….While Buccola devotes much of his effort to telling the story of the debate itself, he also provides the reader with an excellent understanding of Baldwin and Buckley’s radically different backgrounds, the events leading to the event at Cambridge, and, most importantly, reminds us of how their stark philosophical differences and verbal sparring over the years continues to inform America’s current racial divide. The evening’s debate topic? “The American dream is at the expense of the American Negro.” Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America, author Nicholas Buccola tells the story of the historic 1965 Cambridge Union debate between Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and Buckley, a staunch opponent of the movement and founder in 1955 of the conservative publication National Review. ….In The Fire is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F.

….So history is repeating itself, but as we know, understanding history may also be how we can “change the history of the world.” While there are new characters, the same tired, dreadful and horrific plot is performed. It seems racism has an enduring shelf life. ….Fifty-eight years later, in spite of the good work and hopes of many along the way, the “racial nightmare” has not ended. ….In his 1962 essay “Down at the Cross,” James Baldwin wrote quite hopefully “If we – and now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others – do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world.” Buckley Jr., and the Debate Over Race in America (Princeton University Press) Nicholas Buccola, author of The Fire is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F.

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