Paul Robeson: A Biography
Aug 2014 · Open Road Media
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About this ebook
The remarkable life of Paul Robeson, quintessential Harlem Renaissance man: scholar, all-American, actor, activist, and firebrand
Born the son of an ex-slave in New Jersey in 1898, Paul Robeson, endowed with multiple gifts, seemed destined for fame. In his youth, he was as tenacious in the classroom as he was on the football field. After graduating from Rutgers with high honors, he went on to earn a law degree at Columbia. Soon after, he began a stage and film career that made him one of the country’s most celebrated figures.
But it was not to last. Robeson became increasingly vocal about defending black civil rights and criticizing Western imperialism, and his radical views ran counter to the country’s evermore conservative posture. During the McCarthy period, Robeson’s passport was lifted, he was denounced as a traitor, and his career was destroyed. Yet he refused to bow. His powerful and tragic story is emblematic of the major themes of twentieth-century history.
Martin Duberman’s exhaustive biography is the result of years of research and interviews, and paints a portrait worthy of its incredible subject and his improbable story. Duberman uses primary documents to take us deep into Robeson’s life, giving Robeson the due that he so richly deserves.
Born the son of an ex-slave in New Jersey in 1898, Paul Robeson, endowed with multiple gifts, seemed destined for fame. In his youth, he was as tenacious in the classroom as he was on the football field. After graduating from Rutgers with high honors, he went on to earn a law degree at Columbia. Soon after, he began a stage and film career that made him one of the country’s most celebrated figures.
But it was not to last. Robeson became increasingly vocal about defending black civil rights and criticizing Western imperialism, and his radical views ran counter to the country’s evermore conservative posture. During the McCarthy period, Robeson’s passport was lifted, he was denounced as a traitor, and his career was destroyed. Yet he refused to bow. His powerful and tragic story is emblematic of the major themes of twentieth-century history.
Martin Duberman’s exhaustive biography is the result of years of research and interviews, and paints a portrait worthy of its incredible subject and his improbable story. Duberman uses primary documents to take us deep into Robeson’s life, giving Robeson the due that he so richly deserves.
About the author
Martin Duberman is distinguished professor emeritus of history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), where he founded the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, the first university-based LGBT research center in the United States. He is the author of more than twenty books, including three memoirs about his experience as a politically active gay man, and The Martin Duberman Reader (2013). A finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Duberman has received a Bancroft Prize, two Lambda Literary Awards, the American Historical Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Publishing Triangle’s Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2012, Amherst College presented Duberman with an honorary degree of doctor of humane letters.
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