This  revised  biography of Franz Fanon (first published in 1973) is a welcome event for those who either missed feeling the impact of his work in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s or were so blinded by the period\u27s turmoil that Fanon\u27s life and work could not be critically evaluated. Grove Press must be congratulated for re-issuing Gendzier\u27s study, particularly since the political fervor for radical political action has passed (for now) and little profit can be expected from this book. In this day of corporate mergers and greed, a commitment to publish what is in the public interest is meritorious

Jordan, W. A., III

English

VCU Scholars Compass

tive is comparative and includes opposing philosophical perspectives as well, an inclusion that is particularly valuable for an informed evaluation of the range of critical views at that time. Brown's efforts to correct the misconceptions and to counteract the effects of the stereotypes abound­ing in the literature of white and black writers are presented concisely but clearly and sympathetically. Gabbin is less successful, however, in reconciling two threads of Brown' s  critical perspective,  somewhat problematic when combined. Brown attempted to maintain a definite place for the black folk tradition, viewed by Gabbin as "the single most pervasive influence on the literary career of Sterling A. Brown" and at the same time to insist on a single standard for the evaluation of all literature. Nonetheless,  the specificity characterizing Gabbin's presentation of the various components of Brown's critical perspective is commendable and can be used as a springboard to a more concrete blending of the strands in his critical stance. E nd-of-chapter notes and an extensive selected bibliography provide valuable references for students and scholars who will continue to impart order to this growing body of scholarship until it attains the coherence that its importance deserves. -Robbie Jean Walker Auburn University, Montgomery Irene L.  Gendzier. Franz Fanon: A Critical Study. (New York: Grove Press, Inc. , 1 985) x x ,  300 pp. ,  $8.95 paper. This "revised" biography of Franz Fanon (first published in 1 973) is a welcome event for those who either missed feeling the impact of his work in the turbulent 1 960s and 1 9 70s or were so blinded by the period's turmoil that Fanon's life and work could not be critically evaluated. Grove Press must be congratulated for re-issuing Gendzier's study, particularly since the political fervor for radical political action has passed (for now) and little profit can be expected from this book. I n  this day of corporate mergers and greed, a commitment to publish what is in the public interest is meritorious. A concern with Fanon, who was a spokesman in Africa for the Algerian revolution ( 1954-62),  requires a rekindling of interest in the possible international dimensions of the AfroAmerican. Although am­bivalent about Negritude, Fanon considered himself an internationalist, finding Negritude fin ally too confining, yet he is one of the contributors to its endurance. Fanon's Black Skins, White Masks ( 1 952) remains a critical work concerning black consciousness in the "white world."  In the spring of 1 982 in Fort·de-France, Martinique, a conference was held: Exp lorations in Sights and Sounds No. 7 (Summer 1 987) 3 1  " C ommemoration of the 20th Anniversary of Franz Fanon's Death . "  T h e  event w a s  to "reclaim Fanon for h i s  people," t h e  people of the Antilles .  A three-day conference, held in l ate February 1 987,  "Negritude, Ethnicity and Afro Cultures in the Americas ,"  attended by two of Negritude's founders,  Aime Cesaire from Martinique, now 73, and Leopold S .  Senghor, Sengal ' s  first president, now 80, was held at Florida I nternational University. The meeting attracted more than 500 persons,  the l argest international gathering on Negritude since 1 959. It attests to the continued attraction of the Pan-African identity . Fanon's troubling s piritu a l  legacy hangs over any meeting of Africans and Afro­Americans. A rereading of The Wretched of the Earth ( 1 961 ) ,  the "bible" of revolutionaries and radicals in the 1 960s and 70s and considered vital to theoreticians of the present day Iranian and Palestinian revolutions,  makes for contemporary unease. As Josie Fanon,  Fanon's  widow, asserted at UCLA in May 1 986 criticizing those in Africa, and implicitly others in the Third W orId:  D i d  those who were supposed t o  hear, d i d  they u nderstan d? Unfortun ately, in the last quarter of a century, we see the emergence of the single party that becomes an instrument o f  oppression,  the n ational bourgeoisie that