The Fire Is upon Us
James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America
-
-
4.5 • 8 Ratings
-
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
"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.
Customer Reviews
The Endless Struggle
“The Fire Is Upon Us” is a wonderfully written and academically rigorous achievement. It is so rewarding and gripping from the first page to the last. I found it hard to put down and left desperate for when it ended. Why was it so compelling, because it uses two iconoclasts as the mouthpiece for the oldest debate regarding America.
The detailed historical build up to the debate creates a balanced account of the ideologies on both sides. Yet in being clear and factual, Nicholas Buccola still arrives at the unavoidable truth. That even the most eloquent of conservative mouthpieces are crippled by the moral and rational shortcomings of the core fault in their arguments. Specifically, how conservative politics never seeks to address root issues but instead maintain power.
The portraits Buccola outlines between the two men is as much about the differences they had as it is about what they had in common. These two sons of America began at wildly divergent starting points. Their journeys overlapping and orbiting one another like atomic particles bound for collision. And what an impact when they do meet. The highlight that is the debate is vividly retold in language that puts you right into the auditorium and has you pumping fists or cringing.
It’s the characterization of the debate that night and what followed that gets you truly hooked in. One part of you wishing for political discourse of our time should be as deep and engaging as the battle between Buckley and Baldwin. Instead we have Faux News and Twitterati. The other side of you seeing that the debate is a jarring reflection on the political climate of today, perhaps more civil. Yet, the inability for two of the most prominent minds on the racial divide to see eye-to-eye makes you wonder if we collectively ever will.