Black Nationalism in American Politics and Thought.

Black Nationalism in American Politics and Thought. By Dean E. Robinson. (Cambridge and other cities: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. x, 171. Paper, $18.00, ISBN 0-521-62627-7; cloth, $50.00, ISBN 0-521-62326-X.)

Black Nationalism in American Politics and Thought examines the growth and development of black nationalism from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Political scientist Dean E. Robinson argues that black nationalist ideologies have emerged as a response to particular historical stimuli, like segregation, rather than from a deeply embedded political tradition.

To this end Robinson partitions black nationalism into two broad historical categories: classical black nationalism and modern black nationalism. Robinson argues that classical black nationalism, operating in the period between 1865 and 1925, often adopted Westernized views of race and progress in its quest to create a nation on par with those of Europe and North America. By contrast, Robinson associates modern black nationalism with the black freedom struggle of the 1960s, when proponents of black nationalism largely cast off Eurocentric paradigms in favor of more African-centered models of nation-building and change.

Robinson's central critique of black nationalism focuses on what he identifies as the propensity of its advocates to adopt strategies and programs that perpetuate black inequality. He points, for instance, to the inclination of black nationalists to encourage racial separation as an example of one way the ideology has fed the white supremacy it is meant to challenge.

Despite Robinson's attempt to classify black nationalist movements utilizing this method, the book falls short in certain key areas of scholarship. First, scholars still know very little about how Black Power and black nationalism functioned at the local level. The emphasis on national organizations is problematic, since one of Black Power's chief selling points was its free-flowing organizational style that allowed for a great deal of local autonomy.

Second, notwithstanding Robinson's efforts to synthesize the current literature on the period, he overlooks a number of important recent studies that could have served his book. In the end, Robinson's failure to address this literature seriously compromises the book's value. In light of the explosion of scholarship on black nationalism and Black Power at the local level, the synthesis that Robinson attempts here is premature. Many of his conclusions seem fed by the desire to classify black nationalism into broad categories that hardly do justice to the varied forms the ideology has taken over time. Black Power and black nationalism are far more complicated in practice than in theory and deserve detailed scholarly attention.

Despite its shortcomings, the book does offer some insight into the evolution of black nationalist thought and makes a solid contribution to the field in terms of its coverage of organizations, such as the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement, that are rarely discussed.

Delaware State University 

YOHURU WILLIAMS