Keeping Faith

"Keeping Faith" is a powerful collection of essays on politics and philosophy, the role of the black intellectual, legal theory and the fate of African Americans. In "Keeping Faith", Cornel West provides a blend of thorough-going critique and animated political engagement. He situates the current position of African-Americans by tracing the genealogy of the "African-American rebellion" through the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr's ability to suture together the most progressive forces in the black southern community, to the rise of black revolutionary leftists in response to the unanswered needs of the black underclass. In his discussion, West explicates both the opportunities and limitations of liberalism and nationalism, and goes on to suggest new strategies to galvanize and propel a new generation of African-Americans. This book maps not only the concerns of one of the most significant public intellectuals of the day, but issues which are crucial and immediate to intellectuals and lay people of all races.

"Indeed, readers who find Race Matters provocative but thin, a tasty but unfilling appetizer, will find KeepingFaith to be a much more satisfying main course." -- Harvard Review "West brings an acute intelligence, wide reading, and training in philosophy and theology to bear on the irrationalities in all political camps...The left, the black movement and all others would profit by a careful reading of Keeping Faith." -- Boston Globe"Well-informed and provocative, aware both of the power and the dangers of cultural criticism. An important book." -- Library Journal"This book provides uncommon insight into what West calls `prophetic criticism'--critical analysis that inspires as well as condemns." -- Los Angeles Times

Cornel West is Professor of Afro-American Studies and Religion at Harvard University. He lectures widely and appears frequently on television, including Conversationswith Bill Moyers.