The Struggle for Freedom: A History of African Americans, Combined Volume, Concise Edition

by Clayborne Carson, Gary B. Nash, Emma J. Lapsansky-Werner

The Struggle for Freedom, a narrative of the black experience in America, uses a distinctive biographical approach to guide the story and animate the history. In each chapter, individual African Americans are the pivot points on which historical changes of the era turn. Life stories capture the rush of events that envelop individuals and illuminate the momentous decisions that, collectively, frame the American past and present. Inasmuch as that history is grounded in struggle–in the consistent and insistent call to the United States to deliver on the constitutional promises made to all its citizens–this book is also an American history text, weaving into the narrative the milestones of mainstream American history, economy, politics, arts and letters.

640 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 2006

About the author

Clayborne Carson is professor of history at Stanford University, and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. Since 1985 he has directed the Martin Luther King Papers Project, a long-term project to edit and publish the papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reviews

[Jacob Stroman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good overall. The reading was extremely slow as most textbooks are, but it was very informative. It was long but at the same time some of what I read I wish was expanded upon as the explanations for some things felt too short.

[Ilantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This textbook has lots of good information packed into it. They're not kidding when they call this book the "concise edition." While it's kind of cool that they can squeeze so much into so little page space, it brings the pace of the reading to a crawl. Each sentence is valuable; it's not good skimming material. Between the density of information and the general dryness of the book, it's not my favorite thing to read. But I have learned a lot about African-American history.

I think that the political standpoint the book is written from is generally good. It presents itself as fairly neutral, but doesn't hesitate to criticize most of the things that I, as a radical, would be critical of. However, the book is anti-American Indian. Not only does it not mention American Indians often enough, most of the writing it does include about Native folks is negative. That sucks!