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Title: Up Against the Wall
Subtitle: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party
Author: Curtis J. Austin
Narrator: Gary Roelofs
Format: Unabridged
Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
Language: English
Release date: 02-14-17
Publisher: University Press Audiobooks
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 5 votes
Genres: History, 20th Century
Publisher's Summary:
Curtis J. Austin chronicles how violence brought about the founding of the Black Panther Party in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, dominated its policies, and finally destroyed the party as one member after another - Eldridge Cleaver, Fred Hampton, Alex Rackley - left the party, was killed, or was imprisoned. Austin shows how the party's early emphasis in the 1960s on self-defense, though sorely needed in black communities at the time, left it open to mischaracterization, infiltration, and devastation by local, state, and federal police forces and government agencies. Austin carefully highlights the internal tension between advocates of a more radical position than the Panthers took, who insisted on military confrontation with the state, and those such as Newton and David Hilliard, who believed in community organizing and alliance building as first priorities. Austin interviewed a number of party members who had heretofore remained silent. With the help of these stories, Austin is able to put the violent history of the party in perspective and show that the "survival" programs, such as the Free Breakfast for Children program and Free Health Clinics, helped the black communities they served to recognize their own bases of power and ability to save themselves.
A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book.
Critic Reviews:
"Austin's energetically researched, deeply passionate book will be indispensable for students and scholars of the era." (CHOICE)
"We desperately need good historical scholarship about the Black Panther Party, and this strong history is a good place to start." (Tim Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name)
"A serious, sober, and probing contribution to the ongoing project of historicizing and understanding the Party and its importance." (Waldo Martin, author of Civil Rights in the United States: An Encyclopedia)
Members Reviews:
well researched but poorly structured
Curtis Austin has put together a history of the Black Panther Party (BPP) from the mid 60's through to the early 70's. This was they heyday of the party, although it did continue along until the 80's and it's influence is still felt. It covers both the bad (violence etc) and the good (breakfast for school kids and other community outreach) that the party undertook.
If we were scoring this based solely on research, this book would get top marks. But once you add in the writing and the structure the score drops significantly. It's listless in places, with no real drive to the book, and is also all over the place in terms of content structure. Austin has researched well, he just hasn't been able to make a compelling read out of it.
The main thing that stands out is that there lacks a general 'thesis' of the book - the introduction (for what there is of one) should give an overview of the book, where it is going and what we can expect to learn from it. This book doesn't really provide that. It's lacks context for the rest of the content.