Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary - Hardcover

Peery, Nelson

4.37

46 ratings by Goodreads

9781565841581: Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1565841581 ISBN 13: 9781565841581

Publisher: New Pr, 1994

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The sometime laborer and black radical recounts his life among hoboes during the Depression, his duty in World War II, his insurrectionary acts, and the formation of his goal of a communist-style revolution of non-white peoples. 15,000 first printing.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

A well-written and engaging autobiography from a hitherto little-known figure in American radicalism. Peery begins his reminiscences in rural Wabasha, Minnesota, where his was the only black family, and continues with an exploration of how his mixed African-American and Native American genealogy affected his being. After his father, a blue-collar railway employee, moves the family to Minneapolis, the author encounters genuine racism for the first time when he begins to date a white girl (a German-American whose father believes in the righteousness of Hitler's cause). Gradually, the Depression, the Spanish Civil War, the trial of the Scottsboro Boys, and exposure to the Communist Party radicalize Peery. He participates in activities to bring about desegregation and social and economic justice. Serving in WW II, in the all-black 93rd Infantry, he is stationed in the South and sees the injustices of Jim Crow up close (including in the US Army). Returning from the Pacific theater, he becomes determined to eradicate all forms of inequality. In the end, like Frantz Fanon, he envisions a worldwide, socialist revolution of all people of color. Peery writes with intelligence, grace, and humor. His autobiography provides not only a portrait of a fascinating life but a history of 20th-century black radicalism. -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

When he was 24, Peery, a World War II veteran, started writing this account of his early years in Minnesota, his riding the rails as a hobo during the Depression, and his combat experiences in the Pacific. Except for the fact that he was also an African American Communist, his book would have been published in the 1950s with other battle memoirs of that era. What makes his story different is the racism and brutal discrimination he encountered, and readers today will experience the urgency Peery felt then in putting his thoughts down on paper. Peery ends his autobiography with his return to the United States in 1946, but it would have been nice to have a chapter bringing us up to 1994 so that we would know how the opinions he held in the 1940s have changed in light of the Civil Rights movement, the fall of the Eastern Bloc, and new information on Stalin. Still, this gripping, highly personal history is recommended for collections in U.S. history, black studies, or communism in America.
- Anita L. Cole, Miami-Dade P.L. System, Fla.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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