James Baldwin and the 1980s : Witnessing the Reagan Era

Few literary figures are as commonly referenced in contemporary culture as James Baldwin. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, the election of Donald Trump, and daily debates about walls, borders, and bans, Baldwin’s righteous indignation and prophetic warnings speak to the urgent mood of the present. His words appear on signs at rallies, in speeches, and on social media sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook; he has been the subject of countless features in major magazines, as well as the inspiration for a new academic journal (the __James Baldwin Review__) and an Oscar-nominated documentary (__I Am Not Your Negro__). This Baldwin renaissance, however, follows decades of dismissals and neglect, particularly of his late career. __James Baldwin and the 1980s: Witnessing the Reagan Era__ zeroes in on his final decade, revealing a still-razor-sharp, provocative writer who, with the benefit of hindsight, holds up as one of the most prescient observers of the post-civil rights landscape. Indeed, contrary to the conventional narrative of his decline, Baldwin’s work in the 1980s proves remarkably engaged with the cultural milieu of a new generation, commenting on everything from the culture wars to the deterioration of inner cities, from the Reagan Revolution to the religious Right, from gender-bending in pop culture to the AIDS crisis. A groundbreaking new assessment of Baldwin in the context of the media-saturated Reagan era, __James Baldwin and the 1980s__ offers the first in-depth study of the author’s final decade -- and shows why his work from this period is so relevant to the world we live in today. By the 1980s, critics and the public alike considered James Baldwin irrelevant. Yet Baldwin remained an important, prolific writer until his death in 1987. Indeed, his work throughout the decade pushed him into new areas, in particular an expanded interest in the social and psychological consequences of popular culture and mass media. Joseph Vogel offers the first in-depth look at Baldwin's dynamic final decade of work. Delving into the writer's creative endeavors, crucial essays and articles, and the impassioned polemic The Evidence of Things Not Seen , Vogel finds Baldwin as prescient and fearless as ever. Baldwin's sustained grappling with "the great transforming energy" of mass culture revealed his gifts for media and cultural criticism. It also brought him into the fray on issues ranging from the Reagan-era culture wars to the New South, from the deterioration of inner cities to the disproportionate incarceration of black youth, and from pop culture gender-bending to the evolving women's and gay rights movements. Astute and compelling, James Baldwin and the 1980s revives and redeems the final act of a great American writer. | Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Price of the Beat: Black Popular Music and the Crossover Dream 2. Freaks in the Reagan Era: Androgyny and the American Ideal of Manhood 3. The Welcome Table: Intimacy, AIDS, and Love 4. "To Crush the Serpent": The Religious Right and the Moral Minority 5. Things Not Seen: Covering Tragedy, from the Terror in Atlanta to Black Lives Matter Epilogue Chronological Bibliography Notes Bibliography Index |"Among the most valuable contributions of Vogel's book is an entire chapter devoted to Baldwin's as yet unpublished play, The Welcome Table . . . . Vogel's adept interpretation of the play . . . is among the strongest works on late Baldwin now in print." — Journal of American History "Vogel help[s] us to 'catch up' to Baldwin by freeing us from previous misconceptions of the important work he did in his late career." — African American Review "Clearly and concisely written with a snap in his prose. No one has focused on this era and its unique importance in the way Joseph Vogel has done."—Ed Pavlic, author of Who Can Afford to Improvise? James Baldwin and Black Music, the Lyric and the Listeners | Joseph Vogel is an assistant professor of English at Merrimack College. He is the author of Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson . By the 1980s, critics and the public alike considered James Baldwin irrelevant. Yet Baldwin remained an important, prolific writer until his death in 1987. Indeed, his work throughout the decade pushed him into new areas, in particular an expanded interest in the social and psychological consequences of popular culture and mass media. Joseph Vogel offers the first in-depth look at Baldwin's dynamic final decade of work. Delving into the writer's creative endeavours, crucial essays and articles, and the impassioned polemic 'The Evidence of Things Not Seen, ' Vogel finds Baldwin as prescient and fearless as ever. Baldwin's sustained grappling with 'the great transforming energy' of mass culture revealed his gifts for media and cultural criticism