Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America Paperback – Import, 1 November 1992

I read a review that this is the best biography of Malcolm X so was pleased to be able to obtain it for my daughter. The condition was reasonable, not great but considering the age then as expected

got it for my boyfriend and he love it.

Despite some good facts on Malcolm X's childhood, this book is very misleading and readers should be cautious. Louis DeCaro gave a good summary of Bruce Perry's book. While Bruce Perry's biography contains some very useful information about Malcolm X's childhood, people who rigorously study Malcolm X will see through his twisted interpretations and misquotes throughout the book. Scores of pages in this biography are filled with assumptions, misinformation, misquotes, unnecessary psychoanalysis, and innuendos. To give an example, see pg. 337. At the beginning of the page, Bruce Perry claims that Malcolm X questioned his religion at the end of his life. It is true that he questioned the version of Islam taught to him by Elijah Muhammad, but there is no evidence whatsoever that Malcolm X questioned Sunni Islam after his official conversion in spring 1964. In fact, by contrast, Malcolm X became more religious. He studied Islam rigorously for two months in Egypt at Al-Azhar University and Saudi Arabia in the summer of 1964, he brought Shaykh Ahmed Hassoun from Sudan to Harlem to be his spiritual mentor and Imam of his Muslim Mosque, Inc., he formed close ties to the Muslim World League (Saudi Arabia) and the Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt), he obtained 15 scholarships from the Muslim World League and 20 scholarships from Al-Azhar University to give to members of his Muslim Mosque, Inc. to study Islam in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, respectively. . .and there are countless interviews with friends Malcolm X spent time with in Europe, such as Ebrahimsa Mohammed, who saw in Malcolm X a devout Sunni Muslim who wished to spread the "orthodox religion of Islam" in America and "undo the harm that he caused" by teaching Elijah Muhammad's "false doctrine." The month of Malcolm X's assassination, he was trying to open a second Mosque (in Philadelphia or Boston). The night before Malcolm X's assassination, he was typing answers to Said Ramadan's questions about how Malcolm X would spread Islam, and his answers revealed that part of the reason Elijah Muhammad wanted him dead was because he was trying to spread Sunni Islam among nonwhites, which made him a threat to the Nation of Islam since some of the NOI's followers would leave to become real orthodox Muslims.Malcolm X was a devoted believer in Sunni Islam and made no indication of questioning Sunni Islam before he died, period. Nevertheless, Bruce Perry twists facts to try to get the naive reader to believe otherwise. As proof that Malcolm X "questioned Islam", Perry quotes Malcolm X as "bitterly" telling a group of listeners that if their religion hadn't benefited them any more than it had, they should "forget it." However, anyone who knows Malcolm X's speeches knows that Perry blatantly yanked that quote out of context. That quote comes from Malcolm X's April 12, 1964 Detroit speech, The Ballot or the Bullet, which is one day before he left for Mecca. Here is the full quote in context:"I'm still a Muslim. That is, my religion is still Islam. [applause] My religion is still Islam. I still credit Mr. Muhammad for what I know and what I am. He's the one who opened my eyes. [applause] At present I am the minister of the newly founded Muslim Mosque Incorporated, which has its offices in the Theresa Hotel right in the heart of Harlem, that's the black belt in New York City. And when we realize that Adam Clayton Powell, is a Christian minister, he has Abyssinian Baptist Church, but at the same time he's more famous for his political struggling. And Dr. King is a Christian minister from Atlanta Georgia, or in Atlanta Georgia, but he's become more famous for being involved in the civil rights struggle. There's another in New York, Rev. Galamison, I don't know if you've heard of him out here, he's a Christian minister from Brooklyn, but has become famous for his fight against the segregated school system in Brooklyn. Rev. Cleage, right here, is a Christian minister, here in Detroit, he's head of the Freedom Now Party. All of these are Christian ministers...all of these are Christian ministers but they don't come to us as Christian ministers, they come to us as fighters in some other category.I am a Muslim minister. The same as they are Christian ministers, I'm a Muslim minister. And I don't believe in fighting today on any one front, but on all fronts. In fact, I'm a Black Nationalist freedom fighter. Islam is my religion but I believe my religion is my personal business. It governs my personal life, my personal morals. And my religious philosophy is personal between me and the God in whom I believe, just as the religious philosophy of these others is between them and the God in whom they believe. And this is best this way. Were we to come out here discussing religion, we'd have too many differences from the out start and we could never get together.So today, though Islam is my religious philosophy, my political, economic and social philosophy is black nationalism... As I say, if we bring up religion, we'll have differences, we'll have arguments, and we'll never be able to get together. But if we keep our religion at home, keep our religion in the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our God, but when we come out here we have a fight that's common to all of us against a enemy who is common to all of us. . .So as you can see, brothers and sisters...this afternoon it is not our intention to discuss religion. We're going to forget religion. If we bring up religion we'll be in an argument. And the best way to keep away from arguments and differences, as I said earlier, put your religion at home, in the closet, keep it between you and your God. Because if it hasn't done anything more for you than it has, you need to forget it anyway."Bruce Perry then, on the same page, claims that "despite Malcolm's 'new' [tolerant] position on Jews, he fueled anti-Semitic sentiment by suggesting that most of Harlem's slumlords were Jews who lived on the Grand Concourse." That is complete baloney. The entire quote from Malcolm that Bruce Perry is referencing can be found in the book, Malcolm X Speaks, Malcolm never mentioned the Jews. He pointed out that many of the landlords who exploit the black community happen to live in Grand Concourse. It was a Jewish member of the audience who took offense, telling Malcolm that most people living in the Grand Concourse are Jewish. Malcolm countered, telling the audience that he did not say anything about Jews and that not only Jews live in the Grand Concourse. The audience member accused him of being anti-Semitic for his statement, and Malcolm intelligently countered. It remains a fact that many slumlords did live in the Grand Concourse. Someone is not anti-Semitic for merely pointing out a fact.Then on the next page, 338, Bruce Perry mentioned how Malcolm was politically backed in a corner because he was less militant than the black radicals, but more militant than the civil rights movement. This was true and Malcolm expressed that frustration, but Bruce Perry again took a Malcolm X quote from The Ballot or the Bullet way out of context to force his point, saying, "Out of the blue one day, as he was ostensibly talking about something else, he bluntly summarized his dilemma: 'So we're trapped. Trapped! Double-trapped! Triple-trapped! Any way we go, we find that we're trapped. And every kind of solution that someone comes up with is just another trap.'"How can anyone trust Bruce Perry's interpretations when he so blatantly misuses Malcolm X quotes? That quote from Malcolm had absolutely nothing to do with his political dilemma. He was solely talking to the audience about economics. Here is the full context:"And you and I are in a double trap because not only do we lose by taking our money someplace else and spending it, when we try and spend it in our own community we're trapped because we haven't had sense enough to set up stores and control the businesses of our community. The man who is controlling the stores in our community is a man who doesn't look like we do. He's a man who doesn't even live in the community. So you and I, even when we try and spend our money on the block where we live or the area where we live, we're spending it with a man who, when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money in another part of the town.So we're trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped. Any way we go, we find that we're trapped. Any every kind of solution that someone comes up with is just another trap. But the political and economic philosophy of black nationalism;the economic philosophy of black nationalism shows our people the importance of setting up these little stores, and developing them and expanding them into larger operations. Woolworth didn't start out big like they are today; they started out with a dime store, and expanded, and expanded, and expanded until today they are all over the country and all over the world and they getting some of everybody's money."Right here, for lack of time, I have only pointed out problematic misuses of Malcolm X quotes by Bruce Perry on two pages, 337 and 338 in his book. Yet this blatant misuse of Malcolm X quotes was strikingly common throughout the book. . .I encountered this on numerous pages. Bruce Perry also tried to make it look like Malcolm X bombed his own house and failed to mention facts that favored Malcolm's position that the NOI did it. Sadly, someone only reading Bruce Perry's book will not get both sides of the story, nor will they know that members of the NOI eventually admitted to bombing Malcolm's house. . .and there was certainly evidence that some law enforcement were complicit. These are just a few of the problems I have with this book. It has excellent footnotes at the end, and great information about Malcolm X's childhood, but if someone were to only read this book without having great familiarity with Malcolm's speeches, interviews, and other primary sources, they would get a skewed understanding of Malcolm X.

