New Book: The Autobiography of Malcolm X

I'll be honest with you: I didn't like Spike Lee's movie about Malcolm X. But when I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X several years ago, I thought it was absolutely first-rate. The man who became famous as Malcolm X (he changed his name more than once) allowed Alex Haley to do a series of interviews with him over a period of time and the result is an excellent read - whether you are interested in "Black Studies" or not.

Say you're a criminal justice student. I highly recommend this book to you as an example of a criminal - a man who described himself as being more like an animal than a person - who used his time behind bars to make changes that are way beyond what we might call "rehabilitation."

Or for me, as a librarian, the book's value is also about the power of reading. It says a lot about the power of information in general - being a person who changed his worldview a number of times may have reduced Malcolm's effectiveness as a leader, but at the same time it makes him a more interesting person to read about (and Alex Haley deserves much of the credit).

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, like many biographies, says a lot about history through the lens of one person's life. Along with John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Malcolm X was an American martyr at a very important time in American history.

*Fond du Lac Campus *call number BP 223 .Z8 L57943 1992

*This book will be kept on our "New Books" shelf (in front of the Circulation Desk) for a few weeks before being placed in our general collection.