The Fire Next Time

Just a paperback, but powerfully written. I revisit this book ever so often, so as not to forget the damming effects of slavery on the human psyche. This is a sobering revelation of the cruelity of mankind.

This book was everything I hoped it would be and more. The description of the past and future times is right on. I found myself nodding my head in affirmation when Mr. Baldwin spoke of white and black folk behavior and philosophy. I would recommend this reading to anyone from middle school to grad school.

This book should be read by anyone seeking to understand the nature of racism in America better. It is personal, passionate and extremely compelling. Young people who did not live through the period of the early 1960s will find the book particularly instructive.

Excellent read. Historical, real, challenging and introspective. Causes one to not only think about the plight of the Black man in America but America as a whole. My favorite quote was "One cannot receive love unless he is First able to give love!!"

I read this 53 years after its publication (just 10 days before the 2016 US Presidential election). The first essay (a letter to his nephew) was written on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The second essay, "Down at the Cross," makes up over 110 pages of this book and explores a few major experiences and sentiments.

A number of points/instances jump out:
1) As a young man, Baldwin believed he could do anything a young white man could do. This terrified his father, whose experiences taught him that white power constantly sought to limit, exploit or desecrate black people (particularly young black men). As time went by and Baldwin grew up, he had experienced a great amount of injustice at the hands (or through the words) of white people. He was quite forceful in his writing about how much oppression blacks experienced everyday, and how white people refused to acknowledge this reality, even when it was presented to them (sadly, this resonates in 2016).
2) As a teenager, Baldwin served in the Christian church and delivered sermons. "I felt that I was committing a crime in talking about the gentle Jesus, in telling them to reconcile themselves to their misery on earth in order to gain the crown of eternal life." This is one of the all time great criticisms of the Christian religion (and obviously Mr. Baldwin was not the first one to offer it up).
3) He wrote about the hypocrisy of the ministers collecting money from poor blacks who scrubbed floors but used that money to drive around in Cadillacs and live in nice houses.
4) The spreading of the gospel "was an absolutely indispensable justification for planting of the flag." Again, this is not a new thought, but it is interesting coming from a black man who served as a youth minister.
5) There are a brutal few paragraphs about the fact that blacks served in the armed forces in WW2 and fought in segregated units and despite their service, were still outcasts back in the states. Baldwin ties their service and the forces the allies conquered as having a direct influence on the desegregation of the military, society and the schools.
6) "In the United States, violence and heroism have been made synonymous except when it comes to blacks." This is still a fair and valid point in 2016.
7) Mr. Baldwin had a dinner with Elijah Muhammed in Chicago. He wrote about Elijah's power, charisma, singular focus and their talk over dinner. Mr. Baldwin is critical of Mr. Muhammed's teachings, though he does not offer them up during their dinner. Mr. Muhammed is gracious and polite throughout the entirety of the evening. Before one considers Mr. Baldwin a fringe black radical, one must read about his evening with Elijah Muhammed.
8) "The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed that collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace." This was controversial and incendiary in 1963, and it remains so in 2016. Again, it is fascinating and disturbing how divided white and blacks still are in America in their perceptions of this nation and its history.

In the end, Mr. Baldwin stresses that both races must work together or that our nation will perish. The meaning of the title is explained in the last lines of the second essay.

The second essay could be organized better - perhaps divided into chapters. Mr. Baldwin moves from point to point, sometimes slowly and sometimes very quickly. While his observations are interesting and often jarring, it would have been better for him to back them up with facts, statistics and other information. There are times that the words and thoughts run on - the reader needs to pause and take a breather.

The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin

As I began to read the first of two letters in this brief book written in 1963, I was struck by the message which seemed to contain elements of hopeless resignation and self-loathing. It was a letter that outlined injustice and placed blame on many shoulders. It openly acknowledged that there were members of the police department who were racist and that there were elements of documented police brutality. It acknowledged that there were fewer opportunities for black people and that most doors were closed to them. It acknowledged that there was an overarching distrust and fear of authority and the police department, most often, with good reason. There was little opportunity to succeed, since most men were reduced to idleness due to a lack of job opportunities for them, even when well trained. Their color locked them out of the system. The women were employed doing menial labor, but they became the breadwinners, for the most part. The men gathered in groups, drank, did drugs and were led into a lifetime of crime when no other opportunity presented itself. This was not the life that Baldwin wanted for himself or his nephew.

In the second letter, a broader view of his perspective became evident as he reviewed aspects of his own life. His ideas were colored by his background in the ministry. He realized that his community had no power and he knew that the lack of that power was preventing them from gaining respect. He achieved success by not getting sucked into a system that was designed to betray him. He wrote about The Nation of Islam and its effect on the world view of the “Negro”. The Nation of Islam had suddenly gained prominence and had positively influenced many in his community to live a cleaner life, stay out of prison, refrain from drinking and doing drugs; at the same time, it also preached hate for the “white devil”, demanding that the white world accept the superiority of the blacks in society. This goal to gain power was to be accomplished by any means available to them.

When Baldwin wrote about The Nation of Islam, there was definitely a respect for what they had accomplished in inspiring so many to follow a different path, to have hope and to respect themselves, as they should. However, they believed that to accomplish that goal for one group, it must be at the expense of the other. The Nation of Islam believed in violence and in black supremacy. It did not seek equality, but superiority. Baldwin did not subscribe to all of their demands or dreams of a separate nation with land and reparations. He did not wish to disengage from the white culture and live separately.