takes the place of the colonizers. the military establishment that dreams of taking power from the people. and the economic and political dependence o n  old colonial powers. Saying that meetings called in Martinique and in other places duck Fanon's true legacy, Ms. Fanon declared: How can we talk about Fanon in 1 986 without talking about actual problems, the intervention of the powerful n ations in Central America, the Middle East, or Afganistan? How can we not talk about the situation in South Africa, especially when the developments confirm so many of his conclusions? D ying at age thirty-six in 1961 of leukemia at Walter Reed Hospital in W ashington,  D . C . ,  before the Algerian independence in 1 962, meant that Fanon did not live to see the Arabists take over in Algeria.  Fanon's idea of Algeria as a beacon for social revolution (including equality of the sexes) has been stood on its head. Instead of emphasizing Fanon's . importance, Algerian leaders now play down his centrality . Fanon, even before his death,  saw the assassination of his more revolutionary colleagues, was denied a position on the Politbureau and was to be refused his request to be Algeria's ambassador to Cuba. He was a useful outsider whose use was coming to an end. He died before the entire script was written. The Boston University historian points out that Fanon's  politics grew out of his psychiatric practice in France and in Algeria.  Fanon realized that the social context was critical to personal health and that the colonial situation deformed the colonized personality. Without conscious­ness of self, the assertion of the public self, there could be no cultural health. The examination of this aspect leads logically to the praxis of the militant of the Algerian Revolution. 32 Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 7 (Summer 1987) The book has informative notes ,  a useful index and a bibliography th at l ists books about Fanon published since 1 9 73. This work is useful when one embarks upon a study of Fanon. But it must not take the place of reading Fanon himself. -W. A. Jordan I I I  California State Polytechnic University, P o m o n a  Ira A. Glazier and Luigi  De Rosa,  eds.  MigrationA cross Time and Nations: Population Mo bility in Historical Contexts. (N ew York: Holmes & Meier,  1 986) viii ,  384 pp. ,  $49. 50.  This book is a collection of papers originally presented at  the 1 982 Eighth Intern ational Economic History Conference held in B udapest. As the title suggests, the volume incorporates a wide range of geo­graphical areas and historical time periods.  This multidisciplinary study represents a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives and thus highlights issues and concerns from various disciplinary p e r s p ec· tives. The twenty-two essays in the volume i n clude macro and micro case studies on several continents with authors from several countries. I t  makes information from many languages available to the English reader.  I n  a sense there is almost an encyclopedic treatment of various migrating groups and methods of analyzing their migrating experience.  A .J .H .  Latham, Frank Spooner and M . S .A.  Rao look at m i g ra t i o n  movements t o  Southeast Asia a n d  Africa.  The Indian movement east ·  ward,  the Chinese movement westward; the interaction a m o n g  the Indian,  Chinese and European elites and B atavia ;  and the sim ultaneous intern ational as well  as internal migration movements are covered respecti vely. Migration movements to the United States cover ,a variety of et h n i c  groups:  Cormac 0 Grada-Irish, Robert Swierenga-Dutch, Robert Ostergren-Swedish, Luigi Di Co  mite-Italian, Walter Kampboefner­Germ an, Avraham B arkai-German Jewish, Shaul Stampfer-East  Europian Jewish,  Julianna Puskas-Hungarian, and Ivan Cismic­Yugoslavian.  Kristan Ruggiero looks at the Waldensian m i g r a t i o n  to South America. Migration impacts and processes within towns are examined by J a n a  Englova, Deidre Mageean, and Rudolph Vecoli .  Mageean uses p a s s e n ger lists to study Ulster emigration to Philadelphia as does Charlotte Erickson in her essay on British and Irish emigration.  Vecoli i l lus tra te's the intra-ethnic differentiation that can be shown in the form ation o f  "little Italies" in Chicago. This  article critiques earlier theories of tlw Park and Burgess-Chicago school of urban sociology . Other m ethodo-Explorations in Sigh ts and Sou nds No. 7 (Summer 1 HR7) 

[Review of] Irene L. Gendzier. Franz Fanon: A Critical Study

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[Review of] Irene L. Gendzier. Franz Fanon: A Critical Study

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