{"product_id":"darcus-howe-a-political-biography-9781474218450","title":"Darcus Howe A Political Biography","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRobin Bunce\u003c\/b\u003e is Director of Studies for Politics at Homerton College, Cambridge, UK, and a Bye-Fellow in History at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. He is also an editor of \u003ci\u003eTwentieth Century History Review\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cb\u003ePaul Field\u003c\/b\u003e worked as a journalist for many years specializing in issues of policing, asylum and institutional racism, before becoming a lawyer specializing in the fields of discrimination and employment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDarcus Howe has had a somewhat dramatic personal and political life, both of which are sewn together seamlessly in the forthcoming book \u003ci\u003eDarcus Howe: A Political Biography.\u003c\/i\u003e -- Subi Shah * New Internationalist magazine *\u003cbr\u003eAn obvious candidate [for the Orwell Prize] from this year’s nominees is Robin Bunce and Paul Field’s “political biography” of the activist and journalist Darcus Howe. The book is political in far more than its content: as the authors rightly say, Britain’s Black Power movement is in danger of being written out of history. -- Conrad Landin * The Independent *\u003cbr\u003eThe first detailed history of black power in Britain . . . Bunce and Paul Field have published a political biography of Darcus Howe – one of the most significant black activists in Britain – using him as a framework for a history of the black power movement in Britain. -- Mark Brown * The Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eThis new book, co-authored by the Haldane Society’s Paul Field, is passionately conceived, thoroughly researched, and very well written. It is thoroughly recommended ... I can also vouch for the authors’ accuracy and objectivity, and the skill with which they bring key events of the last forty plus years to life ... Howe was never an organiser, nor a leader. But he has played a very considerable role in the movement for a distinctive Black British identity. This new book brings the man and forty years of tumultuous history to life, and never forgets the role of the political analysis which Howe learnt from C. L. R. James. -- Bill Bowring, Professor of Law, University of London * Socialist Lawyer *\u003cbr\u003eThis is a long overdue and badly needed biographical portrait of the black Trinidadian political radical and broadcaster Darcus Howe, who as one of the leading ideological agitators of the British Black Power Movement made a critical contribution to the shaping of modern multiracial and multicultural ‘postcolonial’ Britain...The pioneering efforts of Bunce and Field, undertaken in close collaboration with Howe himself and his partner, Leila Hassan, mean that for the first time the essential facts of Howe’s life and work are presented in one volume, complete with some remarkable photographs. At least some aspects of the fascinating, gripping, and often inspiring record of activism and campaigning that emerges will doubtless be new to the vast majority of readers, and the authors are to be commended for making this such an accessible and readable narrative that illuminates the wider civil rights and black liberation struggle in Britain. -- Christian Høgsbjerg, University of York * Twentieth Century British History *\u003cbr\u003eJust how far the British Left needs to travel in order to reshape its politics via the Black British experience is revealed by the superb \u003ci\u003eDarcus Howe: A Political Biography\u003c\/i\u003e which via personal testimony revisits a history of migration, self-self-organisaton and resistance which exists largely outside of traditional Left politics. -- Mark Perryman, Philosophy Football * Counterfire *\u003cbr\u003eThis biography of Darcus Howe is undoubtedly a labour of love. Robin Bunce and Paul Field have made a creditable attempt to chart postwar black activism though one man's life. And there can be no other person more appropriate to build the story around - because Darcus Howe is one of the standout activists and public intellectuals of his generation ... for many of us, he will always be that man in the dock at the Mangrove trail, standing up to an institutioanlly racist state - and standing up for us all. This meticulous biography sets out the facts about a life and an era that should be far more widely known. -- Diane Abbott MP * The New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eAt least some aspects of the fascinating, gripping, and often inspiring record of activism and campaigning that emerges will doubtless be new to the vast majority of readers, and the authors are to be commended for making this such an accessible and readable