A review by frownonfun
How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society by Manning Marable

3.0

I don't know if I just really had trouble finding the time for this book but it took me much longer to finish than any other book I've recently read. And I wanted to really like it but there were just too many places where it lagged or bogged down on statistical data. I realize it's important to back up your thesis with some hard numbers, when you can, but I felt it was a little excessive in some places. Like several consecutive paragraphs of just straight statistics. Most of which could have been left to the 30 pages of tables in the back of the book. Still it was a good read. If it's a subject you're interested in then you'll most likely enjoy it. I definitely learned some things I didn't know or hadn't realized about black history, racism and even sexism. It would be nice to have read "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" as a point of comparison but unfortunately I haven't gotten to that yet. I recommend the updated edition because of the "Critical Reassessment" by the author. He addresses the ways in which he may have been wrong at the time but also the ways in which much of it is still an accurate evaluation.