Claude McKay Books

I don't even know where to begin as it relates to this book. One word would be excellent thought. It provides a clear, concise, well researched, informative (not bias or persuasive) view on Micheal Manley and Claude McKay's ideologies. I think all 'yardies' should read this book. It all honesty it has instilled a foundation for a deep sense of national pride that I didn't really have before. The book also gives an interesting blue print of Third World development and how these great products of our nation (Jamaica) got to the views that they did. It also provides some insight on what the developing world is afraid of- third world cooperation. The short of it, is that I loved the book. I could not put it down once I started reading it.

I found this book to be extremely engaging, WELL-RESEARCHED, creative and generally thought provoking. The author has taken a very original approach by comparing the written works of a Afro-Caribbean poet (who was instrumental in igniting the Harlem Renaissance) with those of Jamaica's most loved Prime Minister Michael Manley. He has compared their writings to extrapolate on their political views on globalization and its impact on peoples of the African Diaspora and the global South. The interspersing of poetic writings with declassified political documents is indeed avant-garde!! It makes the work into one that can be enjoyed by all.

I recommend it highly!!

Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (2/07)

"In-Dependence from Bondage" is a compilation of the world views of the well known Poet, Claude McKay, and the world renowned Afro-Caribbean Socialist, Michel Manley. Both men, although of different generations, are known for their dedication to social change as it relates to the exploitation of the peoples of African descent in the Western hemisphere. Claude McKay's poetry was one of the great forces in bringing about what is often called the Negro Literary Renaissance.

Over a period of nearly four centuries approximately 4,000,000 Africans were transported to North America and the Caribbean Islands as the results of slave trading. Scattered, dispersed, and separated from their family and culture, these peoples persevered to maintain their traditions, religion, language, and folklore. Lloyd McCarthy, in this book, focuses primarily on the Jamaican perspective; however, it is relevant to the social, political, and economic conditions everywhere. I found the poetry of Claude McKay thought-provoking and enlightening on the African Diaspora and the plight of these exploited peoples.

McCarthy successfully illustrates the impetus, impact and corrective tactics currently being considered which are central to combating white racism, classicism, and Western imperialism. McCarthy gives the reader a definitive compilation of the writings of Claude McKay and Michael Manley. He has analyzed their works using references from dozens of authors and their interpretations of the ideological clash and policy gaps in African Diaspora relations. His research is well documented with complete and thorough endnotes.

McCarthy also is an Afro-Jamaican, and instills the influence of his personal history and heritage in his writing. He reveals his own empathy for the peasants and the working-class outlook, and the political perspectives that McKay and Manley expressed.

This work is a major contribution to the study of African Diaspora as it relates to globalization, policy planning, and international relations with developing and impoverished nations. McCarthy also presents valuable insight into how literature, biographical narrative, and intellectual history are interconnected with politics. The book is a wake up call to the peoples and nations of the African Diaspora to find collective solutions to survive globalization.

"In-Dependence from Bondage" holds promise of becoming the guidebook or blueprint for the liberation movement and should be read by our Washington politicians as well as all New World Africans.

I recently read somewhere that 2% of the worlds richest population owns over half of the world's wealth. An article on ABC news stated that ""Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and high-income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 percent of total world wealth." Yet, globalization is one the rise and is further touted as a means to economic empowerment. "In-Dependence from Bondage" looks at the unconstructive consequences that globalization brings to many in the African Diaspora and the world. This book illustrates how two Jamaican political figures prophetically viewed globalization's impact on developing nations during the 20th century and provides statistical analysis of how this global economic disparity has manifested itself in the quality of life of the peoples of developing nations. Mr. McCarthy defines globalization as the spread of American capitalism and provides extensive evidence as to how the throngs of capitalism (and its undercurrent of Elitism) affect impoverished nations for the benefit of a select few. Where there is a thesis, there must be an antithesis. This book represents a viable alternative view from which we all can learn. BRAVO!!!

"SURVIVAL. LIBERATION. STRUGGLE"! These are not merely fortuitous themes but the vital, mutual, connection in the theses on global capitalism and the crisis of imperialism found in the literary and political legacy of Claude McKay and Michael Manley.

*In-Dependence From Bondage* shows how the artist, McKay, and the politician, Manley, (both international political activists and writers) surveyed World-Development, over the last 500 years. They have observed how imperialist-globalization is still shutting down human liberty, producing backwardness and desperation for the majority of humanity worldwide,in the current epoch, especially in the African Diaspora.

The author demonstrates that both men were driven, like other great historical figures--true internationalists, and so moved (with their art and politics) upon the world-stage because they deeply cared about humanity, as we move in history.