Baldwin hoped for more opportunity and justice in his world, but he did not consider all white people devils, as they did. He did not agree with all of their principles. He did support their goals to empower the “Negro” and their movement to create a hopeful future, instead of a life of despair. He did agree that “Negroes” had not been afforded the opportunity to succeed, had been subjected to a horrific life of slavery, and that a path to a different future for them must be found. The manner and method is what he seemed to differ with, and he did not join their movement. There was, and still is, a great deal of simmering anger that is passed on from generation to generation. There is so much frustration and suffering that continues even today, decades later.

Baldwin’s message was prescient since he predicted the election of a black president in the future, and only half a century from the time of his writing, it became a reality. However, although the book was written in the mid sixties, it might just as well have been written yesterday. The anger and the injustice still exist in many arenas. There is still police brutality. There are still advocates of a violent movement to gain power. There are still demands being made that may or may not be realistic. These demands, however, are not yet being met. There are still families that are passing on a legacy of hate, fear and insecurity in the “white devil” community and the “black lives matter” movement. There is still racism, on both sides, but only one side is suffering from the ramifications of such unnecessary, unjustified and unwarranted prejudice.

This was an interesting book as I find James Baldwin to have been an incredibly brilliant writer, public speaker and activist. Born in Harlem but wanting to distance himself from the fate of the African-American man in the 1940's, Baldwin fled to Paris at age 24 in order to reflect and write. Being on the outside looking in on the "African-American experience", Baldwin came back to America in the middle of the violent and historic Civil Rights movement. The dichotomy of Malcolm and Martin's approach to obtaining freedom serves as two angels on both shoulders of Baldwin, who finds himself somewhere in the middle of this heated debate. Baldwin has no hate in his heart for any race but also doesn't deny the history, which has set the theme for modern race relations in America. Baldwin's writing holds a mirror up to the nation and its people. The things he spoke and wrote about during the 50's and 60's, are things that America is still dealing with today. Every time there is healing in this nation, that old scab gets ripped right back off and its countrymen fight the same demons of the past... that have haunted us for centuries. "If we... do not falter in our duty now we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country and change the history of the world. If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophesy recreated from the Bible in a song by a slave, is upon us. God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No water. The fire next time."

At just 106 pages, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time seems at first glance to be a quick read, but please take your time and read this thoughtfully. I effectively read it over two days but only when I had time and opportunity to ready attentively and thoughtfully and I urge you to do the same.

I had friends and classmates back in the 1960s who had read this when it was first published, but even then I resisted being told that I “had to read” something. I am actually glad in some ways that I waited, because I would not have understood some of the things the author was saying. Now, with a lifetime of experience providing context and contrast to the world described here by James Baldwin, I got a great deal more out of reading this that I would have then. Sadly, too many things written in The Fire Next Time are still true of our world today.

There is an old saying that you cannot understand or judge someone until you have walked in their shoes. Even after ‘walking’ through these 106 pages, I cannot claim to fully understand James Baldwin’s life or the lives of anyone who has lived with the labels of Black, African-American, etc. But from my vantage point today, I have had moments in my life that left me with insights, experiences, and understanding that what is written in The Fire Next Time is truth and that sadly it is as much truth today as it was when the author put the words on a page.
If you are seeking to know and understand the state of race relations in America in the 1950s, 1960s, and today, this is one of the books you have to read. What is in these pages is our shared history and our shared existence.

Words like erudite, eloquent, incisive, revelatory, and inimitable feel too lukewarm to truly describe Baldwin's timelessness and mastery as a writer and observer. As I'm sure countless other readers have attested, too much of what Baldwin puts forth in these two essays remains relevant and timely, the long shadow of America's original sin only marginally lessened with the dreadful foundation of that sin all too present in modern times. The opening essay is a letter to Baldwin's nephew upon the century anniversary of emancipation. To say this essay is heart rending is understatement. One is overwhelmed by the tenderness and melancholy, the hope and despair, the intense disappointment and encompassing love expressed by Baldwin as he recounts the fraught role of race in America. The second essay explores race and religion, and much of what Baldwin has perceived about these topics (including the deeply flawed morality that would allow the white majority to persist in the subjugation of blacks) could have been written five days rather than fifty years ago. Baldwin is a masterful writer, a powerful intellectual, and in these essays he forcefully speaks truth to power. Especially poignant to have read this as Black History Month is closing, but well worth every reader's time in any month.

James Baldwin was born in New York City in 1924, and grew up in Harlem. He experienced the racism of the pre-Civil Rights era, as well as a harsh, possibly abusive stepfather, and sought the library and the church as refuge.

Teachers recognized him as a gifted young writer in his early teens.

This is a thoughtful, eloquent, often painful to read or listen to, essay on racism and the core contradictions of American culture. In some respects Baldwin was the voice of a generation, and this is still an important read or listen for anyone who wants to understand the underpinnings of how we got where we are today.

Jesse Martin also reads it very expressively and effectively.

Highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

It is so incredibly easy in this modern age to forget the extent of racism in America. Although I am not sure if this is a shared view, for me the words "discrimination" or "segregation" never seemed to strike me in the same way that slavery did. Being born into a time and place where they only existed subtly, I didn't understand the full impact of these struggles. This book was a pivotal part of changing that view for me and beginning to see the clearer picture of the history of the country I live in.

This book captures so perfectly the feelings of fear, inferiority, and dehumanization that those "subtle" forms of racism inflicted on African Americans in America prior to the civil rights movement. This book remains important not only as a reminder of those injustices that we should never allow ourselves to forget but also as a tool to gain deeper understanding of the wounds that still exist, of the repercussions of hate in America, of its residual remainders, and of the ways in which education and courage overcomes those obstacles.

