UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Book Jacket: "Paul Robeson" by S.T. Boyle and A. Bunie

Sheila Tully Boyle and Andrew Bunie

A compelling biography of a great American in his formative years

The son of a former slave, Paul Robeson (1898–1976) rose to become an All-American athlete, Phi Beta Kappa student, internationally celebrated singer and actor, and champion of racial equality. Yet despite his courage and many accomplishments, he could not overcome the combined effects of racism and McCarthyism. He was forced to live his last years in internal exile under FBI surveillance, a broken man.

Over twenty years in preparation, this massively researched biography takes Robeson from his humble beginnings in rural New Jersey to international fame on the eve of World War II. Drawing on a variety of new sources, the book presents a fully rounded picture—a portrait that corrects, supplements, and revises previous work on Robeson and his circle.

"More than any other recent biography, this book helps us understand Robeson's fusion of art and scholarship, his feeling for languages, his search for an alternative to racism that eventually led him to the Soviet Union and to alignment with the Left generally. The work offers a moving portrayal of the racist indignities and insults to which he was subjected. This is likely to become the standard scholarly Robeson biography."

Herbert Shapiro, author of White Violence and Black Response
"Painstakingly examines the transformation of Paul Robeson from an accommodating, uninvolved aspiring actor to an acutely conscious, passionately active political figure involved in the struggle against racism. The authors recount in considerable detail Robeson's early life up to the outbreak of World War II and thoroughly analyze his theatrical work against a backdrop of steadily maturing political consciousness."

Joseph Boskin, author of Sambo:
The Rise and Demise of an American Jester

Sheila Tully Boyle is an editor and writer who specializes in American studies. Andrew Bunie is professor of history at Boston College. His books include The Negro in Virginia Politics and Robert L. Vann and the Pittsburgh Courier.

Biography / Black Studies / American History
568 pp., 62 illus.
$50.00s cloth, ISBN 1-55849-149-X
2001
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