From Publishers Weekly
Best known as a militant black nationalist writer and activist in the 1960s Black Power movement, Baraka had previously achieved some notoriety as LeRoi Jones in the Beat movement in the late 1950s, after a troubled academic start at Howard University and a difficult stint in the U.S. Air Force.Watts (Heroism and the Black Intellectual), a professor of American studies and political science at Trinity College, examines the themes of "outsiderness" and intellectual restlessness in Baraka's dalliance with Greenwich Village bohemia and his interracial marriage to author Hettie Jones. His growing distaste for white liberalism after a 1960 trip to Cuba and his subsequent plunge into the incendiary black nationalist politics of the mid-1960s led to his eventual rejection of white society except for its publishers. Often using old material and interviews to buttress his pointed opinions about Baraka's highly productive and influential writing career as well as his turbulent personal life, Watts depicts Baraka as a brilliant but sometimes derivative artist, and an intense yet changeable man who is also a bit of an opportunist, skilled at creating racial polarization. Readers familiar with Baraka's carefully constructed public image and his highly politicized literary output may be surprised by Watts's account of the writer's supposed willfulness, self-absorption and unrelenting quest to remain an artistic and political outsider regardless of the emotional and even artistic costs. Unfortunately, Watts didn't interview Baraka, or any of his close former associates, which may explain why Baraka remains something of an enigma here. Still, Watts takes a decisive step toward deciphering the persona of a leading American writer. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Watts (American studies, Trinity Coll.) has written a massive study of the political and intellectual career of the poet and activist Amiri Baraka (a.k.a. LeRoi Jones). His focus is on Jones's life as a bohemian writer in Greenwich Village, a militant black nationalist, and, finally, a committed Marxist. The author is highly critical of Jones's posturing, arguing that whatever brilliance he showed as an artist was substantially vitiated by his simplistic political stances. Jones, Watts charges, was an "apocalyptic loose cannon" who was guilty of "ethnic cheerleading" in an attempt to prove his antiwhite, black nationalist credentials. Some significant insights are sometimes lost in excessive detail or marred by some factual errors, though experts will find some rewards. Recommended for large academic libraries. A.O. Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, IN Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Watts applies scalpel-like precision to his pursuit of the intellectual journey of Baraka (Leroi Jones), from his beat period in the 1950s through his black nationalist and Marxist positions of the mid-1980s. This highly critical work reflects a grudging admiration, as Watts claims Baraka's journey provided a path-breaking model for a younger generation but finds his postbeat period to be polemical and without artistic merit. Not intended as a biography, Watts sees this work as a sociological study of a black intellectual's life, one that illuminates some of the important events of twentieth-century African American political life. More universally, Watts is concerned with the interaction between the intellectual's political involvement and commitment to his craft. Initially riding the wave of black nationalism, with its virulent antiwhite-anti-Jewish message, Baraka subsequently was disappointed in black political reformist movements. Baraka's ascent into politics reflected a descent in artistic and creative efforts. His latest transformation was to a Marxist ideology. Yet, through it all, despite Baraka's warts, Watts assesses him to be, at heart, the same individualistic beat poet. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"...a decisive step towards deciphering the persona of a leading American writer."

LIBRARY JOURNAL
"Watts has written a massive study of the political and intellectual career of the poet and activist..."

Booklist, September 1, 2001:
“Watts applies scalpel-like precision to his pursuit of the intellectual journey of Baraka”

Book Description
Amiri Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi Jones, became known as one of the most militant, anti-white black nationalists of the 1960s Black Power movement. An advocate of Black Cultural Nationalism, Baraka supported the rejection of all things white and western. He helped found and direct the influential Black Arts movement which sought to move black writers away from western aesthetic sensibilities and toward a more complete embrace of the black world. Except perhaps for James Baldwin, no single figure has had more of an impact on black intellectual and artistic life during the last forty years. In this groundbreaking and comprehensive study, the first to interweave Baraka's art and political activities, Jerry Watts takes us from his early immersion in the New York scene through the most dynamic period in the life and work of this controversial figure. Watts situates Baraka within the various worlds through which he travelled including Beat Bohemia, Marxist-Leninism, and Black Nationalism. In the process, he convincingly demonstrates how the 25 years between Baraka's emergence in 1960 and his continued influence in the mid-1980s can also be read as a general commentary on the condition of black intellectuals during the same time. Continually using Baraka as the focal point for a broader analysis, Watts illustrates the link between Baraka's life and the lives of other black writers trying to realize their artistic ambitions, and contrasts him with other key political intellectuals of the time. In a chapter sure to prove controversial, Watts links Baraka's famous misogyny to an attempt to bury his own homosexual past. A work of extraordinary breadth, Amira Baraka is a powerful portrait of one man's lifework and the pivotal time it represents in African-American history. Informed by a wealth of original research, it fills a crucial gap in the lively literature on black thought and history and will continue to be a touchstone work for some time to come.

About the Author
Jerry G. Watts is associate professor of American Studies and Political Science at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. Author of Heroism and the Black Intellectual: Ralph Ellison, Politics, and Afro-American Intellectual Life, his articles have appeared in The Village Voice, The Nation, Dissent, and New Politics, among many others.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In this study, the first to interweave Baraka's art and political activities, Jerry Watts takes us from his early immersion in the New York scene through the most dynamic period in the life and work of this controversial figure. Watts situates Baraka within the various worlds through which he traveled, including Beat Bohemia, Marxist-Leninism, and Black Nationalism. In the process, he convincingly demonstrates how the twenty-five years between Baraka's emergence in 1960 and his continued influence in the mid-1980s can also be read as a general commentary on the condition of black intellectuals during the same time. Continually using Baraka as the focal point for a broader analysis, Watts illustrates the link between Baraka's life and the lives of other black writers trying to realize their artistic ambitions, and contrasts him with other key political intellectuals of the time. In a chapter sure to prove controversial, Watts links Baraka's famous misogyny to an attempt to bury his own homosexual past."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Booklist

"Watts applies scalpel-like precision to his pursuit of the intellectual journey of Baraka"

Publishers Weekly

Best known as a militant black nationalist writer and activist in the 1960s Black Power movement, Baraka had previously achieved some notoriety as LeRoi Jones in the Beat movement in the late 1950s, after a troubled academic start at Howard University and a difficult stint in the U.S. Air Force.Watts (Heroism and the Black Intellectual), a professor of American studies and political science at Trinity College, examines the themes of "outsiderness" and intellectual restlessness in Baraka's dalliance with Greenwich Village bohemia and his interracial marriage to author Hettie Jones. His growing distaste for white liberalism after a 1960 trip to Cuba and his subsequent plunge into the incendiary black nationalist politics of the mid-1960s led to his eventual rejection of white society except for its publishers. Often using old material and interviews to buttress his pointed opinions about Baraka's highly productive and influential writing career as well as his turbulent personal life, Watts depicts Baraka as a brilliant but sometimes derivative artist, and an intense yet changeable man who is also a bit of an opportunist, skilled at creating racial polarization. Readers familiar with Baraka's carefully constructed public image and his highly politicized literary output may be surprised by Watts's account of the writer's supposed willfulness, self-absorption and unrelenting quest to remain an artistic and political outsider regardless of the emotional and even artistic costs. Unfortunately, Watts didn't interview Baraka, or any of his close former associates, which may explain why Baraka remains something of an enigma here. Still, Watts takes a decisive step toward deciphering the persona ofa leading American writer. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal