On the ruins of modernity

Within the rich cultural and political contexts, Miller proposes that as the centuries turned and the nation became more diverse, the great Chicago Renaissances--especially the literary cultural ones--never really ended. The nation’s cities simply became more richly complexioned, culturally nuanced. Hence, the great Popular and Cultural Fronts of the thirties resurfaced as the innovative Black Arts Movement of the late sixties and early seventies. By the last third of the Twentieth Century, Chicago came to epitomize a new coherence among several of the most gifted African American writers in the nation's history. In addition to Brooks and Wright, the figures included Lorraine Hansberry, and, yes, the nearly forgotten Ronald L. Fair. As a whole, the four re-centered the primary location of literary artistry in the United States. Though the great trace of the African American literary imagination had nearly always led through New York City--the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties--the new trajectory diverted the path toward the Great Lakes. It has taken until the early decades of the 21st century to realize that the cultural map of the last one had really changed. The book, a startling epiphany of post-modern American culture, will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in African American history and politics as well as to literary critics who will find the book innovative and imaginative.