The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate Over Race in America (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780691181547)

"A great read."--Whoopi Goldberg, The View

How the clash between the civil rights firebrand and the father of modern conservatism continues to illuminate America's racial divide

On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to witness a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America's most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was "the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro," and no one who has seen the debate can soon forget it. Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is upon Us is the first book to tell the full story of the event, the radically different paths that led Baldwin and Buckley to it, the controversies that followed, and how the debate and the decades-long clash between the men continues to illuminate America's racial divide today.

Born in New York City only fifteen months apart, the Harlem-raised Baldwin and the privileged Buckley could not have been more different, but they both rose to the height of American intellectual life during the civil rights movement. By the time they met in Cambridge, Buckley was determined to sound the alarm about a man he considered an "eloquent menace." For his part, Baldwin viewed Buckley as a deluded reactionary whose popularity revealed the sickness of the American soul. The stage was set for an epic confrontation that pitted Baldwin's call for a moral revolution in race relations against Buckley's unabashed elitism and implicit commitment to white supremacy.

A remarkable story of race and the American dream, The Fire Is upon Us reveals the deep roots and lasting legacy of a conflict that continues to haunt our politics.

Author: Nicholas Buccola
ISBN-10: 0691181543
ISBN-13: 9780691181547
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2019
Pages: 496
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.15lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.30w x 1.60d

Review Citation(s):
Foreword 06/26/2019
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2019
Choice 09/01/2020