As men, of the Americas, who have witnessed, participated in, and were closely acquainted with key historical figures and great events of the last century, they saw how imperialism and global capitalism have afflicted peoples in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The author shows that McKay and Manley warned the Lumpen-bourgeoisie of the African Diaspora how a handful of international financial capitalists (through international agencies) were ravaging poor countries, with debt. Thus *In-Dependence From Bondage* points out that the debt burden of the African Diaspora along with that of the Global South is rising, rapidly, and is one explanation for the decline in overall human development since the end of the Cold War.

Unwise borrowing and investments in wrong projects by the lumpen-bourgeois, "Gate Keepers," of the African Diaspora, acting with and for the big predatory lenders in the imperialist countries is one explanation for the current debt burden.

*In-Dependence From Bondage* argues that the historical evidence, since 1948, is readily available to show that the disaster that is called capitalism was not warmly welcomed by the mass of people in the African Diaspora. It was forcibly imposed in many countries through military interventions, political assassinations and destabilization carried out by the agents of Capitalism and imperialism, under the false pretense of fighting "communism" in the Third World.

McCarthy believes that some of the loans, which are now the source of the debt burden in poor countries, may well have been granted to the lumpen-bourgeoisie (including the lumpen-Black-bourgeois), as reward money for their capitulation to imperialist globalization, during and after the Cold War.

According to McCarthy, under such circumstances, morally the devastated ravaged-poor of the African Diaspora should now resist. They must not repay "reward' loans." Let the greedy-opportunists pay! His argument for the case is that, under the warped system of Western political democracy, it is unlikely that the people, who are now being asked to repay such cruel loans, knew anything about the conditions of the agreements or when their corrupt elites entered into negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

*In-Dependence From Bondage* makes the point that, the nationalist elites collaborated with US based international loan sharks, the IMF and World Bank in usurping the democratic rights of the people in the process of borrowing. Thus, they have helped to tighten the noose of capitalist exploitation and imperialism around the neck of the African Diaspora's economy.

McCarthy reiterates that, both the World Bank and the IMF, predatory lenders, are instruments of imperialism for the big financial capitalist of the North. Any promise of a "debt relief" is not trustworthy because it is a "gift horse" that must be examined closely. The "benevolent" bearer of "debt reliefs are the wolves of capitalism making sure that the political environment in the black Diaspora remains welcoming to further exploitation. p.154

Although the work is a non-fiction on the subject, capitalism/imperialism, McCarthy makes the book light, lively and entertaining by presenting and interpreting some of McKay's rare poetry and fictional writings.

In contrast, he also examines Manley's relations with the infamous Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, but STRANGELY, he suggested that Kissinger may have been more empathetic to Michael Manley and Jamaica during the 1970s than they ever realized. Other elements in the US administration, advocating for the international bauxite giants, instead, were Manley's main antagonists.

With this said, in the worldviews of McKay and Manley, the survival and liberation of humanity and the African Diaspora, from under the heel of imperialist-globalization demands "STRUGGLE... CONTINUOUS STRUGGLE!" says McCarthy.

This interesting, fast moving, easy to read book of only 192 pages, should be read by students, artist, politicians and general readers with an interest in history, politics, literature, and the fate of humanity!

See also:

Life And Debt

I named this tranquility because I ordered "Banjo" by McKay I got it in a few days and it was in perfect condition. Therefore I didnt have to worry a second thankyou peppiep@centurytel.net

Most readers will probably be aware of McKay's 1919 poem "If We Must Die," accurately recognized in anthologies of African American literature as the first openly defiant black insurgent lyric during the racial violence of the post-Great War period. Edited and introduced by William Maxwell, author of New Negro, Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism between the Wars (1999), this new collection of more than three hundred of McKay's poems-including nearly a hundred published for the first time-provides an entirely new understanding of the diaspora-trotting author's verse, from his "dialect" poetry published in Jamaica during the early teens to McKay's somewhat misleadingly titled "Right Turn To Catholicism" writings during the mid-forties.

Most striking are "The Years Between," as Maxwell describes McKay's verse from the twenties to the mid-thirties. During this fifteen-year stretch, McKay's lyrics versify the historical intersections between the Harlem Renaissance, modernist period leftism, anticolonial transnationalist negritude, and bohemian queer (...) ardor. Critics have regularly portrayed McKay as the first black intellectual to recant his Communism-and his repudiation is supposed to have taken place during the early 1920s. One startling fact that Maxwell's impressive scholarship illustrates is McKay's lyrical dedication to the international proletariat and Soviet State throughout not only the twenties but even into the thirties. Readers should find it illuminating, moreover, that McKay's praises to Communism are tangled up with an emergent African liberation struggle poetry and the advent of a black same-(...) love lyricism.