Baldwin describes the experiences of blacks in the only nation conceived in liberty. It’s a history “of rope, fire, torture, castration, infanticide, rape; death and humiliation; fear by day and night, fear as deep as the marrow of the bone”. Much of the same sort continues today: police killings, mass incarceration, discrimination that ensures unemployment, poverty, and stimulates criminal behavior and, also continuing, a host of other brutalities and injustices. It’s no wonder blacks won’t cooperate with police, riot when their leaders are murdered and why, after all these years, many remain in slums/ghettos, now nicer-named, “communities”. “[W]hite people”, Baldwin writes with an understanding of the power of socialization, are “slightly mad victims of their own brainwashing” and are mostly to blame.

Although Baldwin’s description of the situation of African-Americans is accurate, as is his identification of the root cause of their miseries and life-destructions, his advocacy of love and his positive spin on suffering (“people who cannot suffer can never grow up, can never discover who they are”) should be supplanted with the development of open Internet networks that focus on problem-solving. Approximations of problem-solving open Internet networks include Wikipedia, Academia.edu, Stockholm's Stokab, and the US Patent Office's Peer-to-Patent experiment described in Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More PowerfulWiki Government. You gotta move--to the Internet!

There are some books worth reading just because they give you a glimpse into the America that our parents grew up with. This is one of those books! This is a gem that should be discussed with different generations and ethnicities in the room. Great read for the person thinking of "Making America Great again.

Occasionally we find an author who gracefully and indignantly embodies their culture, their race, their upbringing...and at the same time heroically transcends it, thereby offering a fiery expression of what it means to be human in the very highest sense, of what it means to be responsible and loving beyond the artificial trappings, fear laden contraction of societally suffused selfhood. What burns in Baldwins essay is the deadwood of racism and the rotten fencing unconsciously preserved to keep one safe from the Other... when rather it is the love for the Other, seeing the Thou as the practical means which actually preserves our well being. Baldwin writes of this incendiary process not as an abstraction but as a vivid lode of everyday experience.

Now I have been, as is my wont when I get "hooked" on some writer, on something of a James Baldwin tear of late, reading or re-reading everything I can get my hands on. At the time of this review I have already looked at "Go Tell It On The Mountain", "Tell Me How Long The Train's Been Gone", and "If Beale Street Could Talk." Frankly those works, while well written and powerful, did not altogether remind me why I was crazy to read everything that Baldwin wrote when I was a kid. The Baldwin black liberation manifesto (and, maybe, white liberation as a by-product), "The Fire Next Time", "spoke" to me then and after forty years still "speaks" to me now in so-called "post-racial" Obama time.

Back in the early 1960s I used to listen to a late night talk show on the local radio station in Boston. Many times the host would have Malcolm X on and the airwaves would light up with his take on white racism, black nationalism and the way forward for the black liberation struggle- and away from liberal integrationism. Now in those days I was nothing but a woolly-headed white, left liberal "wannabe" bourgeois politico kid who believed in black liberation but in the context of working within the prevailing American society. I was definitely, and adamantly, opposed to the notion of a separate black state on the American continent if for no other reason that it would look something like the then existing ghettos, writ large, that I was committed to getting rid of and a set up for black genocide if things got too hot. And I still am. So, on the one hand, I admired, and I really did, Malcolm X for "speaking truth to power" on the race question while on the other disagreeing with virtually every way he wanted to achieve it.

Now that scenario is the predicate for James Baldwin's assuredly more literary, but seemingly more hopeful, way of getting the thread of the Malcolm X message about white racism out while posing the possibility (or, maybe, necessity) of joint struggle to get rid of it. In my recent re-reading of "The Fire Next Time" I was struck by how much of Baldwin's own hard-fought understandings on the question of race intersected with The Nation Of Islam, Malcolm at the time, and Elijah Mohammad's. Oddly, I distinctly remember debating someone, somewhere on the question of black nationalism and using Baldwin's more rational approach as a hammer against the black nationalists. I probably overdrew his more balanced view of a multiracial American then, if not now.

Still, Jimmy was onto something back then. Something that airy-headed kids like me, who thought that once the struggle in the South was won then the struggle in the North could be dealt with merely by a little fine-tuning, were clueless about. Don't smirk. But do note this: while only a fool or political charlatan, would deny that there have been gains for the black population since those civil rights struggle days the pathology of racism and, more importantly, the hard statistics of racism (housing segregation, numbers in the penal system, unemployment and underemployment rates, education, and a whole range of other factors) tell a very different story about how far blacks really have come over the last half century. A story that makes "The Fire Next Time" read like it could have been written today. And to be read today. Thanks, Jimmy.

Fire Next Time by James Baldwin is a book giving advice and a prophecy. It offers advice to young men like Baldwin's nephew and prophecy to the nation's leaders. It's one of the few books from the 1960s that predicted an African-American president in forty years. It's there on page 108 in the copy that I read. Then it is a book that speaks of religion--Christianity and Muslim. It warns the reader of racism against blacks, but turns it around and discusses the counter racism of black-on-black and white- on- black racism demonstrated by Black Muslims. The other surprise is that it is an essay on love and humanity, which is not what you would expect from a book titled "fire next time."
Baldwin's past as a young preacher, his disagreements with father, and his challenges as a young man living in an urban city, are all enclosed in this short volume. Then there's the resounding question that is repeated throughout the book. It is "What of the Negro's past?" The question is aimed at creating a forward looking future rather than a backward one. His message is liken unto the African Sankofa bird, which keeps moving forward while looking back. His advice is to dismantle racism and unify around love, peace, and humanity. This is a cultural awareness read and offers insights into why Baldwin was a man of his times, as well as, one before his time.
Vandella Brown, Librarian/Author of What Is a Zawadi to We? (Lumenus 2007). http://www.the store.com/Vandella-Brown/e/B001KCN9T6

This book tells indispensable truths about being black and white in America which many people do not want to hear nor see. It casts a light on the ugliness of the country and how blacks are integral part of the country itself. It's a beautiful thought process written by a beautiful man who sought love to dispense hate. It is self-reflective and astounding to read. I would recommend it to absolutely everyone. I have a few pages with highlighted quotes and dog ears because I love the way Mr. Baldwin used words. Putting emphasis on the fact that we need to stop putting significance or emphasis on color.

This is a bewildering, meandering, powerful, emotional, despairing roller coaster. I don't know how else to describe it. James Baldwin's writing style can be agonizingly rudderless, but he might be unmatched in being able to beautifully tell the decidedly ugly story of the "so called American Negro." If you enjoyed Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me," you may very well enjoy this book as well. 9/10.

"God gave Noah the rainbow sign
No more water. But fire next time!"

Excellent. A masterpiece. The content, the writing style, the deep truths expressed not from a place of anger or fear, but from wisdom, experience and clearly a lifetime of contemplation and reflection. Baldwin is a genius. Yes, it’s got parts that may make you feel uncomfortable. That’s the point. This should be required reading in schools. For that matter, it should be taught in the Christian churches as well.

The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin, was an college course assignment I had to read and much to my surprise I found this to be a very insightful book. There are so many psychological and existential insights that I didn't expect to find in this book, some of the things he said resonate very closely to existentialism. Reading through these insights truly resonate with my spirit. Not only was James Baldwin insightful about his personal life but his social critique was simple and penetrating in exposing the charade of the racial dichotomy of "White/Black" that is politically constructed to impose socioeconomic stratification based on arbitrary colors. Baldwin knew too well that while people may be their own free agents they are still part of the larger historical process and genealogy that deeply entrenched and influenced the way they interpret and understand the world. In a sense, there is a kind of helplessness that Baldwin saw in everyone including himself, the kind of helplessness of being susceptible to the historical forces and to our own unconscious anxiety of death.

This is indubitably a very insightful and profound book...

The Fire Next Time (1963) by James Baldwin begins with "My Dungeon Shook", a letter to his nephew; a `let's keep it real' moment between elder and youth. Baldwin informs to his nephew that because of the color of his skin, white America has cast him in a role in which he has no control:

"You were born into a society....You were not expected to aspire to excellence; you were expected to make peace with mediocrity."

The selection that follows, "Down At The Cross", offers a flashback to Baldwin's most impressionable adolescent years where he vividly recounts the state of affairs of black folk in Harlem:

"For the wages of sin were visible everywhere, in every wine-stained...hallway, in every clanging ambulance bell..., in every helpless, newborn baby being brought into this danger, in every...fight on the Avenue, and in every disastrous bulletin: a cousin, mother of six, suddenly gone mad, the children parcelled out here and there; an indestructible aunt rewarded for years of hard labor by a slow agonizing death in a terrible small room..."

This then broadens into a frank discussion concerning faith, which consumes the remainder of the book. From Baldwin's religious enlightenment and conversion, to his meeting with Elijah Muhammed, to his views on the treatment of the American Negro, you will discover what makes this book such an interesting read.

The Fire Next Time is an exploration into the complexities of the 1960s through the thoughts of one of the most significant Black writers of the time.

Baldwin, with razor-like precision dissects American society through a lens of harsh realities. Penned during a pivotal era of civil rights struggle, he unapologetically peels back the truth of a nation's inescapable DNA and its quest to quell its defining horrors that can only be countered by high risk confrontations with self and one's history. Seeing love as the necessary bridge to a country worthy of all its struggle, Baldwin consistently paints vivid portraits of his contextual narrative and provides the positive antitheses that he envisions can grant complete freedom to Blacks and Whites alike. For anyone seeking to grasp an understanding of America's tumultuous racial history within a perspective of hope and grace, this read is a must. Discomfort, anger, and hurt will travel with you through many pages, but a solemn relief awaits at the finish.

James Baldwin explores the nature of racial inequalities in the most eloquent of prose in this exceptional book. Writing to his nephew in the first part of the book on what it means to be a black man in America, Baldwin deciphers the challenges and history of Black America in a way that warrants it to remain in the cannon of great American literature.

James Baldwin caused quite a stir in 1961 when he published "Letter from a Region in My Mind" in The New Yorker, followed by "A Letter to My Nephew" in The Progressive the next month. He collected these two essays in this small volume, and it's considered (along with "Notes of a Native Son") his best work. His biting, heartfelt analysis on race relations flings its barbs equally at the legacy of American white supremacy and the duplicity of liberal white guilt; although it was written more than forty years ago, it reminds us both how far we've come and how far we have yet to go.

Baldwin frames his observations around two thematically related biographical episodes: his brief three-year stint as an adolescent Pentecostal preacher in Harlem in the early 1940s and his journalistic visit to the headquarter of the Nation of Islam in Chicago's South Side twenty years later. Both institutions, Baldwin finds, suffer from an ambivalent myopia: Christianity in general "helped to protect and sanctify the power that was so ruthlessly being used by people who were indeed seeking a city, but not one in the heavens, and one to be made, very definitely, by captive hands"; the Nation of Islam "inculcated in the demoralized Negro population a truer and more individual sense of its own worth" through the "fearful paradox" of creating a hopeful future with "an invented past." Blacks, he seems to say, have traded in the belief system forced on them by their oppressors to a understandable longing for an illusory past. His conclusion is aggressive but perceptive: "the Negro has been formed by this nation, for better or for worse, and does not belong to any other--not to Africa, and certainly not to Islam."

But that's only half the story--or certainly less than half. Baldwin has far more to say about this nation's white majority; the underlying subject is the predicament of " 'the so-called American Negro,' who remains trapped, disinherited, and despised in a nation that has kept him bondage for nearly four hundred years and is still unable to recognized him as human being." Baldwin correctly posits that, historically, the usual recourse by an oppressed group in such desperate circumstances has been violent upheaval. Throughout history--white history--it is incontrovertible that "violence and heroism have been made synonymous," from the Norman Invasion to the American Revolution. And, indeed, in such a nation as ours, "there is no reason that black men should be expected to be more patient, more forbearing, more farseeing than white; indeed, quite the contrary."

Despite the historical legacy and Baldwin's dire warnings of the potential for bloodshed, Baldwin nevertheless remains cautiously hopeful for the future, and he predicted--correctly, notwithstanding church bombings and assassinations and riots--that integration and civil rights victories and black advancement might be achieved with relatively little violence, certainly when compared to the horrors other revolutions have engendered. For one thing, blacks had--and have--an advantage: they understand, all too well, white Americans, while the reverse is not--and has never been--true: "Ask any Negro what he knows about the white people with whom he works. And then ask the white people with whom he works what they know about him."

For another, American black history has, if anything, been testimony "to nothing less then the perpetual achievement of the impossible." Only by acknowledging the past and confronting the future Americans can "achieve our country, and change the history of the world."

In a relatively short space, Baldwin takes stock of his own reactions and experiences living in the diversity of the U.S. Most significantly, he looks at his own (and other African-Americans he's known)'s pre-judgments regarding different varieties of white people. No spoilers, because many younger people than myself have not yet read this insightful yet brief book. I recommend it.

This was a stunning read that pulled no punches. As apt today as it was when it was written, it is truly a must read for everyone. I found that rather than reading through it quickly I had to take a few pages at a time so that I could really ponder and digest his words. Amazing.

Originally published in 1963, James Baldwin's, "The Fire Next Time", is an indicator of what society was like as many viewed it, and forces questions about the degree of change that has happened since he originally wrote the work. The position or the perspective of the reader, will greatly affect how each reader reacts. One issue that I do not believe can be doubted is that this is a powerful, and passionate book, written and published at a time the Author risked all manner of hatred and violence upon him. Published when Mr. Baldwin was 39, the book is not the rose colored view of youth, nor the writing with an entire lifetime to reflect upon. It does not suffer from the first, nor does it fall short do to the latter. It is writing that will elicit powerful emotions by all those who read it.
Great change for the better has taken place. Former Joint Chief Of Staff Colin Powell will soon occupy the most powerful post ever held by a person of color in this Country's History. This was probably unmanageable in 1963. However this example does not represent the state of change in our Society. As an argument for how much change has taken place for the better between the races, a person pointed out to me the march on the anniversary of the sick events in Selma Alabama, and the lack of any violence. My feeling was that if the President Of The United States had made the same march with the same people in 1965, as the President did recently, the violence would surely have been different. The participation of The President and all that surround him tend to minimize Civil Rights abuse in his presence.
There is no definitive measure of how much change has taken place, who is responsible, and who if anyone is to blame. The ease with which "The Race Card" is played by individuals of any color, at any level of our Country may not measure change, but it certainly does indicate that whatever change is needed is not yet completed.
A very powerful work about a conflict that still occupies too much time as an issue in our Nation. This book is one man's views, and his shared personal experiences. He writing is not the final word, but after 38 years, the fact that his work and his thoughts are still relevant, speaks for the work and the man who wrote it.

Of all of the great authors of the 20th century, James Baldwin was probably closest, both in style and moral authority, to some of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. "The Fire Next Time," first published back in 1963, represents Baldwin at his most impassioned. This book consists of an open letter to Baldwin's nephew, along with an extended autobiographical essay. Throughout the book, Baldwin writes with insight and compassion about the complexities of race in the United States.
Baldwin writes of his spiritual crisis as a teenager--a crisis which led to his career as a youth minister in an African-American Christian church. He writes bitterly of his ultimate disillusionment with the emptiness and hypocrisy he found in the church. Baldwin also writes of his meeting with Elijah Muhammad, the fiery leader of the Nation of Islam sect and mentor to controversial Black leader Malcolm X.
Baldwin's testament is a harsh critique of 20th century Christendom. Reflecting upon the rise of the Nazis in one of the world's most "Christian" nations, Baldwin declares, "From my own point of view, the fact of the Third Reich alone makes obsolete forever any question of Christian superiority, except in technological terms."
"The Fire Next time" is both an illuminating historical document of a turbulent era, and a superb piece of literary craftsmanship. All those interested in the art of nonfiction prose should take time to experience Baldwin's mastery of the medium. But even more importantly, we should all take time to consider his ideas on race, on religion, on prejudice, and on hope.

Perhaps the most significant indictment on racism in America written in the twentieth century, The Fire Next time ignites the mind and soul, causing the reader, whether black or white to reexamine the state of human relations in this country. With the intensity of a million flames and the insight of a prophet, Baldwin details the struggles faced by African Americans (American Negroes then) in a culture that has brutalized, vilified, and rendered us powerless. His insight into the white psyche and its dehumanizing effect on African Americans is frightening and yet as real today as it was in 1962 when this essay was published. How unnerving it was to read this book in 1999 and be faced with the realization that some 37 years later we as a nation are no closer to bridging the racial divide in this country.
I particularly applaud Baldwin for his eloquent discussion of what must be done, by both black and white America to release this country from the shackles that prevent us truly becoming the greatest nation on earth (in deed, not just rhetoric). I highly recommend this book as a must read for the country. In 1962, Baldwin's level of candor may have been somewhat off-putting to white America (the government considered him a Communist), for the truth can be an awfully bitter pill to swallow. Still, it's my hope that at that some point, white America will reckon with their own physiological, spiritual and political ills. Until then, African Americans must continue to hold a mirror before the face of injustice of this nation, while struggling to claim a place in a country that seems dead set on keeping us a drift.

