Containing a wealth of new scholarship and rare primary documents, The Black Jacobins Reader provides a comprehensive analysis of C. L. R. James's classic history of the Haitian Revolution. In addition to considering the book's literary qualities and its role in James's emergence as a writer and thinker, the contributors discuss its production, context, and enduring importance in relation to debates about decolonization, globalization, postcolonialism, and the emergence of neocolonial modernity. The Reader also includes the reflections of activists and novelists on the book's influence and a transcript of James's 1970 interview with Studs Terkel.  Contributors. Mumia Abu-Jamal, David Austin, Madison Smartt Bell, Anthony Bogues, John H. Bracey Jr., Rachel Douglas, Laurent Dubois, Claudius K. Fergus, Carolyn E. Fick, Charles Forsdick, Dan Georgakas, Robert A. Hill, Christian HØgsbjerg, Selma James, Pierre Naville, Nick Nesbitt, Aldon Lynn Nielsen, Matthew Quest, David M. Rudder, Bill Schwarz, David Scott, Russell Maroon Shoatz, Matthew J. Smith, Studs Terkel

"This book is a welcome contribution that can assist in ensuring that [C. L. R.] James continues to educate future generations of activists." - Brian Richardson (Socialist Review) "What the The Black Jacobins Reader accomplishes is a masterful dialogue not only with respect to The Black Jacobins itself, but with historical writing in general, bringing together some of the most notable voices in Haitian and Caribbean intellectual history to consider the incredible durability of James’s work. The Black Jacobins Reader also manages to stage this dialogue as one that is preoccupied with the ongoing predicament of our time – that of asking the question, time and again: what is freedom?" - Bedour Alagraa (Contemporary Political Theory) "Provides the most thorough and wide-ranging study of James’s seminal text to date.... The Reader reminds us of the audacity of James’s text in its time and the inspiration it provided to generations of readers...." - Kate Quinn (French Studies) “First, and most importantly, the Reader offers a documentary history of how The Black Jacobins has been studied and how it helped to inspire new knowledge and new movements. Second, the Reader persistently portrays James’s meditations on the Haitian Revolution as contributions to the philosophy of history.” - Jesse Olsavsky (The Black Scholar) "Containing rare primary materials, new scholarship, and personal reflections from an impressive array of activists, writers, and scholars, The Black Jacobins Reader affirms the enduring relevance of James’s achievement. Forsdick and HØgsbjerg’s Black Jacobins Reader stands as testament to the fact that some 80 years after its first publication, The Black Jacobins continues to inspire, challenge, and provoke." - Philip Kaisary (Slavery & Abolition) "This exhaustive collection of essays, reflections, and introductions to James’s epic treatment of the Haitian Revolution will be the authoritative companion to his history for decades to come. . . . An important contribution to postcolonial and Caribbean studies . . . A bracing and consequential collection." - Justin Rogers-Cooper (SX Salon) "The Black Jacobins Reader provides a wealth of bibliographical sources and historical documents (including a fascinating conversation between James and Studs Terkel about Black Jacobins), new scholarship, and reminiscences about James and the contexts in which Black Jacobins was used during the 1960s and 1970s. . . . The Black Jacobins Reader is an invaluable tool for contextualizing one of the great classics of the black Marxist tradition." - James Smethurst (Science & Society)

Charles Forsdick is James Barrow Professor of French at the University of Liverpool.

Christian HØgsbjerg is Teaching Fellow in Caribbean History at University College London's Institute of the Americas.

Robert A. Hill is Research Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles.