Waldo E. Martin, Jr. is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.

Waldo E. Martin, Jr. draws on the development of postwar black aesthetic-cultural forms to read African-American political history. He argues that what developed between the 1940s and 1970s was a ‘distinctive black cultural politics’ where culture and politics overlapped and merged… He keeps the reader focused on his central themes of hope and possibility for black political and cultural struggle between 1940 and 1979 and the drive for freedom, equality, and justice underlying cultural politics and the political culture… No Coward Soldiers constitutes a strong addition to cultural studies and analyses of African-American politics alike. While it doesn’t seek to replace more detailed historical studies of black power and civil rights that already exist, it does provide a new outlook on those histories. It is indeed an important book that ought to be read by academics and students with an interest in either or both disciplines.

Waldo E. Martin, Jr. is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.

Waldo E. Martin, Jr. draws on the development of postwar black aesthetic-cultural forms to read African-American political history. He argues that what developed between the 1940s and 1970s was a ‘distinctive black cultural politics’ where culture and politics overlapped and merged… He keeps the reader focused on his central themes of hope and possibility for black political and cultural struggle between 1940 and 1979 and the drive for freedom, equality, and justice underlying cultural politics and the political culture… No Coward Soldiers constitutes a strong addition to cultural studies and analyses of African-American politics alike. While it doesn’t seek to replace more detailed historical studies of black power and civil rights that already exist, it does provide a new outlook on those histories. It is indeed an important book that ought to be read by academics and students with an interest in either or both disciplines.