Baldwin's writing during the "Civil Rights Era" is an important reminder for us today. Are we willing to listen to his prophetic voice as he writes to us? He has sent us a letter of biting but necessary, and hopeful, critique. It's in listening to Baldwin, and other black voices, that we white Americans can begin to see ourselves as we are, "to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it..." We need the honest to God truth of Baldwin and those like them, even now. His is an important reminder to look at life as it is, and enter into the suffering of it all.

I saw the movie I'm Not Your Negro a few no the ago and realized I did not (or not not recall) read one piece of writing by James Baldwin. How as a 34 year old black woman raised in Baltimore is that possible? So this was my first exposure to his work in completion. After seeing clips of him speaking in the movie, I instantly fell into (and in love with) the fast cadence of his writing. I actually read most of the book out loud so I could imitate it. Great first Baldwin reading.

I was born in 1968, six years after The Fire Next Time was published - I lived the period that Baldwin chronicles vicariously through my parents. There are few essayists who equal Baldwin's gift for finding the right phrase to communicate a concept, both intellectually and emotionally. Indeed it's the emotion that Baldwin so effectively weaves into his prose that gives The Fire Next Time its impact. At its core, this essay is a plea.
Baldwin dissects the nature of Black-White relations in the early sixties. He rejects the both the pandering of White liberals and the separatist rhetoric of Black radicals as simplistic; the former as condescending and insincere and the latter as unrealistic and reactionary. The conclusion that he reaches is that Blacks and Whites, whether they realize it or not, are locked in a symbiotic relationship, and destruction for one will mean destruction for both. Put positively, however, the key to their salvations are linked. No one is free until all are free.
Baldwin focuses on two important anecdotes. The first deals with his seduction by the church, his brief career as a child minister, and his subsequent rejection of Christianity. The second deals with an encounter with Elijah Muhammad, then leader of the Nation of Islam. Both show religion as an escape mechanism, and both are told with a convincing immediacy and a sense of candor.
Baldwin's rejection of Christianity appears to be a crucial step in his awakening, and in his rejection of the beliefs that 60's White society expected Black people to hold. The church for Baldwin was an escape mechanism, but having been consoled he soon fled the church, overwhelmed by its hypocrisy and abuses, both historical and current. He concludes "...whoever wishes to become a truly moral human being...must first divorce himself for all of the prohibitions, crimes, and hypocrisies of the Christian church." In the end Baldwin refuses to accept Christianity's (and, by implication, White society's) definition of him as the descendent of Ham, cursed forever.
Baldwin turns the same critical eye on the Nation of Islam. He's sympathetic to the emotions and suffering that have pushed Black people into internalizing the NOI's separatist rhetoric, but he recognizes that this will not be the salvation of the Black community. Baldwin writes "...the Negro has been formed by this nation, for better or for worse, and does not belong to any other - not to Africa, and certainly not to Islam. The paradox...is that the American Negro can have no future anywhere, on any continent, as long as he is unwilling to accept his past."
Despite his cutting commentary on 60's White society, Baldwin in his heart is an integrationist. His rejection of the Nation of Islam and their philosophy is his rejection of the idea of adopting the very tactics that Whites have used against Blacks; "Whoever debases other is debasing himself", he states emphatically. Baldwin understands imitation and aggression as a tactic, but he finds awe not in an eye-for-an-eye, but in a community who's dignity has produced children of kindergarten age capable of walking through a mob to get to their schoolhouse.
Not every metaphor which Baldwin uses in this essay works, and he does at time stray in his musings, but as a snapshot of the state of America in the sixties The Fire Next Time is a powerful piece of writing. As I read this book there were passages with which I identified personally; sentiments that I myself have felt but could never have articulated so effectively. There were other passages in which I was an outsider looking in. As a Black American reading this essay some forty years after it was published, this gives me a good yardstick as to how far America has come, and in what areas we are still lacking.

Exceptional essays on African-American life in the mid to late 60's in a nation that has, in some ways, made only minor progress in race relations. The book is still (sadly) relevant in our time. Enjoy Baldwin's elegant and poignant writing.

This book by James Baldwin left me with more than just the simple enjoyment of a good read, but it also left me to think deeper about the issues and reasons behind racism and races, power and control, and the even the various proposed resolutions to end racism. In the beginning, Baldwin shares how he (and a lot of minorities) come into knowing racism as a child growing up. A lot of what he shared I can remember feeling or questioning when I was growing up. Baldwin also analyzes the solution proposed to end racism and also gives his opinion on what it would take for all races to actually achieve total equality amongst all. Even today, this book makes you look deeper into this issue and at the people involved and why we all act and react the way we do. Only after understanding can we begin to apply valid solutions. This book should be read by everyone.

This book would be an excellent choice for required reading for High School juniors and seniors. It deals with the real issue of race in a responsible, intelligent manner, in a way that is easily understood, yet not simplistic. We get enough cut-and-dried morality thrown at us, as well as much pathetically vague garbage about "tolerance", but not many people in primary public education deal with the main issues straight on. Baldwin views things in terms of the long-haul, but warns that things cannot remain as they are without serious repercussions. In a time when black youths have less and less to look to in the mainstream, I think it would be a great move to get this book put into the public High School curricula.

"The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin. A short book composed of two parts:
Part one, a letter written to his nephew ("My Dungeon Shook"), explaining all the ills of the pre-Civil Rights era world and his warnings to and wanting better for his nephew.

