper-crust English woman because of his race, his disappointment found ease in the miners of Wales and workers everywhere. Despite falling out with fellow black activists during the McCarthy era of the Cold War, he held true to his values till the end.
I’ll always remember Paul Robeson from that brief TV shot in Sydney. Jeff Sparrow tells a story of a slave’s son, whose brilliance, brittleness and brio are researched, exposed and analysed through a creative and interesting informant-centred travel log backed up by a useful list of reference material.

Martin Kerr’s New Guinea Patrol was first published in 1973. His cult memoir, short stories and seven novels are available on Kindle. martindkerr@gmail.com

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Robeson was a superstar and political activist whose career straddled the 20th century in its most turbulent years across continents. Sparrow puts the events of the star’s life into an historical context that is extended by his own contemporary ‘Robeson journey.’

I do understand that Sparrow has a style that involves his own responses and involvement at every stage and that it is his journey, too, but it still jarred for me. The facts could have been allowed to speak for themselves a bit more and I feel capable of formulating my own responses to the quotations from Paul, his contemporaries and Sparrow’s interviewees without guidelines being provided for me in the form of, in my view, extraneous adjectives and adverbs injected all along the way. Where his analysis did seem welcome and important, in the final chapter, I had to read it several times and even then thought there were some grand statements that weren’t actually saying much.

However the addition of context added to Paul’s story by Sparrow’s own journey was interesting and valuable - and Paul’s own story was, of course, totally remarkable. A good read for that alone.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more an exploration of what influenced Paul Robeson than a straight bio. Mr Sparrow visited many of the places that shaped Mr Robeson's life: NC, Princeton, NYC, London, Moscow, Rutgers. The author tries to understand the forces and oppresion that shaped a life and how the prejudice in the US was so much stronger than his experiences in Australia. My favourite talk at the Adelaide writers festival was the pairing of Mr Sparrow with Mr Frank - a great discussion. If you have an interest in the US Civil Rights movement and especially how laws were made in different eras to control the black population, from slavery, to Jim Crowe, to the War on Drugs- all designed to control and enslave a large portion the black population.

[Alex Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad - Robeson's history is fascinating, and I didn't know a lot of it, so was well worth reading to find out more. But I'd rather now read a more definitive biography, as this was something else - a very personal journey by the author to discover more about Paul Robeson. I like Sparrow's writing and have enjoyed his earlier books, but would probably have preferred to read a bio where the author's presence didn't overshadow the subject so much.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not strictly a biography, this book connects Robeson's politics with history and modern issues. It was fascinating to find out more about Robeson's non-Hollywood life, and to follow the author as he went to the places that Robeson went in his journey. If you just want Robeson's acting, singing, and Hollywood story, this isn't for you. But if you want to know what mattered to him and his impact, then read this book.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really accessibly written. Informative and interesting. No footnotes, but there are unnumbered endnotes.

[Bronwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if biography of Robeson or essay of author’s own thoughts and opinions with Robeson’s life as a backdrop.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff Sparrow’s biography of Paul Robeson is great reading, even if you have never heard of Paul Robeson. The blurb actually says that Robeson is one of the 20th century’s most accomplished but forgotten figures – but surely not? Could this voice really be forgotten?

But Paul Robeson, superstar of the early 20th century that he was, was not just an extraordinary bass singer. His father the Reverend William Drew Robeson had been a slave and he was ambitious for his son. He saw to it that Paul transcended the institutional racism all around him under the Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation in America until 1965. Paul became the third ever African-American student at Rutgers University, and he graduated with both academic and sporting distinction. He then went on to enrol at Columbia university, supporting himself with football coaching and – with the encouragement of the girl he married, ‘Essie’ Goode – also with an emerging career as a performer.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/03/07/n...

