The Victims of Democracy: Malcolm X and the Black Revolution

This unique psychobiographical study integrates a wide and subtle view of the history of white racism and the black liberation movement with a deep and sensitive understanding of the inner world of Malcolm X. Eugene Victor Wolfenstein is a critical social theorist and a practicing psychoanalyst who argues that racism must be analyzed within a personal as well as a political context. Drawing from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm's published speeches, and a variety of historical materials, Wolfenstein interweaves Marxist and psychoanalytic concepts to examine the evolution of Malcolm's consciousness--from his youth through his successive incarnations as hustler, prisoner, black Muslim minister, and African-American revolutionary. Exploring the complex interplay of politics, economics, and the human psyche, this powerful work of critical social theory interprets the life history of Malcolm X and provides a cogent historical analysis of the black liberation movement in the United States.