What's more, this edition annotates McKay's fascinating, generally unknown poetry clusters: the verse chronicle of his hospitalization during the early twenties that he referred to as "The Clinic"; the thirties' paeans to the "Cities" he inhabited; and the Catholic-inspired poems of the forties he called "The Cycle." To say that Maxwell's one-hundred-and-ten pages of annotations is thorough does not begin to express how valuable this collection is to various reading communities, including readers of poetry by black diaspora authors, verse by writers of the Left, writings by progressive-minded Catholic authors, and poetry by (...)queer voices. The appearance of Claude McKay's Complete Poems is indeed a historic event.

This is a great sophomore effort by the author...a sequel to his first novel, Trail to Trinidad. I enjoy Westerns, and Texas lore, and this novel combines both. Read these books for what they are - stories that were waiting to be told. As long as you're not comparing these books to James Michener, you'll be pleased!

In Claude McKay's Selected Poems, one sees the transformation of this West Indian poet's life manifested in his varied styles. McKay was born in the Jamaican countryside to an elite class, educated and given every opportunity. Then, as a young man, he came to America and felt the sting of pervasive racism and the numbness of being labeled second-class. His work shows that at times he looks down with pity at his people, only to look up with scorn at his oppressors. This duality drives many of his poems, especially those in the book's first section: Songs of Jamaica.
In "Hard Times" McKay exhibits the range of his poetic voice by ventriloquizing a Jamaican peasant. The effective use of this device brings an undeniably intimate feel to the poem and is remarkably capable of relating the sorrow of the poor farmer depicted. The modification of Jamaican vernacular on the English language is also a portrayal of the West Indian's captivity and adaptation to a strange culture.
Not to be overlooked are poems from McKay's Harlem Shadows collection. "If We Must Die" reflect his anger at an oppressive white menace that threatens to devour his culture. Interestingly enough, Winston Churchill read the same poem to British troops during WWII in a defiant call to arms. This cross-cultural application surely reflects the broader themes of McKay's work buried in the bowels of racial conflict.
All together, McKay's nation language echoes through the entire collection and relates a stirring narrative of the struggle of a West Indian exile. Each poem uses language, whether the voice of an island peasant, or an American immigrant, to engage the reader in the poet's struggle; a compelling read.

I enjoyed the selected poems of Claude Mckay. Although in the beginning the dialouge was hard to follow, it became easier as I imagined myself as the writer...Good poetry

I first read "If We Must Die" in a Literature class in college. Not knowing anything about Claude McKay, I saw this asan almost "athletic" speech from a coach to his team. It had that kind of a feel to it. In doing some research, I found that McKay was speaking of the injustice African Americans felt in America in the early 1900s.

This collection is not just the selections about racial injustice. There are also poems about his home in Jamaica, his job in the constabulary force there, and love. Through these diverse poems, you will get a better picture of McKay and his time. There is not a lot of biographical information listed in this book.

I would recommend the book. The first few poems are written in a Jamaican dialect which may make it difficult to read the first time. I found that reading it out loud opened the meaning and pronunciation for me. It is a good read.

"Selected Poems," by Claude McKay, is a wonderful volume by this noteworthy writer. This Dover edition, which is edited by Joan R. Sherman, includes a bibliography of work by McKay as well as an index of the poems in the book.

Sherman's introduction discusses the life and career of McKay, who was born in Jamaica and came to live in the U.S. A novelist and essayist as well, he died in Chicago in 1948.

Many of the poems are written in Jamaican dialect. These dialect pieces have an energetic color and musicality. Many poems also show McKay's command of standard literary English; he writes some particularly fine sonnets.

Overall, this is a rich, diverse, and technically adept collection. There are many pointedly political poems that condemn racism and economic injustice, as well as sensuous love poems. There are poems that invoke both the rural tropics and the urban north.

These poems show McKay to be a master of meter, rhyme, and other aspects of poetry; he uses considerable variety throughout the collection. His best pieces combine a burning passion with his impressive technical prowess. Consider "A Capitalist at Dinner," a cutting political sonnet with a devastating final couplet; or "Song of the New Soldier and Worker," another political piece that uses stunning imagery and masterful audio effects.

McKay uses words as both lethal weapons against the forces of injustice and as tender instruments of passionate love. He is a poet of tremendous talent, and this collection is a real treasure.

