What would James Baldwin have to say about the Trump presidency? What would he make of the spread of  white nationalism  in a country that professes to be a beacon of freedom and tolerance? In his new book, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. analyzes contemporary events through the lens of Baldwin’s writing to find wisdom for the path we carve in the future.

Join us as we host New York Times Best Selling author and frequent national TV news contributor Professor Eddie Glaude and MahoganyBooks Co-owner, Derrick A. Young as they discuss Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lessons for Our Own.

Begin Again is one of the great books on James Baldwin and a powerful reckoning with America’s ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race. Just as in Baldwin’s “after times,” argues Eddie S. Glaude Jr., when white Americans met the civil rights movement’s call for truth and justice with blind rage and the murders of movement leaders, so in our moment were the Obama presidency and the birth of Black Lives Matter answered with the ascendance of Trump and the violent resurgence of white nationalism.

In these brilliant and stirring pages, Glaude finds hope and guidance in Baldwin as he mixes biography—drawn partially from newly uncovered Baldwin interviews—with history, memoir, and poignant analysis of our current moment to reveal the painful cycle of Black resistance and white retrenchment. As Glaude bears witness to the difficult truth of racism’s continued grip on the national soul, Begin Again is a searing exploration of the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America.

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is an intellectual who speaks to the complex dynamics of the American experience.  His most well-known books, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, and In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, take a wide look at black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States, and the challenges our democracy face.  He is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies, a program he first became involved with shaping as a doctoral candidate in Religion at Princeton. He is the former president of the American Academy of Religion. His books on religion and philosophy include An Uncommon Faith: A Pragmatic Approach to the Study of African American Religion, African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction and Exodus! Religion, Race and Nation in Early 19th Century Black America, which was awarded the Modern Language Association’s William Sanders Scarborough Book Prize.

Known to be a convener of conversations and debates, Glaude takes care to engage fellow citizens of all ages and backgrounds.

About MahoganyBooks:  Derrick and Ramunda Young are owners/founders of the award-winning MahoganyBooks in Washington, DC where they focus on books for, by and about people of the African Diaspora. The couple have been featured in Oprah Magazine, TIME Magazine, Essence, Washington Post, Steve Harvey TV and Wall Street Journal among others.  Learn more at mahoganybooks.com.

Eddie Glaude Discusses Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America And Its Urgent Lessons For Our Own