The two volumes of Kelley and Lewis's To Make Our World Anew integrate the work of eleven leading historians into the most up-to-date and comprehensive account available of African American history, from the first Africans brought as slaves into the Americas, right up to today's black filmmakers and politicians. This second volume covers the crucial post-Reconstruction years and traces the migration of blacks to the major cities. It describes the remarkable birth of the Harlem Renaissance, the hardships of the Great Depression, and the service of African Americans in World War II. Readers witness the struggle for Civil Rights in the 1950s and '60s and finally, the emergence of today's black middle class. Here is a panoramic view of African-American life, rich in gripping first-person accounts and short character sketches that invite readers to relive history as African Americans have experienced it.
Robin D. G. Kelley is Professor of African-American Studies at Columbia University and author of several books, most recently Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. He lives in New York City. Earl Lewis is Provost and the Asa G. Candler Professor of History and African-American Studies at Emory University. He is the author of several books including In Their Own Interests, Love On Trial (with Heidi Ardizzone) and Defending Diversity (with Patricia Gurin and Jeffrey Lehman). He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.