This first full-length biography of Harrison offers a portrait of a man ahead of his time in synthesizing race and class struggles in the U.S. and a leading influence on better known activists from Marcus Garvey to A. Philip Randolph. Harrison emigrated from St. Croix in 1883 and went on to become a foremost organizer for the Socialist Party in New York, the editor of the Negro World, and founder and leader of the World War I–era New Negro movement. Harrison’s enormous political and intellectual appetites were channeled into his work as an orator, writer, political activist, and critic. He was an avid bibliophile, reportedly the first regular black book reviewer, who helped to develop the public library in Harlem into an international center for research on black culture. But Harrison was a freelancer so candid in his criticism of the establishment—black and white—that he had few allies or people interested in protecting his legacy. Historian Perry’s detailed research brings to life a transformative figure who has been little recognized for his contributions to progressive race and class politics. --Vanessa Bush
"Dr Jeffrey B. Perry's book on Hubert Harrison is an invaluable resource on an important figure in early 20th Century America. Five stars. It's required reading."--Colin Benjamin
--Black Star News
"Independent scholar and historian Jeffrey B. Perry reintroduced a forgotten legend of the Harlem Renaissance . . . . This revolutionary figure's name was Hubert Harrison."--Maria Bibbs --Madison Times
"Perry's popular work is the first multi-volume biography of an Afro-Caribbean...[it] has prompted...major universities to incorporate the write,...and political activist into their curriculum."--Genevieve Ryan --Virgin Islands Daily News
"While Jeffrey Perry has rescued Hubert Harrison for the historians, perhaps it is book reviewers who should erect a memorial to him. For he was one of our own."--Scott McLemee --Columbia Journalism Review
"By examining the mind, talent, varied interests, achievements, challenges, contradictions and complexities of a voice that's been overshadowed, Hubert Harrison
shines light on a notable figure in American history."-Felicia Pride --The Root
Perry's detailed research brings to life a transformative figure who has been little recognized for his contributions to progressive race and class politics.
Perry's clear prose allows access to a three-dimensional picture of Harrison's life.
An excellent work and a great contribution to scholarship... Perry must be applauded.
(Bill Fletcher, Jr. Z Magazine
[ Hubert Harrison] offers profound insights on race, class, religion, immigration, war, democracy, and social change in America.
Through Perry's prodigious research Harrison's brilliance can once more engage a generation eager to find inspiration and renewed political spirit.
(Herb Boyd The Neworld Review
[A] brilliant masterpiece.
(Wilson J. Moses American Historical Review
This critically important book will do for Harrison what David Levering Lewis did for Du Bois... Essential.
This meticulously-researched book fills and enormous gap in the knowledge of black activist intellectuals in the US.
(Carole Boyce Davies Working USA
Rich and exhaustively researched.
(Clarence Lang Against the Current
Scholars and students... are indeed indebted to Jeffrey Perry for this magisterial study of Hubert Harrison.
(Larry A. Greene New Politics
Perry offer(s) new and provocative analyses of African American leadership during the early twentieth century.
(LaShawn Harris Journal of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era
Hubert Harrison is more than a work of scholarship. It is a timely act of generous recognition and restitution of a Black Caribbean scholar who played a significant role in the story of Harlem Radicalism.
(Black Theology: An International Journal
Perry's biography gives an illuminating account not only of Harrison's strengths and weaknesses but also of the larger historical contraditions informing Black radicalism and Marxism during Harrison's lifetime.
(Science & Society
Perry's rich biography of Harrison is filled with examples of leadership that would eventually be followed nationwide and result in black political power in Harlem.
(Sterling Johnson Journal of American Ethnic History