From Publishers Weekly
This impassioned essay urges black Americans to take the lead in shaping America's response to the September 11 attacks. Mosley, author of the Easy Rawlins mystery series, puts forth a radical critique of U.S. foreign policy, recalling U.S. interventions in Indochina, Central America and the Middle East to assert that America often acts as a "pillager-nation" concerned more with corporate profits and cheap oil than with democracy and human rights; Arab antipathy towards the U.S. is thus more a response to U.S. economic imperialism than to religious or cultural antagonisms. Drawing on memories of his father's struggle against racism, he argues that blacks' experience of racial injustice in the United States obligates them to sympathize with oppressed peoples elsewhere and to understand (although Mosley does not condone) the murderous rage directed at America by many in the Muslim world. He exhorts blacks to take the lead in resisting the current militaristic response to terrorism and to demand that America harmonize its foreign policy with its humanitarian ideals and with the interests of the downtrodden "from Africa to Afghanistan." Interweaving the personal and the polemical, Mosley aims to shock readers out of their moral complacency; "It is up to me," he writes, "to make sure that my dark-skinned brothers and sisters around the world...are not enslaved, vilified, and raped by my desire to eat cornflakes or take a drive." Although his exclusive focus on economic motives somewhat oversimplifies U.S. foreign policy, he raises a compelling and eloquent challenge to America's role in the world. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Mosley, noted for his Easy Rawling mysteries set in black Los Angeles from the 1940s to the 1960s, draws from the roots of his folk experience to challenge black Americans to do their part for world peace. He notes the lack of black engagement or dialogue since 9/11 and asserts that such is a loss for all Americans, if not the world. Mosley draws on the folk wisdom and struggle of his father and grandfather's generations, who came to know a sense of Americanness and freedom denied to previous generations. Mosely argues that it is, in fact, the profound awareness of this nation's flaws that sustains an African American consciousness and provides a more complete perspective that is missing in the American narrative. The black experience of the terror of lynching, Jim Crow, and slavery are experiences to which most of white America is blind. Yet African Americans have lived with a sense of hope and faith in American ideals. Mosley believes that African Americans' sharing this experience benefits the nation and the prospects for world peace. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
In What Next, Walter Mosley -- New York Times bestselling author -- has crafted a deeply personal and political proposal, offering a commonsense approach to the challenge of finding world peace in a post-9/11 world. Mosley recalls his father’s story about not feeling like an American until German soldiers shot at him during World War II. Now the younger Mosley explores what the terrorist attacks meant to him, and challenges African Americans to use their unique position to help create a new kind of peace between the U.S. and the rest of the world. What Next examines this and other questions in a powerful polemic and call to action for African Americans and freedom-loving people everywhere.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Walter Mosley's What Next dares to propose that African Americans can have a voice and play a leading role in creating world peace. It challenges global capitalism, which profits from creating wars, hunger and death around the world. It condemns our government's corrupt political leadership and its subservience to corporations as opposed to the democratic will of the people. And perhaps most provocative of all, it encourages everyday people to take action to bring about world peace." "Shocked by the events of 9/11 (witnessed from his New York apartment), bestselling author Mosley like many other Americans, questioned why our enemies hate us so. Mosley's answer did not come from the endless news coverage, but from conversations he had as a child and as an adult with his father. These conversations provided a background and a filter for Mosley to explore what it means for African Americans to be Americans, to be attacked by America's enemies, and to stand for world peace." "Reader be warned: this is not another 9/11 book. Mosley argues, for African Americans, with centuries of experience fighting against slavery, racism and oppression, the struggle for global equality is a natural role." Directed primarily to African Americans, embraceable by all, What Next is a call to action for bringing about world peace.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly