{"product_id":"9781590171356","title":"The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual","description":"\u003cp\u003ePublished in 1967, as the early triumphs of the Civil Rights movement yielded to  increasing frustration and violence, \u003ci\u003eThe Crisis of the Negro Intellectual \u003c\/i\u003eelectrified  a generation of activists and intellectuals. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe product of a lifetime of struggle  and reflection, Cruse's book is a singular amalgam of cultural history, passionate  disputation, and deeply considered analysis of the relationship between American  blacks and American society.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Reviewing black intellectual life from the Harlem Renaissance  through the 1960s, Cruse discusses the legacy (and offers memorably acid-edged portraits)  of figures such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry, and James Baldwin, arguing that  their work was marked by a failure to understand the specifically American character  of racism in the United States. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis supplies the background to Cruse's controversial  critique of both integrationism and black nationalism and to his claim that black  Americans will only assume a just place within American life when they develop their  own distinctive centers of cultural and economic influence. For Cruse's most important  accomplishment may well be his rejection of the clichés of the melting pot in favor  of a vision of Americanness as an arena of necessary and vital contention, an open  and ongoing struggle.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harold Cruse","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback Trade paperback (US)","offer_id":48035652993236,"sku":"9781590171356","price":36.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1000\/9208\/files\/BNCImageAPI_bf8750dc-2f77-4270-b29b-45e1762818ac.jpg?v=1780366607","url":"https:\/\/penguinshop.ca\/products\/9781590171356","provider":"Penguin Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}