I want to "THANK YOU" for the care and love you showed in the treatment of this book, I AM CLEARLY THE WINNER and will continue to do business with you as well as tell others that you are people of your word !!!!!!! ( THAT POSTCARD WAS A CLASS TOUCH, OMG!!!!)

I understand why a reader might have an ambivalence about this book - at least one other Amazon reviewer commented on Perry's interjecting his own opinions into the mix. Perry does indeed freely share his own thoughts on why Malcolm does what he does, which initially reminded me of the unnecessary analysis of jazz writer James Lincoln Collier, which I found somewhat annoying and which contributed to my initally putting the book down.Yet the second time I picked it up I had a fresh appreciation for it, and I can forgive what I initially saw as a flaw. This is partly because Perry does not beat you over the head with it, and because, perhaps more to the point, he did his homework and may well have come to know Malcolm better than anyone else, including Malcolm himself. Perry interviewed several hundred friends, relatives and others who were part of Malcolm's life from childhood on, and he's an excellent researcher who often cites several sources for a single comment. Thankfully, he is most definitely not the bookish biographer who simply lays out facts carefully culled from archival sources. He has done a remarkable job of wrapping his head around a highly intelligent, complex and contradictory subject, and while it's clear that he respects Malcolm highly, he's also clear-eyed and doesn't hesitate to straighten out inconsistencies or inaccuracies, either in what Malcolm says or in what others said about him.The more I read it (and as I write this I'm not quite finished), the more I think Malcolm has been done deeply right by Perry. And how cool is this guy, that he puts a picture of Malcolm thumbing through a book on the very last page of the book, which thus becomes the first thing to greet you when you do the very same thing? Absolutely brilliant!