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

“An important learn.”―Whoopi Goldberg, The View

How the conflict between the civil rights firebrand and the daddy of contemporary conservatism continues to light up 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 main literary voice of the civil rights motion, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the motion and America’s most influential conservative mental. The subject was “the American dream is on the expense of the American Negro,” and nobody who has seen the controversy can quickly neglect it. Nicholas Buccola’s The Fireplace Is upon Us is the primary e-book to inform the total story of the occasion, the radically totally different paths that led Baldwin and Buckley to it, the controversies that adopted, and the way the controversy and the decades-long conflict between the boys continues to light up America’s racial divide as we speak.

Born in New York Metropolis solely fifteen months aside, the Harlem-raised Baldwin and the privileged Buckley couldn’t have been extra totally different, however they each rose to the peak of American mental life in the course of the civil rights motion. By the point they met in Cambridge, Buckley was decided to sound the alarm a few man he thought of an “eloquent menace.” For his half, Baldwin considered Buckley as a deluded reactionary whose recognition revealed the illness of the American soul. The stage was set for an epic confrontation that pitted Baldwin’s name for an ethical revolution in race relations in opposition to Buckley’s unabashed elitism and implicit dedication to white supremacy.

A outstanding story of race and the American dream, The Fireplace Is upon Us reveals the deep roots and lasting legacy of a battle that continues to hang-out our politics.