The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America

by Nicholas Buccola

Overview

How the legendary debate between a civil rights firebrand and the father of modern conservatism illuminates America's racial divide

On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to witness a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America's most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was "the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro," and no one who has seen the debate can soon forget it. Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is upon Us is the first book to tell the full story of the event, the radically different paths that led Baldwin and Buckley to it, and how the debate and the decades-long clash between the men illuminates the racial divide that continues to haunt America today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691210773
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	504
Sales rank:	1,067,269
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Nicholas Buccola is the author of The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Salon, and many other publications. He is the Elizabeth and Morris Glicksman Chair in Political Science at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. Twitter @buccola_nick

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Prologue 1

Chapter 1 The Ghetto and the Mansion, 1924-46 8

Chapter 2 Disturbing the Peace, 1946-54 27

Chapter 3 Joining the Battle, 1955-61 62

Chapter 4 Taking Responsibility, 1961-62 127

Chapter 5 In the Eye of the Storm, 1963-64 179

Chapter 6 "What Concerns Me Most": Baldwin at Cambridge 225

Chapter 7 "The Faith of Our Fathers": Buckley at Cambridge 267

Chapter 8 Lighting the Fuse 301

Epilogue. The Fire Is upon Us 357

Acknowledgments 369

Appendix. Transcript of the Baldwin versus Buckley Debate at the Cambridge Union 373

Notes 401

Bibliography 459

Index 477

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"With flair and grace, Nicholas Buccola provides the unforgettable backstory to a momentous debate—a clash of antiracist and racist ideas—over the very meaning of the American dream. It is a debate that still resonates today. A vital read."—Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist

"Drawing deep from archives while reminding us of that classic, grainy video of Baldwin and Buckley squaring off in England, Buccola brilliantly illuminates the American dilemma of race in the context of the early sixties, as well as now. As historian and political analyst, he deftly captures these two iconic wordsmiths at the peak of their divergent powers. How forcefully the past is past, but also so present in the hands of a superb scholar."—David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

"Two important voices. Two different visions of America. The Fire Is upon Us details the extraordinary gulf between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr., which set the stage for their fateful encounter in Cambridge in 1965 and brilliantly describes our current malaise. With care and balance, Buccola examines these two historic figures and what followed from their views on race and the American dream. This is a must-read—especially as we are forced to choose between competing visions of who we take ourselves to be as Americans."—Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul

"To answer the question 'How did we get to where we are today?' this stimulating book takes us back to a pivotal moment when the civil rights movement was struggling to change America and the conservative movement was attempting, in the words of William F. Buckley Jr., to stand 'athwart history, yelling Stop!' Nicholas Buccola's central thesis is controversial and provocative—in every sense of the word."—Carl T. Bogus, author of Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism

"An insightful, thoroughly researched, and well-written analysis of a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in America."—David Leeming, author of James Baldwin: A Biography

"This rich and provocative book follows Baldwin and Buckley from their earliest days to their confrontation on the debate stage and on TV, showing how they talked past one another. The Fire Is upon Us is excellent history but it's also brimming with relevance for contemporary racial politics."—Patrick Allitt, author of The Conservatives

"Written with marvelous style, The Fire Is upon Us is captivating, provocative, and exciting. Through its deep and thoughtful portraits of Baldwin and Buckley and its readings of American culture, politics, and history, the book casts light on the national past, present, and (one presumes) future."—Susan McWilliams Barndt, editor of A Political Companion to James Baldwin

Editorial Reviews

"Winner of the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction, Oregon Book Awards"

"Shortlisted for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa Society"

Shortlisted for the MAAH Stone Book Award, Museum of African American History

One of Whoopi Goldberg's Favorite Things, ABC The View

New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

Chicago Tribune writer John Warner's Book That Will Help You Better Understand the Messed-Up Nature of the World

One of The Undefeated's 25 Can't Miss Books of 2019

One of The Progressive's Favorite Books of 2019

One of LitHub's 50 Favorite Books of the Year

One of Inside Higher Ed's Books to Give the Educator in Your Life for the Holidays

From the Publisher

Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is Upon Us is both a dual biography of Buckley and Baldwin and an acute commentary on a great intellectual prizefight…It is tempting to view the Baldwin-Buckley debate as a small victory for the idea of racial equality: Baldwin carried the floor vote 544 to 164. But part of the wisdom of The Fire Is Upon Us is that it leaves the import of the evening open to question.

The New York Times Book Review - Thomas Meaney

"Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is upon Us is a riveting, expansive companion text to a historic debate that swept the nation. . . . Following the men's journeys with meticulous detail, Buccola's biographical/historical/political hybrid proffers valuable insights for the current day."

Foreword Reviews

"A gripping snapshot of a country riven by injustice yet anxious about radical change."

New York Times Book Review

2019-06-30
A study of two acclaimed American thinkers on opposite sides of the political spectrum that underscores the enormous race and class divisions in 1960s America, many of which still exist today.

Buccola (Political Science/Linfield Coll.; The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass, 2012, etc.) grounds this engaging comparison between James Baldwin, "second in international prominence only to Martin Luther King Jr. as the voice of the black freedom struggle," and prominent conservative William F. Buckley in a debate between the two held at the Cambridge Union on Feb. 18, 1965. Taking up the agreed-upon topic of "The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro," Baldwin addressed the packed audience "in the position of a kind of Jeremiah" (as a child, he was steeped in biblical teachings from the pulpits of Harlem storefront churches). He poured forth the litany of demoralization that African Americans suffer under white supremacy. It was a powerful, moving speech, and Buckley countered it by scolding Baldwin for "flogging ‘our civilization' " and appealing to the audience on the importance of keeping "the rule of law" and "faith of our fathers." By a 3-1 margin, the youthful audience favored Baldwin's speech. Yet Buccola builds his well-rendered narrative by offering alternating looks at how the two American intellectuals and writers developed their arguments up to that point. Indeed, both were deeply imprinted by their different upbringings. Throughout his entire life, Baldwin wrote about the Harlem "ghetto" of economic distress and the "moral lives of those trapped within [it]." Buckley, who hailed from a wealthy Connecticut family and attended a prep school and Yale, where he was a member of Skull and Bones, stuck to the dogma, inherited from his father, of "devout Catholicism, antidemocratic individualism, hostility to collectivism in economics, and a strong devotion to hierarchy—including racial hierarchy—in the social sphere."

An elucidating work that makes effective use of comparison and contrast.

Kirkus Reviews