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| The Fire Next Time | 
 enlarge | Author: James Baldwin
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $11.95
Buy New: $4.24
You Save: $7.71 (65%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $4.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  (31 reviews)
Sales Rank: 15495
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.4
ISBN: 067974472X
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.896073
EAN: 9780679744726
ASIN: 067974472X
Publication Date: December 1, 1992
Release Date: December 1, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle...all presented in searing, brilliant prose," The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.
Amazon.com Review
It's shocking how little has changed between the races in this country since 1963, when James Baldwin published this coolly impassioned plea to "end the racial nightmare." The Fire Next Time--even the title is beautiful, resonant, and incendiary. "Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?" Baldwin demands, flicking aside the central race issue of his day and calling instead for full and shared acceptance of the fact that America is and always has been a multiracial society. Without this acceptance, he argues, the nation dooms itself to "sterility and decay" and to eventual destruction at the hands of the oppressed: "The Negroes of this country may never be able to rise to power, but they are very well placed indeed to precipitate chaos and ring down the curtain on the American dream." Baldwin's seething insights and directives, so disturbing to the white liberals and black moderates of his day, have become the starting point for discussions of American race relations: that debasement and oppression of one people by another is "a recipe for murder"; that "color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality"; that whites can only truly liberate themselves when they liberate blacks, indeed when they "become black" symbolically and spiritually; that blacks and whites "deeply need each other here" in order for America to realize its identity as a nation. Yet despite its edgy tone and the strong undercurrent of violence, The Fire Next Time is ultimately a hopeful and healing essay. Baldwin ranges far in these hundred pages--from a memoir of his abortive teenage religious awakening in Harlem (an interesting commentary on his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain) to a disturbing encounter with Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. But what binds it all together is the eloquence, intimacy, and controlled urgency of the voice. Baldwin clearly paid in sweat and shame for every word in this text. What's incredible is that he managed to keep his cool. --David Laskin
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 "The Fire..." is a trailblazer November 14, 2008
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.
james baldwin's fire March 25, 2008
The Fire Next Time is a wonderful collection of 2
spirited essays on Baldwin's evolution from a naive
church boy into a spirited man. His journey leads
him to question his relationship with Christ and
particularly Christianity. He truly believes that
one should not be drawn into a particular religion
out of fear but out of love for humanity.
His beliefs on the acceptance of others and racial
equality are provocative and yet sorely needed in
today's mixed-up world. However, I believe that
Baldwin is almost utopic to the point of being
naive in believing that racism will one day
completely evaporate, though I do believe that
things have gotten better. Still, it's truly sad
that this book and his work has been swept under
the rug but Baldwin always seems to amaze me with
his thought-provoking outlook on life. This book
is a gem of a novel, an easy read and his underlying
message of believing in humanity is sure to be praised
by open-minded readers for years to come.
Not sure yet April 8, 2007
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.
 It came true December 22, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The man knew what he was talking about, when he said the U S would burn because of racial discord.
Simply riveting; 1960s and Today: It holds its power September 15, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
My sense is that Baldwin wrote The Fire Next Time for anyone who had ears to hear, regardless of color or faith or gender. The emotional intelligence with which he speaks is riveting.
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