The second part ("Down at the Cross") which has free verse/stream of consciousness delivery (hard at times for me to follow) , he parallels the hustlers on the street to the hustlers of religion. Also, Mr. Baldwin points out many things that those of the "Post-racism era " / black-lives-matter movement should read.

Side note,this book connects the Civil Rights movement's "success" to the Cold War and the liberation movement in Africa, something I never really linked together, but has motivated me to do more research

Other matters, he writes some very interesting things that makes one think :

"To accept one's past - one's history - is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life..."

"...pull God down from Heaven. It has happened before, many times, before color was invented, and the hope of Heaven has always been a metaphor for the achievement of this particular state of grace."

A quick read! Go ahead and read it!!!

James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” is an eloquent and masterful take on race relations. Although it first appeared in 1963, its message continues to be relevant. Baldwin’s novel is a great place to start for learning the generational trauma endured by Black folk. Consisting of a letter to his nephew and a personal letter, “The Fire Next Time” surveys racism and the Black experience in America with cogency. It is a necessary piece of literature at a time when we are on the brink of another civil rights movement.

This book was written during the civil rights movement and dealt with the issue of race in America. Through Baldwin's efforts, I feel that the black community made tremendous strides in seeing who they really were. Blacks during this time were taught to be ashamed of who they were but Baldwin taught them to embrace the heritage and to love being black. Along with other civil rights leaders Baldwin preached the belief to love your enemy. Baldwin left behind a blueprint for future generations of what can happen if one race ignores another race's needs and the chaos that can emerge from the ignorance.

Chris Rock (the famous, hilarious comedian) recommended this book in Essence magazine. After reading and subsequently re-reading this powerful book, I am convinced that racism will always be an issue for this country. As a result, this book has widely opened my eyes and patently directed my path as to what my purpose is on this earth. Further, it has sharply increased the acuity of my auditory skills in that I now carefully listen to what people are really saying or not saying to me, and thus, about me. No longer will I allow anyone to "assault" or "murder" me with their definitions and expectations of who I am! Thank you Mr. Baldwin for letting me know that "my house was on fire" and what caused it.

There are many great reviews of this book that go into detail on the content, so I'm not going to get into it. I will simply note that the writing style used by this author is not one I enjoy reading. He is a fan of the comma and consistently breaks up his sentences with several of them to accommodate his overuse of parenthetical elements and interrupters. To me, a comma is a speed bump in prose; it indicates a pause. There a lots of speed bumps in nearly every paragraph of this book.

A couple of examples: "How can one respect, let alone adopt, the values of a people who do not, on any level whatever, live the way they say they do, or the way they say they should?" and "It happened, as many things do, imperceptibly, in many ways at once. I date it - the slow crumbling of my faith, the pulverization of my fortress - from the time, about a year after I had begun to preach, when I began to read again. I justified this desire by the fact that I was still in school, and I began, fatally, with Dostoyevsky."

For some people, this is beautiful prose. For me, I can't take it. I want to dive in and rewrite the entire thing to strip out hundreds of commas and extraneous nonrestrictive modifiers. Perhaps I was a Spartan in a former life.

One would have hoped the America James Baldwin describes would be a distant memory in 2017. Unfortunately, we have not progressed as a nation as far as we have fooled ourselves into believing over the past few decades. America's true self, it's ugly core has revealed itself once again.

Beautifully written in prose form, Baldwin writes of race relations, and the awakening of one's mind to the differences, perceived or otherwise, of race, color, and their political ramifications. Very candid, and yet ultimately subtle, too---the book, which is written in the form of a letter, makes one think about the trials that many minorities (primarily African-Americans) go/went through and how far we've come today......and, yet sadly, how much further we have to go. This short book makes you think---with your eyes wide open.

James Baldwin is one of the great American writers of this century. Despite being written several decades ago, this book will challenge your ideas about contemporary culture, the 'racial barrier' and how we got to where we are. If you are a Caucasian American you will find some of what he has to say difficult to accept. Get over it - this is the class you never got in school, the perspective no one ever taught you.
If you like this book, try 'Another Country' out. It's much more of a novel, and attacks the same issues in a story format instead of a narrative.

This book is powerful the letter to his nephew still applies to today. There are many lessons that can be learned from what you read in Baldwin books. I would recommend this book to adults and young adults alike.

I've now made my way through my first Baldwin after reading Coates. That I'm just getting to this story half way through my life is a travesty. Why weren't we reading this as youth instead of The Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, etc?

Illuminating aspects of our society, general human nature, and the human condition The Fire Next Time is a little saying a lot. Baldwins laconicity plunges at your soul. After this experience it becomes evident you have not read Baldwin but Baldwin has read you. Using his lifestyle as a backdrop Baldwins frank, pithy, profound work, demands to be read.

You must read this book. No matter who you are. James Baldwin is absolutely at his best in this classic book that took Anerica by storm. Then God gave the rainbow sign, no more water the fire next time.

As I was reading this book, I had thought some of the same ideas in this book before reading it. The idea of ending racism, but not forgetting it. I know, it's easier said than done. If we (people of the world) or let's just start with the U.S., weren't so thick-headed, I believe we could achieve this. A great read for those who don't want to continue on the same catastrophic path of we've been walking for the past hundreds of years. It can start with the present generation. Remember, whether you believe in a higher power than humans or not, we do have brains and have implemented far more complex notions.