McKay's poetry is brilliant. Sadly, this thrift edition does not do justice to the poet or his work. I look forward to finding a definitive edition of all his poems. Many of his poems, such as "If we must die", are revolutionary. This poem uses a traditional form subversively, conveying a powerful and radical meaning. McKay, in a time when the ultimate taboo is a black man's use of violence against the white institution or individual, contemplates the use of black violent power to obtain what the African-American does not have in America -- equality, justice, etc. The fight may lead to death, but it is a death with dignity.

This is just one example of McKay's great poetry. Read it, whether in this edition or another. His poems add great texture, not only to the Harlem Renaissance, but to African-American culture on a whole.

Written in 1928, Claude McKay's novel, Home to Harlem was created as an answer to its white counterpart, Ni***r Harlem (not to offend, but it's the real title of the book), written by Carl Van Vechten. Both books feature the booze, drugs, sex and prostitution of the Roaring 20s, especially the clubs and cabarets (among other places) set in Harlem (and McKay includes Clinton Hill, Brooklyn).

In this book, Claude McKay attempts to show the underground and working class life of African Americans in Harlem during the 1920s. And he does so in a brutally honest manner. The novel centers around two black men, Jake, an ex-soldier and working stiff, and Ray, a college man turned working stiff from the Caribbean. Through these characters and other minor characters, McKay shows us life in Harlem for the working class and working rebels (aka criminals) during this time.

Condemned for its blatant focus on sex, drugs, alcohol (this was the Prohibition Era) and prostitution by the elite of Harlem's Renaissance (W.E.B. DuBois included), McKay and others like him was a rebel for this period. And thankfully so!

While the book contains language and literary tools and functions that would seem stilted and perhaps archaic, by today's standards, it is nonetheless a classic.

A word of warning, however: McKay's descriptions of persons of color rely heavily on what modern people would consider very, very color-struck. If you can overlook this, it is a wonderful examination of life in the underground decadent culture of Harlem's Jazz Age.

In terms of plot and character development, this work is average- perhaps even below average. However, McKay does suceed in creating beautiful imagerary through his prose; especially in terms of the physical descriptions he provides of African Americans and the city of Harlem. Besides language, another reason to consider reading this work is because of its historical role in the Harlem Renaissance. The release of this book caused a great deal of controversy- much of which centered around the manner in which McKay portrayed African Americans. If you do decide to read this book, it is a quick and easy read. The typing and margins are pretty large and the chapters are relatively short.

After reading an issue of Black Issues Book Review, I decided to give this book a try. It is a great story and perfectly relays all the nuances and moods that are New York. The main character meets a prostitute named Felice his first night in Harlem and his quest for her begins there. Try this one out; you will enjoy

I reluctantly gave this book 4 stars because of the English translation. Want to turn your GI Joe into a museum piece? The Fort Lewis (Washington state) Military Museum has many 12-inch figures on display to represent soldiers of different eras. "Second World War And 12-Inch Action Figures" is a how-to guide on turning 1:6th-scale action figures from Dragon, 21st Century, and Blue Box Toys into museum minatures. I have a minor complaint about the American soldier shown on pages 64 and 65--the sling on his M1903 Springfield rifle is attached to the stacking swivel instead of the forward sling swivel. I can't gripe much--the original GI Joe made the same mistake with the M1 rifle! Another minor glich is calling a 75mm recoiless rifle (page 4) a 57mm recoiless rifle. Even so, the advice on modelling tools and techniques and the photos and descriptions of the finished figures made for an entertaining read. I may even be able to use some of these techniques.

This book, while not a great work of literature, is notable for its ground breaking role in bringing black West-Indian writing to the attention of literati across the world. The plot is somewhat forced, with deus ex machina resolutions and an often painfully obvious didacticism throughout. McKay does lovingly detail early 1900's Jamaica, where he lived for the bulk of his young life, and the setting is vivid, if a bit heavy-handed. McKay was an adherent of Primitivsm insofar as he believed that black people should work to maintain a grounding in their atavistic roots at the same time that they absorb and learn from Western/Europeanized culture. "Banana Bottom" is his most successful attempt at integrating this ideology into his prose. The story is about a young black Jamaican girl named Bita who, sent to live with white missionaries at an early age, is commissioned to spend seven years at an English boarding school where it is expected that she will learn "proper" comportment and "civilized" modes of thinking. When Bita returns she has trouble integrating herself into the black community of her hometown, Banana Bottom, and ends up rejecting the Europeanization that was forced upon her in favor of asserting her independance with a return to her "roots." The West Indies have since produced better reads, but this book is enjoyable, and should please anyone looking to find out where McKay, commonly (and somewhat fallaciously) considered a progenitor of the Harlem Rennaissance, held his true allegiances. It is a must for anyone interested in anglophone post-colonial literature.