This Division in Our House: James Baldwin and the Myth of America. Chapter One: Harlem on His Mind

Faculty: Amy Kittelstrom

History

College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts

James Baldwin (1924–1987) belongs at the center of the modern American intellectual tradition, not only in Black Studies and queer theory but in general study. My book uses his reconstructed reading to provide the first intellectual history of Baldwin, identifying how he drew on both the Black Freedom Struggle and white liberal thought to critique the American idea; the chapter of this book I will complete during this fellowship period will bring his Harlem to life. Using a previously undiscovered book proposal from the Baldwin papers at the Schomburg, “Harlem on His Mind” will embed Baldwin’s own life in the longer history of African-American resistance to domination and the simultaneous absorption and critique of the American idea.