James Baldwin's novel The Fire Next Time is a narrative of Baldwin's thoughts and perceptions of society throughout his life. This book expresses the point of view of a man who grew up in poverty. Poverty for Baldwin was the streets of Harlem and all of the drug trafficking, prostitution, alcoholism, and crime that took place on a daily basis. The atmosphere in which Baldwin grew up in directly affected the man he became and his views on certain issues.
Baldwin was a young man during some of the most critical times in United States history and his outlook on the Civil Rights Movement is the focus this book. Growing up in Harlem, the inequalities of the black man become painfully apparent to Baldwin. He struggles with the black leaders of the time and their preaching. However, an invitation to meet with the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, provides important insight to this group. Baldwin and Muhammad's perception of white people are clearly different but the two accept each other and continue on with their lives. Muhammad and his followers believe that the white mans reign over the earth is coming to a close and blacks will soon be superior. The relationship between these two men is complicated; Muhammad seems interested in recruiting Baldwin to his cause but Baldwin remains focused on equality.
W.E.B. DuBois once said, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line" (103). This issue of power and the color line is constant throughout the novel and it becomes apparent that the struggle for power seems to be drawn with racial lines. The key black figures in the novel struggle against the white culture to gain a foothold to launch themselves out of the wings and into the spotlight of the nation. Dialogue between Baldwin and a few characters question whether power is obtained from the number of followers, "it is now absolutely clear that white people are a minority in the world" (70), or the amount of money available, "He spoke to me...of the amount of money that is annually at the disposal of Negros-something like twenty billion dollars" (79).
Baldwin seems partially interested in joining the Nation of Islam but rethinks his decision and draws his own conclusion of how equality and justice will be obtained. His brilliant insight has the strength to change lives and lead to equality. This novel would be perfect for a reader who is looking to understand how people of different social and economic classes perceived the civil rights movement. As a college student interested in history, the historical changes presented in this book held my attention. This book requires the reader to think of their own society and how it evolved to its current standing. This book demands the reader to think and to understand the meaning of Baldwin's words. With thought and consideration, Baldwin's theories on equality and accepting others will become clear to the reader.

James A.Baldwin Doesn't Pull any Punches with this Blazing&Very Much Right on Time Book.this Book Speaks Volumes about the Continued Racial Divide in this Country.He Writes With Pure Honesty&RIght too the Point.He breaks things down to a Science.A Must Have&Timeless Book.

The most brilliant saturday afternoon read I've had in some time. It's an extemporaneous yet coherent jaunt through a brilliant mind attempting to parse some of the most delicate and troubling issues of his day. A must read for any American.

This is a brilliantly written, powerful, honest, and insightful book.
It touches on some very sensitive topics in America, that many do not wish to discuss. Mainly, racism and historical facts and myths. Mr. James Baldwin was a genius, and anyone who reads this book will learn profound truths, and subsequently not be the same!

Searing, insighful work by a genius mind with a
writing style so filled with grace that it evokes tears.
Recognition fills every page. This book should be
required reading in every American school. Anyone
interested in what a writer is, should be, can be, should
experience Baldwin.

I felt that this book was very interesting. James Baldwin brought up some very interesting points that made me question and really think about how people are. Is it just human instinct that brought such hate against other people? are we just afraid of difference? Racism is still going on today, and its something that i fell will not ever be avoided. somewhere in the world, there is always going to be something. I think if people read more books like the this one, they would understand eachother and see things differently.

I was not expecting to be inundated with such a plethora of emotions, facts, and opinions about this topic which, being so uncomfortable, is often avoided. There are lessons to be learnt here. And much introspection needed.

This is the best book I have read concerning the color barrier. If you have not read this piece literature then you are missing out. Baldwin outlined his experiences, and unfortunately, in my read, gave a pessimistic viewpoint of society. After reading "The Fire Next Time" one can only agree with him. I also enjoyed "Nobody Knows My Name"

I had to read this book, as many people told me if your a reader this is one you must not simply read but own. So I got it and started reading. It never really grabbed me, but I made it through. I plan to read it again within at a different time.

The book is highly overrated. I had to get it for a class and made to read it for a quiz in the class. This is not a masterpiece like many of the reviews say. And unanimously coming to the conclusion that it is a great book without analyzing it first for themselves is what seem that has happened. I will be getting rid of this book asap once it is not needed anymore.

I got the audio book and I commend the actor Jesse Martin for his excellent reading of The Fire Next Time, a memoir by James Baldwin. In this memoir Mr. Baldwin said that in the ghetto you needed a gimmick. His gimmick he said was religion. He got himself ordained as a minister while still in school. It was a con. He learned how to work up the faithful so they would contribute more. He got tired of this racket and quit church entirely. His father, he said, was also a minister, and was violent towards him. He never overcame his bitterness towards his father. In this book Mr. Baldwin sells anger to blacks and sells guilt to whites. If he carried long term bitterness towards is father then I think that contributed to his unhappiness. He does come across as unhappy. I found his writing manipulative and over-done. Here is an example of over done writing. At one point he says, "The black man is the pole star around which the white circles." That is not just silly; that is narcissistic. I would recommend instead of this book A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell. Dr. Sowell's book was honest while Baldwin's seemed manipulative. Another good book about the black experience in America is Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. So if you are white and want to feel guilty or black and want to feel angry, then The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin is for you. A life of anger or guilt is a sad life. The books by Sowell and Shetterly are inspiring.

I was hoping to read a book and gain some perspective on the Black experience, instead this book read like one long run on sentence. First it was difficult to read because the book is physically half the size of an average book, about 100 pages and text is justified. The writing isn't broken up into chapters and paragraphs are sparse. Therefore, as you're reading the subject matter jumps from one point to another and then back again - it read like someone babbling on and on. The few nuggets of useful information was anecdotal at best and therefore not anywhere near scholarly. Luckily the book was a cheap buy. I will be donating it since I find it useless to keep in my personal library.