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The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide

The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide

by Howard W French

Liveright ·2025 ·512 pages ·History
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72/99
Top of the Pile

82/99

Critics

Near the Top

62/99

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Scholars

86/99

Rating

77/99

Volume

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Rating

40/99

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About This Book

"Howard French's The Second Emancipation stands the second half of the last century on its geopolitical head." —David Levering Lewis, winner of the Pulitzer Prize The Second Emancipation, a work of Odyssean dimension, recasts the liberation of post–World War II colonial Africa and the American civil rights struggle through the lens of Ghana's revolutionary visionary Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972), who emerges as the most significant African leader of the twentieth century. Determined that readers fully understand Nkrumah's legacy, bestselling author of Born in Blackness Howard W. French newly dramatizes the Nkrumah story—his humble beginnings, his momentous experience in Harlem, his American education, and his return to Ghana in the final years of British subjugation. The language soars as French evokes an entire continent in the throes of liberation and a roiling United States in the Cold War era. In its dramatic depiction of a continent that once exuded the promise of a newly won freedom, The Second Emancipation is a generational work that positions not only Africa but also the American civil rights movement at the forefront of modern-day history.


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Reviews

"Like many good books, it is also personal ..."

Vivien Chang· Los Angeles Review of Books Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Not a complete biography."

Walton Muyumba· The Boston Globe Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"French is an expert guide to its nuances."

Robert D. Kaplan· The Wall Street Journal Top of the Pile

"Ably treads the line on Nkrumah's complicated legacy."

Jennifer Szalai· The New York Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Weaving a staggering amount of history into a propulsive narrative that recasts the 20th century as a long struggle for liberation, this is a towering achievement."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"A fluent exploration of an important if often overlooked political leader whose ideas still bear consideration."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

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