New ebooks From Canadian Indies
Description
In the 1960s, for at least a brief moment, Montreal became what seemed an unlikely centre of Black Power and the Caribbean left. In October 1968 the Congress of Black Writers at McGill University brought together well-known Black thinkers and activists from Canada, the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean–people like C.L.R. James, Stokely Carmichael, Miriam Makeba, Rocky Jones, and Walter Rodney. Within months of the Congress, a Black-led protest at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) exploded on the front pages of newspapers across the country–raising state security fears about Montreal as the new hotbed of international Black radical politics.
Awards
- Winner, Casa de las Americas Prize in Caribbean Literature in English or Creole
- Runner-up, Independent Publisher Book Award - Best Regional Non-Fiction (Canada East)
Editorial Reviews
"A brilliant analysis of the Black Canadian experience, David Austin’s Fear of a Black Nation challenges everything we think we know about Black Canada and the police state. Drawing on intensive and extensive research that spans several continents, and using RCMP dossiers, Austin tells the story of Black activism in Montreal, and shows us how this activism changed history for Black Canadians, Caribbeans, and Black people worldwide. Without a doubt, it is ground-breaking work."
— <p>Dalhousie University</p>
"At the heart of this big-hearted book is Austin’s insistence on history, or as he puts it, the “lived experience of Blacks,” against silence and the abstractions or chimeras of ideology. Readers will learn much about Canada’s black history here, but they will also learn about why it matters to everyone."
— Karen Dubinsky, Professor of Global Development Studies/History, Queen’s University
"David Austin’s Fear of a Black Nation is an impressive achievement: original, important, and timely. The analysis of Black politics in Montreal in the late 1960s is quite sophisticated theoretically but accessible. The book will speak to a void in the study of Quebecois and Canadian politics (especially with regard to studies of the left and radical movements), the 1960s, Caribbean politics, U.S. African American politics, and Black diaspora politics."
— Richard Iton, professor of African American studies and author of “In Search of the Black Fantastic ”(1961-2013)
"Fear of a Black Nation is a powerful reclaiming of the history of radical Black organizing in 1960s Montreal and an insightful analysis of its global ramifications … This book makes a major contribution to the fields of Black history and political studies; it also challenges conventional and left race-blind readings of the histories of Quebec and Canada."
— Sunera Thobani, Associate Professor of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia
"In this superb book, Austin shows us how “the past reverberates in the present.” From the historical fact of slavery in Canada to national security state paranoia towards Black dissent in the 1970s, Fear of a Black Nation artfully weaves a rich tapestry connecting Black struggles for freedom and dignity, the geohistorical significance of Montreal and Black/Caribbean left thought, and the politics of race, gender, class, and nation. Canada, and, indeed, the world, is not yet free from “the burden of race”–this work offers important insights for struggles against the dehumanizing effects of racism and colonialism, and points toward new horizons of possibility for human emancipation."
— <p>McGill University</p>
