With a new introduction, the groundbreaking classic RACE MATTERS affirms its position as the bestselling, most influential, and most original articulation of the urgent issues in America’s ongoing racial debate.

RACE MATTERS
by Cornel West
Beacon Press, 2001

Cornel West is at the forefront of thinking about race. First published in 1993, on the one-year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, RACE MATTERS became a national best seller that has gone on to sell more than half a million copies. West addresses a range of issues, from the crisis in black leadership and the myths surrounding black sexuality to affirmative action, the new black conservatism, and the strained relations between Jews and African Americans. He never hesitates to confront the prejudices of all his readers or wavers in his insistence that they share a common destiny. Bold in its thought and written with a redemptive passion grounded in the tradition of the African-American church, RACE MATTERS is a book that is at once challenging and deeply healing.

« [A] compelling blend of philosphy, sociology and political commentary…It directly takes on some of the most volatile issues facing American society today…One can only applaud the ferocious moral vision and astute intellect on display in these pages. »  ̶̶ The New York Times

Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in three years and obtained his MA and PhD in philosophy at Princeton University. He has taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Paris. He has written twenty books and edited thirteen, including including Keeping Faith, Prophetic Fragments, and, with bell hooks, Breaking Bread. He has been Professor of Religion and Director of Afro-American Studies at Princeton University since 1988, and was recently appointed Professor of Afro-American Studies and the Philosophy of Religion at Harvard University.