Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is an intellectual who speaks to the complex dynamics of the American experience. His most well-known books, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, and In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, take a wide look at black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States, and the challenges our democracy faces. He is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In his writings, the country’s complexities, vulnerabilities, and the opportunities for hope come into full view. Hope that is, in one of his favorite quotes from W.E.B Du Bois, “not hopeless, but a bit unhopeful.”
He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies, a program he first became involved with shaping as a doctoral candidate in Religion at Princeton.
Glaude’s most recent book, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, is scheduled for release August 4, 2020. He is a columnist for Time Magazine and a MSNBC contributor on programs like Morning Joe and Deadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace. Glaude also hosts the podcast AAS 2.
