In Search of the Black Panther Party: New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement

by YohuruWilliams (Editor), JamaLazerow (Editor)

New
Paperback
2007
$39.98

Controversy swirled around the Black Panthers from the moment the revolutionary black nationalist Party was founded in Oakland, California, in 1966. Since that time, the group that J. Edgar Hoover called the single greatest threat to the nation's internal security has been celebrated and denigrated, deified and vilified. Rarely, though, has it received the sort of nuanced analysis offered in this rich interdisciplinary collection. Historians, along with scholars in the fields of political science, English, sociology, and criminal justice, examine the Panthers and their present-day legacy with regard to revolutionary violence, radical ideology, urban politics, popular culture, and the media. The essays consider the Panthers as distinctly American revolutionaries, as the products of specific local conditions, and as parts of other movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
One contributor evaluates the legal basis of the Panthers' revolutionary struggle, explaining how they utilized and critiqued the language of the Constitution. Others explore the roles of individuals, looking at a one-time Panther imprisoned for a murder he did not commit and an FBI agent who monitored the activities of the Panthers' Oakland branch. Contributors assess the Panthers' relations with Students for a Democratic Society, the Young Lords, the Brown Berets, and the Peace and Freedom Party. They discuss the Party's use of revolutionary aesthetics, and they show how the Panthers manipulated and were manipulated by the media. Illuminating some of the complexities involved in placing the Panthers in historical context, this collection demonstrates that the scholarly search for the Black Panthers has only just begun.
Contributors. Bridgette Baldwin, Davarian L. Baldwin, David Barber, Rod Bush, James T. Campbell, Tim Lake, Jama Lazerow, Edward P. Morgan, Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Roz Payne, Robert O. Self, Yohuru Williams, Joel Wilson

Synopsis

Controversy swirled around the Black Panthers from the moment the revolutionary black nationalist Party was founded in Oakland, California, in 1966. Since that time, the group that J. Edgar Hoover called the single greatest threat to the nation's internal security has been celebrated and denigrated, deified and vilified. Rarely, though, has it received the sort of nuanced analysis offered in this rich interdisciplinary collection. Historians, along with scholars in the fields of political science, English, sociology, and criminal justice, examine the Panthers and their present-day legacy with regard to revolutionary violence, radical ideology, urban politics, popular culture, and the media. The essays consider the Panthers as distinctly American revolutionaries, as the products of specific local conditions, and as parts of other movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

One contributor evaluates the legal basis of the Panthers' revolutionary struggle, explaining how they utilized and critiqued the language of the Constitution. Others explore the roles of individuals, looking at a one-time Panther imprisoned for a murder he did not commit and an FBI agent who monitored the activities of the Panthers' Oakland branch. Contributors assess the Panthers' relations with Students for a Democratic Society, the Young Lords, the Brown Berets, and the Peace and Freedom Party. They discuss the Party's use of revolutionary aesthetics, and they show how the Panthers manipulated and were manipulated by the media. Illuminating some of the complexities involved in placing the Panthers in historical context, this collection demonstrates that the scholarly search for the Black Panthers has only just begun.

Contributors. Bridgette Baldwin, Davarian L. Baldwin, David Barber, Rod Bush, James T. Campbell, Tim Lake, Jama Lazerow, Edward P. Morgan, Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Roz Payne, Robert O. Self, Yohuru Williams, Joel Wilson

$39.98

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 408
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 03 Jan 2007
ISBN 10: 0822338904
ISBN 13: 9780822338901
Book Overview: Essays considering the Panthers as distinctly American revolutionaries

Media Reviews

Collectively, the essays raise important questions about the Panthers that demonstrate the organization's complexity, and should stimulate an energetic scholarly discussion and reevaluation of the Panthers' historical significance. . . . Highly Recommended. - M. Cachun, Choice
These diverse and insightful essays, drawn from many untapped sources, collectively highlight the importance of local studies in complicating historians' understandings of the BPP, which, as the authors point out, must be a key element in creating a historically rich narrative about this era. - Beth Slutsky, Journal of American Ethnic History
Recent scholarship is well represented, resulting in a collection of essays that treat their subject in a scholarly, yet sensitive manner. . . . Lazerow, Williams, and the contributing authors are to be commended for producing a collection of essays that compels scholars to reexamine the Black Panthers and their true impact on U. S. and African American history. - Oscar Williams, Journal of African American History
Taken as a whole, the essays offer a critical evaluation of the BPP and do not hesitate to challenge the shibboleths and assumptions that heretofore have dominated scholarship on the Panthers. . . . [A]n important contribution. . . . - Gregg L. Michel, Journal of American History
In Search of the Black Panther Party makes a valuable contribution to the field of Panther historiography. - Paul Alkebulan, The Historian
[In Search of the Black Panther Party] avoids a weakness common to collected conference papers, as each of the chapters refers to the other essays and flows clearly into the next piece. Although the general outline of the birth, rise, and collapse of the Panthers is common knowledge, this volume shows the complexity and debatable heritage of the group. - Thomas J. Noer, Histoire sociale/Social History
Jama Lazerow and Yohuru Williams have assembled a superb, timely, and significant anthology that historicizes one of the most controversial groups of the 1960s. Wide-ranging in scope, provocative, and deeply insightful, In Search of the Black Panther Party is a major contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Black Panthers and the wider Black Power era. -Peniel E. Joseph, author of Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America
Researchers have uncovered more useful information on the Panthers in the past ten years than in the preceding thirty. This wide-ranging collection contains some of the finest examples of today's exciting new scholarship. It tops the list of required reading for those seeking to make up for lost time. -William L. Van Deburg, author of New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975
[In Search of the Black Panther Party] avoids a weakness common to collected conference papers, as each of the chapters refers to the other essays and flows clearly into the next piece. Although the general outline of the birth, rise, and collapse of the Panthers is common knowledge, this volume shows the complexity and debatable heritage of the group. -- Thomas J. Noer * Histoire sociale/Social History *
Collectively, the essays raise important questions about the Panthers that demonstrate the organization's complexity, and should stimulate an energetic scholarly discussion and reevaluation of the Panthers' historical significance. . . . Highly Recommended. -- M. Cachun * Choice *
Recent scholarship is well represented, resulting in a collection of essays that treat their subject in a scholarly, yet sensitive manner. . . . Lazerow, Williams, and the contributing authors are to be commended for producing a collection of essays that compels scholars to reexamine the Black Panthers and their true impact on U. S. and African American history. -- Oscar Williams * Journal of African American History *
These diverse and insightful essays, drawn from many untapped sources, collectively highlight the importance of local studies in complicating historians' understandings of the BPP, which, as the authors point out, must be a key element in creating a historically rich narrative about this era. -- Beth Slutsky * Journal of American Ethnic History *
In Search of the Black Panther Party makes a valuable contribution to the field of Panther historiography. -- Paul Alkebulan * The Historian *
Taken as a whole, the essays offer a critical evaluation of the BPP and do not hesitate to challenge the shibboleths and assumptions that heretofore have dominated scholarship on the Panthers. . . . [A]n important contribution. . . . -- Gregg L. Michel * Journal of American History *

Author Bio

Jama Lazerow is Professor of History at Wheelock College. He is the author of Religion and the Working Class in Antebellum America.

Yohuru Williams is Associate Professor of History and Director of Black Studies at Fairfield University. He is the author of Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Black Panthers in New Haven.