narrative that illuminates the wider civil rights and black liberation struggle in Britain. -- Christian Hogsbjerg * Journal of Palestine Studies *\u003cbr\u003eThis fascinating political biography of Darcus Howe will teach even the most knowledgeable of students of Caribbean history and the struggles of the diaspora many valuable lessons... Howe survived police harassment, imprisonment, death threats from the Trinidadian state and the pressure to metamorphose into a middle class peacemaker that went with becoming something of a media star and then broadcaster. It is a testimony to the strength of his resolve that he still remains committed to struggle from below - a struggle in which black people had to find their voice but also one where he did not give up totally on the possibilities of wider class unity, although it was perhaps for others to concentrate on this. Howe persists as a troublemaker and this book is a fitting and honest testimony to his continuing contribution to the struggle for black liberation and radical change. * Gary McFarlane, International Socialism *\u003cbr\u003eOne of the most exciting books on the shelves at the moment * Left Futures *\u003cbr\u003eThis  book is a an invaluable contribution to a vital task: uncovering the  history of black activism in Britain and its relationship to global  trends. The authors place the meaning and impact of Black Power, so  often caricatured, in a richly chronicled context. In the spirit of CLR  James, a figure who rightly presides over the book, as he did over the  life of its subject, they focus on grass-roots creativity, on the  interventions of people on the margins. In so doing, they bring to life a  series of dramatic struggles, including the Black Power revolt in  Trinidad, the persecution of the Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill and  the ground-breaking resistance to it, the New Cross fire and the  Brixton riots of 1981. The book is a powerful reminder of much of our  recent history, a history in danger of being forgotten or filed away under glib rubrics. * Mike Marqusee, author of Redemption Song: Muhammed Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties (2005). *\u003cbr\u003eDarcus Howe has been a towering figure,a powerful voice and an indominatable spirit for nearly half a century. His life embraces the history and critical importance of the struggle for justice and equality before the law. The lessons so graphically described in this book should not be forgotten by anyone lest we be condemned to relive them. * Michael Mansfield, Professor of Law at City University and Visiting Professor of Law at Birkbeck London, UK *\u003cbr\u003eBruce and Field's new biography shows Howe as an indomitable class fighter, a man who refuses to allow even the threat of prison, or a diagnosis of cancer to silence him...The story of their [Howe and CLR James] personal relationship and thie response to British society is interweaved into the narrative of this text, a story that remains little known outside of the black community...For those interested in the significance and development of black urban politics in Britain, this book offers an informative, stimulating and at times controversial read. -- Jacqueline Walker, author of Pilgrim State (Sceptre,  2008) * writing in Labour Briefing *\u003cbr\u003eThis riveting study illuminates the complexity of Darcus Howe's lifelong dedication to radical politics. Diligently researched and engagingly written, this remarkable book articulates and salutes a unique presence in modern British history; an activist whose stance against racial oppression remains undiminished, unapologetic and uncompromising, in a contemporary world too-often dominated by the shape-shifting of spin and short-term reactive thinking. -- Deirdre Osborne, Goldsmiths College, University of London\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface  Introduction – ‘Darcus Howe is a West Indian’  1 Son of a Preacher Man 2 ‘ Dabbling with Revolution ’ : Black Power Comes to Britain  3 Know Yourself  4 Cause for Concern 5 ‘ Darcus Howe is not a Comedian ’ 6 Revolution in Trinidad: ‘Seize Power and send for James’ 7 A Resting Place in Babylon: Frank Crichlow and the Mangrove  8 Demonstration  9 Clampdown 10 55 Days at the Old Bailey 11 Towards Racial Justice  12 Race Today: ‘Come what may here to stay’ 13 Ten Years on bail: ‘Darcus outta jail’ 14 ‘Thirteen Dead and Nothing Said’ 15 Insurrection 16 Carnival: Revolutionaries Don’t Wear Glitter  17 Playing Devil’s Advocate  18 Slave Nation  19 Fight to the Finish  Bibliography  Index","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53187607265623,"sku":"9781474218450","price":26.48,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/darcus-howe-a-political-biography-9781474218450","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}