About the authors of this book, quoting from the book's dust jacket, "Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. A current professor at Union Theological Seminary, he has also taught at Yale, Harvard and Princeton. The recipient of more than twenty honorary degrees, he has written many important books. . . Christa Buschendorf is a professor and the chair of American Studies at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main., She has published on the transatlantic history of ideas and on African America literature.
About the book, quoting from the book's dust jacket: "In an accessible, conversational format, Cornel West, with distinguish scholar Chr5ista Buschendorf, provides a fresh perspective on six revolutionary African American leaders: Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, Ida B. Wells-Barnett. In dialogue with Buschendorf, West examines the impact of these men and women on their own eras and across the decades. He not only rediscovers the integrity and commitment within these passionate advocates but also their fault lines."

In an accessible, conversational format, Cornel West, with distinguished scholar Christa Buschendorf, provides a fresh perspective on six revolutionary African American leaders: Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida B. Wells. In dialogue with Buschendorf, West examines the impact of these men and women on their own eras and across the decades. He not only rediscovers the integrity and commitment within these passionate advocates but also their fault lines.

Excellent read. Fascinating conversation about several amazing Black prophets. So much history that's hard to find elsewhere. ( )

Man, this was a fantastic read!

I've been meaning to read more Cornel West, so when I found this browsing through the library, I immediately grabbed it. And I'm so glad I did, because it's a brilliant look at several outstanding figures of the Black prophetic tradition through a series of conversations between West and Christa Buschendorf.

These conversations, held over the past few years, cover Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr, Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida B. Wells. Wells and Baker were new names to me, which probably says something vital about the patriarchal approach to history we are presented with (and which is one of the points West and Buschendorf make throughout their conversations).

This book is an honest, frank look at the Black prophetic tradition, both in the day of those discussed and in the present. West has a keen mind and a strong system of belief, and he doesn't let anything interfere with the truth that he feels needs to be shared with the world. ( )

From Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Prophetic-Fire-Cornel-West/dp/0807018104/ref=sr_1_1?...

In an accessible, conversational format, Cornel West, with distinguished scholar Christa Buschendorf, provides a fresh perspective on six revolutionary African American leaders: Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida B. Wells. In dialogue with Buschendorf, West examines the impact of these men and women on their own eras and across the decades. He not only rediscovers the integrity and commitment within these passionate advocates but also their fault lines.

West, in these illuminating conversations with the German scholar and thinker Christa Buschendorf, describes Douglass as a complex man who is both “the towering Black freedom fighter of the nineteenth century” and a product of his time who lost sight of the fight for civil rights after the emancipation. He calls Du Bois “undeniably the most important Black intellectual of the twentieth century” and explores the more radical aspects of his thinking in order to understand his uncompromising critique of the United States, which has been omitted from the American collective memory. West argues that our selective memory has sanitized and even “Santaclausified” Martin Luther King Jr., rendering him less radical, and has marginalized Ella Baker, who embodies the grassroots organizing of the civil rights movement. The controversial Malcolm X, who is often seen as a proponent of reverse racism, hatred, and violence, has been demonized in a false opposition with King, while the appeal of his rhetoric and sincerity to students has been sidelined. Ida B. Wells, West argues, shares Malcolm X’s radical spirit and fearless speech, but has “often become the victim of public amnesia.”

By providing new insights that humanize all of these well-known figures, in the engrossing dialogue with Buschendorf, and in his insightful introduction and powerful closing essay, Cornel West takes an important step in rekindling the Black prophetic fire so essential in the age of Obama.