by Adam Shatz
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024
[Publication date: January 23, 2024]
Named a most anticipated book of 2024 by Foreign Policy | Lit Hub | The Millions
"Nimble and engrossing. . . [An] exemplary work of public intellectualism." ―Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post
A revelatory biography of the writer-activist who inspired today’s movements for social and racial justice
In the era of Black Lives Matter, Frantz Fanon’s shadow looms larger than ever. He was the intellectual activist of the postcolonial era, and his writings about race, revolution, and the psychology of power continue to shape radical movements across the world. In this searching biography, Adam Shatz tells the story of Fanon’s stunning journey, which has all the twists of a Cold War-era thriller. Fanon left his modest home in Martinique to fight in the French Army during World War II; when the war was over, he fell under the influence of Existentialism while studying medicine in Lyon and trying to make sense of his experiences as a Black man in a white city. Fanon went on to practice a novel psychiatry of “dis-alienation” in rural France and Algeria, and then join the Algerian independence struggle, where he became a spokesman, diplomat, and clandestine strategist. He died in 1961, while under the care of the CIA in a Maryland hospital. Today, Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth have become canonical texts of the Black and global radical imagination, comparable to James Baldwin’s essays in their influence. And yet they are little understood. In The Rebel’s Clinic, Shatz offers a dramatic reconstruction of Fanon’s extraordinary life―and a guide to the books that underlie today’s most vital efforts to challenge white supremacy and racial capitalism.
Includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs
REVIEWS:
"[A] nimble and engrossing new book . . . As Shatz shows in this exemplary work of public intellectualism, in which he does not sugarcoat or simplify, [Fanon] was every bit as much a victim of empire as the patients he worked to heal." ―Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post
"Absorbing . . . Shatz [. . .] is a mostly steady hand in turbulent waters. His chosen title highlights a side of Fanon that often gets eclipsed by the larger-than-life image of the zealous partisan ― that of the caring doctor . . . What gives “The Rebel’s Clinic” its intellectual heft is Shatz’s willingness to write into such tensions." ―Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review
“Excellent and thought-provoking . . . All too timely . . . The Rebel’s Clinic should be read by anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the intellectual origins of today’s ‘decolonial left,’ whether they sympathize with it or not.” ―Adam Kirsch, Air Mail
"[An] insightful biography . . . Shatz is a sober and informed guide [to Fanon]. He is an erudite writer, [and] his frequent detours into the intellectual currents that surrounded Fanon―from existentialism and the francophone black consciousness movement Négritude to Algerians’ varying attitudes to FLN tactics―are useful." ―Daniel Trilling, Financial Times
"[A] perceptive biography . . . Elucidating the ideas and figures that animated Fanon’s thinking, [. . .] the nuanced narrative skillfully illuminates how the disparate threads of Fanon’s life fit together . . . Shatz also provides discerning commentary on Fanon’s two masterworks . . . A striking appraisal of a towering thinker." ―Publishers Weekly
"[A] thoroughly researched biography . . . The Rebel’s Clinic is a deep meditation on the transformative power and influence of one radical philosophical writer on the continuing fight for justice on many fronts." ―Booklist (starred review)
"The Rebel's Clinic is a diligent, scrupulous, serious book. Adam Shatz keeps Fanon alive as one of us―a human being―not simply the larger-than-life subject of an academic study. This book offers a careful reconstruction of Fanon's times, especially the war in Algeria, and resonates at a moment when we are tragically no closer to solving the problems Fanon dedicated his life and writing to understanding." ―John Edgar Wideman, author of Fanon and Look for Me and I'll Be Gone
"Frantz Fanon has found his Isaac Deutscher in Adam Shatz. Politically and psychologically suave, The Rebel’s Clinic is as illuminating on the tragic pattern of Fanon’s private life as on the tumultuous continents through which he moved. It is also continuously insightful about Fanon's tormentingly complicated intellectual bequest on the crucial subjects of race and empire." ―Pankaj Mishra, author of Run and Hide and From the Ruins of Empire
"Adam Shatz offers a richly detailed account of the life and thought of Frantz Fanon. It is at once an intimate and unsparing portrait of the complexities of Fanon’s life as psychiatrist and militant political activist, and a vivid depiction of the anti-colonial struggles in which he engaged. We get a close look at internal conflicts among revolutionaries, as Fanon makes his way from Martinique to Algeria to sub-Saharan Africa. Shatz’s masterful command of the history of that moment of promise in the early 1960s is compelling, indeed gripping reading. This is a book that gives deep insight not only into the life and times of Fanon, but also into the ways in which the history he lived was made." ―Joan W. Scott, professor emerita at the Institute for Advanced Study
"The Rebel's Clinic is a triumph, a sweeping work of intellectual history that is also an intimate biography of a remarkable thinker and historical figure. It is beautifully written, deftly constructed, rigorous and illuminating. This is a book that will last and be read for many years." ―Eyal Press, author of Dirty Work
"The Rebel’s Clinic is a fabulous book. Frantz Fanon’s life as portrayed by Adam Shatz is a breathtaking love and jealousy ridden encounter with philosophy, politics, and literature, taking place in the last days of European empires." ―Ivan Krastev, author of Is It Tomorrow Yet? and co-author of The Light that Failed
