A world-famous singer and actor, a trained lawyer, an early star of American professional football and a polyglot who spoke over a dozen languages. These could be the crowning achievements of a life well-lived, yet for Paul Robeson the higher calling of social justice led him to abandon both the NFL and Hollywood and become one of the most important political activists of his generation – battling both Jim Crow and Joseph Mc Carthy.
Gerald Horne’s biography uses Robeson’s remarkable and revolutionary life to tell the story of the 20th century’s great political struggles: against racism, against colonialism, and for international socialism. This critical and searching account provides an opportunity for readers to comprehend the triumphs and tragedies of the revolutionary progressive movement of which Robeson was not just a part, but, perhaps, its most resonant symbol.
Table of Content
1. ‘The Best Known American in the World’
2. Rising Star
3. Rising Revolutionary
4. From Moscow to Madrid
5. ‘The Tallest Tree in Our Forest’
6. ‘Black Stalin’?
7. Robeson: Primary Victim of the ‘Blacklist’
8. Britain Beckons
9. Triumph—and Tragedy
10. Death of a Revolutionary
Notes
Index
About the author
Gerald Horne is a long-time activist in anti-racist and working-class struggles, whose writing plays an important role in bringing to the fore important dimensions of struggles for freedom along the intersections of class, gender and race. He has published over 30 books, including The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the USA and Black Revolutionary: William Patterson and the Globalization of the African American Freedom Struggle. He was given the Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement award in 2023.
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