Product Description

From hustling, drug addiction and armed violence in America's black ghettos Malcolm X turned, in a dramatic prison conversion, to the puritanical fervour of the Black Muslims. As their spokesman he became identified in the white press as a terrifying teacher of race hatred; but to his direct audience, the oppressed American blacks, he brought hope and self-respect. This autobiography (written with Alex Haley) reveals his quick-witted integrity, usually obscured by batteries of frenzied headlines, and the fierce idealism which led him to reject both liberal hypocrisies and black racialism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #212025 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

About the Author
Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.

Customer Reviews

I am not worthy
I must say I feel rather humble in my attempt to review this autobiography, hence the brevity of my Review. However I cannot sufficiently stress how the account of Malcolm X's life has given me as a native African (and gives the reader regardless of ethnic background) a crucially important Sociological, Philosophical, Political, Islamic and Pan African insight into African American culture and its' shaping in historical context.

where it doesn't careen off onto Malcolm's diabtribes, it's a great book with compelling storytelling
A compelling and often riveting look into one of the country's most controversial figures. We follow the story of Malcolm Little, whose family was endlessly persecuted in Nebraska before moving to small town Michigan where he manages to lead a relatively normal childhood though is disquieted when a well-intentioned teacher negates his dream of being a successful lawyer, on the basis of race. A visit to his half-sister in Boston exposes young Malcolm to an exhilarating lifestyle that proves irresistable.

I found his immersion in black 1950s urban culture to be one of the high points of the book. Malcolm manages to convey a strong sense of all that the city had to offer to a tall sociable black man. His sociability and pan-race interaction through his early legal jobs and onto hustling made the virulence of his anti-white racism that much more surprising. Here was a man who had a healthy acceptance of racial diversity even while living a degenerate lifestyle. The storytelling as Malcolm found himself trapped more and more by forces of law and dangerous hustlers was at a peak.

Unfortunately at this point the book's plot begins its precipitous decline in action-oriented prose. His revelations and stories from prison are still full of life though this is the point at which Haley begins to sacrifice plot by occasionally interspersing Malcolm's tedious diatribes, which become more and more lengthy as the book wears on. By the end, the reader is filtering through pages of how the white man's corrupting society causes ill to both races, how the liberal white man is only superficially sympathetic, just to wait for something new to happen.

I imagine this lends a sense of authenticity to the book. As mentioned in the book's forward, Haley apparently had to listen to hours of these repetitive acerbic discourses before he could even get any family history to write down. At one point, he was worried he would have to cancel the project.

There is another aspect explored by the book that the casual reader might not appreciate - the interplay between a public figure and the press. On account of the interviews I've done and what the writers have done with them afterward, I identified deeply with the relationship Malcolm seemed to have with an ever sensationalist media.

Overall, when TAOMX is telling a story, it succeeds brilliantly; when it isn't, it founders equally as spectacularly.

Changed my Life . . .
Simply put, this book changed the way I behave, the way I see & interpret things & basically my entire perspective of social & religious philosophy. That's all.

R