Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937-1957

Rating:
Summary: Limited research, low analysis of Blacks and foreign policy.
Review: Useful because the subject is so little covered, this survey of the role of Afro-Americans in US foreign policy from the '30s through '50s, is limited by its narrow research focus on individuals and by its shallow analysis. The discussion, according to the title, ends in the late '50s, although the author dips into subsequent years. This truncation of the subject removes the most interesting period in whuch U.S. Blacks have affected U.S. foreign policy from the book's scope. Upshot: only historians and specialists are likely to enjoy it. Among key figures missing: cartoonist Ollie Harrington (mentioned only in passing) and Charles Howard, the first and most influential Afro-American journalist to cover the United Nations.

Rating:
Summary: Limited research, low analysis of Blacks and foreign policy.
Review: Useful because the subject is so little covered, this survey of the role of Afro-Americans in US foreign policy from the '30s through '50s, is limited by its narrow research focus on individuals and by its shallow analysis. The discussion, according to the title, ends in the late '50s, although the author dips into subsequent years. This truncation of the subject removes the most interesting period in whuch U.S. Blacks have affected U.S. foreign policy from the book's scope. Upshot: only historians and specialists are likely to enjoy it. Among key figures missing: cartoonist Ollie Harrington (mentioned only in passing) and Charles Howard, the first and most influential Afro-American journalist to cover the United Nations.