"Adam Shatz has captured Fanon's evolution as a thinker by linking this proud, fastidious man's interiority to a complex network of contexts: family, war, art, psychiatry, existentialism, black America, left-wing Catholicism and, most of all, African poetics. The result is the most subtle, comprehensive and lucid study yet to appear in English.Shatz has the gift of explanation without simplification." ―Declan Kiberd, author of Inventing Ireland
"More than a biography, Adam Shatz’s The Rebel’s Clinic is a rich and textured portrait of the intellectual and political worlds that shaped Frantz Fanon’s life, ideas, and legacies. Readers who know Fanon’s work intimately as well as those just discovering this iconic figure of Third World revolution will learn from this book." ―Adom Getachew, author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination
"Adam Shatz sweeps us up in Frantz Fanon's life-as-road movie, with a cast of characters and an array of settings that come alive on the page, from Sartre and Beauvoir in Copacabana to Patrice Lumumba in the suburbs of Léopoldville. At the same time, with his unequaled mastery of geopolitics and world-spanning ideas, he has given us an intellectual history of a century of revolutionary aspirations. The Rebel's Clinic is a what is to be done for our times." ―Alice Kaplan, author of The Collaborator and Looking for The Stranger
"The Rebel's Clinic is a fascinating and enlightening read, one that will speak to many and that will help correct misconceptions about Fanon. This book not only provides a full picture of its subject; it also inspires the reader to apply Fanon's insights to situations that transcend his life and times. Adam Shatz has written an important book that speaks to our troubled and confusing moment." ―Raja Shehadeh, Orwell Prize–winning author of We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Adam Shatz is the US editor of the London Review of Books and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and other publications. He is the author of Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination and the host of the podcast Myself with Others. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises, Vol. 1
by Angela Davis
Haymarket Books, 2024
[Publication date: January 30, 2024]
A major collection of essays and speeches from pioneering freedom fighter Angela Y. Davis
For
over fifty years, Angela Y. Davis has been at the forefront of
collective movements for abolition and feminism and the fight against
state violence and oppression. Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises,
the first of two important new volumes, brings together an essential
collection of Davis’s writing over the years, showing how her thinking
has sharpened and evolved even as she has remained uncompromising in her
commitment to collective liberation. In pieces that address the history
of abolitionist practice and thought in the United States and globally,
the unique contributions of women to abolitionist struggles, and
stories and lessons of organizing inside and beyond the prison walls,
Davis is always curious, always incisive, and always learning.
Rich and rewarding, Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises
will appeal to fans of Davis, to students and scholars reflecting on
her life and work, and to readers new to feminism, abolition, and
struggles for liberation.
REVIEWS:
“In
a brilliantly observant, profoundly knowledgeable, and unfailingly
original text, the author’s passion and eloquence render even the driest
facts fascinating… even the staunchest Davis devotees are likely to
discover new material and new ways to reimagine a more just world. A
must-read essay collection for anyone invested in racial equity.”
—Kirkus (Starred Review)
“An activist. An author. A scholar. An abolitionist. A legend.”
—Ibram X. Kendi
“Before
the world knew what intersectionality was, the scholar, writer and
activist was living it, arguing not just for Black liberation, but for
the rights of women and queer and transgender people as well.”
—New York Times
“As
an iconic educator, scholar, and leader in the civil rights movement,
Angela Davis is an obligatory add to your list of must-read black
authors.”
—O Magazine
On Angela Davis: An Autobiography
“Riveting;
as fresh and relevant today as it was almost 50 years ago. The words
fire off the page with humour, anger and eloquence.”
—The Guardian
“Angela Davis: An Autobiography
continues to fulfill that goal as the rare book that even almost 50
years later feels timely and relevant. Maybe too relevant, considering
how little has changed in the interim.”
—Los Angeles Times
“This
new edition of the autobiography is meant to bring Davis and her story
to a new generation of readers, who can still identify with her
experiences. Still a key work in the areas of prison abolition and
feminism, this reissue of a classic autobiography deserves a place of
honor in any collection.”
—Library Journal
On Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
"This
is vintage Angela: insightful, curious, observant, and brilliant,
asking and answering questions about events in this new century that
look surprisingly similar to the last century." —Mumia Abu-Jamal
"Angela
Davis once again offers us an incisive, urgent, and comprehensive
understanding of systematic racism, the grounds for intersectional
analysis and solidarity, and the importance of working together as
equals to unmask and depose systems of injustice…. Angela Davis gathers
in her lucid words our luminous history and the most promising future of
freedom."
—Judith Butler
"She has eyes in the back of our head. With her we can survive and resist."
—John Berger
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Angela Y. Davis is Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz. An activist, writer, and lecturer, her work focuses on prisons, police, abolition, and the related intersections of race, gender, and class. She is the author of many books, from Angela Davis: An Autobiography to Freedom Is a Constant Struggle.
Adrienne Kennedy: Collected Plays & Other Writings
by Adrienne Kennedy
Library of America, 2023
[Publication date: September 12, 2023]
Edited by Marc Robinson
