No Way But This: in search of Paul Robeson

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Description

Film star. Singer. Athlete. Icon. Agitator. Martyr.

Paul Robeson was once a brilliant student and champion athlete who abandoned a career in law to find all over the world fame as a performer and activist. He was once undoubtedly the most famous African American of his time, perhaps, in the words of both Time magazine and W.E.B Dubois, “the most productive known American on this planet.”

The son of a former slave, Robeson’s life took him to Hollywood via the Harlem Renaissance and London’s West End. Even as he stunned audiences with his performances of “Ol’ Man River” and Othello, he also championed social justice all over the world, travelling from the coal-mining towns of Wales, to the frontiers of the Spanish Civil War, and to the Soviet Union.

Yet his hunger for justice was once too keen for his times. “I am a radical,” he said, “and I am going to stay one until my people get free to walk the earth.” He confronted Harry S. Truman one-on-one in the White House; filed a petition with the U.N. accusing the usof genocide towards African Americans; and his stratospheric rise would reach its end in the courtroom of the McCarthy hearings. Today, Robeson is in large part unknown, his legacy obscured by the forces of history that destroyed him.

Jeff Sparrow traces Robeson’s career, showing how his remarkable life tells the story of the twentieth century and illuminates today’s reality. From Black Lives Matter to Putin’s United Russia, Sparrow explores questions of race in The united states, political freedom in Moscow, and the legacy of communism in Europe. Part travelogue, part biography, this is a story of political ardor, heritage, and trauma―a luminous portrait of a man and an urgent reflection on the politics that define us now.

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