[Peter Burdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book and brings to life the continued relevance of Robeson as a model for integrity and action.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This meditation on Paul Robeson, and the societies that shaped him, is an engrossing, gentle and thought-provoking read, which ends up revealing almost as much about Sparrow as Robeson. Sparrow is of the modern, journalistic group of biographers, who feel no compunction about being present in the narrative. Through his own journeys - pilgrimages - to sites of significance to Robeson, Sparrow muses on the significance of these worlds in shaping Robeson, and on how much of this remains relevant today.
I came to this book with an easy familiarity with Robeson's life and work. His ravine-deep voice played in our household (with my father's light tenor weaving distractingly over Robeson's bass), my grandfather deeply admired him, and as I got involved in politics, Robeson's praises were sung alongside his tunes. I also came to book as an admirer of Sparrow's work on Overland, Australia's preeminent left-wing literary journal, which under Sparrow's leadership survived a decade or two few literary publications did. Like any Australian who has heard of Robeson, I'd seen the clips of him singing to the construction workers building the Sydney Opera House, and a magnificent still of that moment dominated the bar of my regular for several years.
Given that, I can't say the biography taught me a great deal more about Robeson. It filled in some gaps - but Sparrow's intent here is to explore rather than uncover. By grounding the book firmly in times and places, he opens up the world that Paul lived in, and seeks to get the reader to see this through his eyes - where he is sometimes Paul, sometimes Jeff.
This is not, I must confess my favourite literary style. Sparrow gets away with it in part because he really does have the knack of a nicely turned phrase, and in part because he is such a gentle and mild tour guide, an interesting presence that eschews any cutsey interjections in favour of a more serious tone.
For the first half of the book, the approach works very well. It allows, for example, a meaningful exploration of the impact of Robeson senior - and his family's - enslavement upon his son. That Sparrow is able to dig up records of what likely happened to Robeson's grandmother, left in a will to a different sibling than that which had her son, is a testament to how poorly this had previously been considered. In speaking to the Welsh Robeson supporters, Sparrow brings the reader into a world impacted and inspired by Robeson, again developing an understanding of the impact beyond any dry account. Robeson remains somewhat obscured from the audience, with a minimistic approach to his personal life or writings. I did itch at times for some more voice or invocation of this musical giant, but Sparrow's approach also avoided that false sense of intimacy that some biographies invoke, usually to the detriment of someone in their tale.
However, in the second half of the book, it starts to unravel slightly. Partly this is structural, Robeson took many trips to Russia over a very long period, and the interspersing of accounts of Robeson's various life events over 30 years with Sparrow's sojourn in the cold starts to jar rather than enhance. It is also perhaps because Sparrow's investment in understanding how Robeson could continue to support the Soviet Union, even once he understood the totalitarianism and crimes, is so deep.
I can understand Sparrow's fascination. Much of Australia's literary heritage (including Overland) is indebted to intellectuals who forged their politics in the Spanish Civil War, and supported the Soviet Union up to the Khrushchev revelations, and all too often beyond. It is hard for any Australian left-wing Gen Xer to understand, or know how to respond to, such heroic people's unwavering support for a society underpinned by a police state. In exploring Robeson's loyalty, Sparrow goes a long way towards understanding that question, and the coda is some of the best writing in the book. I couldn't help chafing a little, however, that Robeson's story here was not discussed as part of a broader one; and that this question begins to overshadow other aspects of Robeson's life, including his awkward engagement with the Civil Rights movement. Sparrow toys with implying that Robeson's suicide attempt, and subsequent mental health degeneration, was the result of the intensity of his disillusionment. I have a mild bug bear about historians speculating without much contextualising of mental health, but it stayed on the non-irritating side.
However, I really enjoyed this, and Robeson's gorgeous voice has been blasting in the house for the last couple of days. I would strongly recommend it to those less familiar with Robeson. Sparrow has that ability to summon visuals in an easy journalistic way, and the book flows like a quick rewad in the best way. More importantly, his exploration of an artist who prioritised equality and economic justice over his own career is a timely approach to how an arts community behaves when it's values are at odds with the government it is often dependent on.