Negro with a Hat

Reviews / Votes

In Negro With a Hat, he has produced a searching, vivid, and (as the title suggests) complex account of Garvey's short but consequential life. * Steve Hahn, The New Republic * The story of Marcus Garvey, the charismatic and tireless black leader who had a meteoric rise and fall in the late 1910s and early '20s, makes for enthralling reading, and Garvey has found an engaging and objective biographer in Colin Grant.... Grant's book is not all politics, ideology, money and lawsuits. It is also an engrossing social history.... 'Negro With a Hat' is an achievement on a scale Garvey might have appreciated. * New York Times Book Review * Dazzling, definitive biography of the controversial activist who led the 1920s "Back to Africa" movement.... Grant's learned passion for his subject shimmers on every page A riveting and well-wrought volume that places Garvey solidly in the pantheon of important 20th-century black leaders. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) * Dense with detail, but consistently readable, this splendid book is certain to become the definitive biography. Garvey was a dreamer and a doer; Grant captures the fascination of both. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) * Grant's strength lies in his ability to re-create political moods and offer compelling sketches of colorful individuals and their organizations.... Negro With a Hat is an engaging and readable introduction to a complicated and contentious historical actor who, in his time, possessed a unique capacity to inspire devotion and hatred, adulation and fear. * Chicago Tribune * Grant's biography ably captures the Garvey moment, although, perhaps wisely, he leaves the many contradictions in Garvey's character unresolved. * The New Yorker * Informative and fascinating, Grant's profile of Garvey is a vital contribution. * Booklist * Grant...provides a monumental, nuanced and broadly sympathetic portrait.... Grant's book - his first - is a welcome and scholarly corrective. * Financial Times * If a few blacks congregating on a street corner is still considered a threat to National Security, you can imagine the problems that Marcus Garvey encountered when he organized a whole bunch of them. Hounded by the Federal Government, the right, the left, the usual arm chair intellectuals and academics, Garvey found himself constantly under attack, yet, like the Napoleon, with whom some compared "The Man With A Hat," Garvey survived to fight on. He was also a prophet, predicting the day when KKK thinking would become mainstream. Colin Grant has not only written the best biography of one of the most fascinating persons of the 20th Century, but, for a historical work, an exciting read, part romance, part big screen political thriller. * Ishmael Reed * Critics on both sides of the Atlantic seem to agree that this passionate and well-balanced work will go a long way to cementing Garvey's place among black historical figures. * Caribbean Beat * Grant's book is a fine and valuable monument to his memory. * New Statesman *