New Negro, Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism between the Wars / The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946

New Negro, Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism between the Wars. By William J. Maxwell. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xiv, 254 pp. Cloth, $49.50, ISBN 0-231-11424-9. Paper, $17.50, ISBN 0-231-11425-7.)

The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946. By James Edward Smethurst. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. xii, 288 pp. $45.00, ISBN 0-19-512054-X.)

Let me begin my review with the modest concluding sentence of James Edward Smethurst's volume, a statement of the spirit of the work:

While I am convinced that my claims here are often debatable and are subject to correction, clarification, and deeper analysis, I remain equally convinced that the subject of the study is crucial to our understanding of African-American literature and culture and American literature and culture generally.

William J. Maxwell would agree. These books have much in common: both address issues and problems...