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The Wretched of the Earth
 
 

The Wretched of the Earth [Kindle Edition]

Frantz Fanon , Homi K. Bhabha , Jean-Paul Sartre , Richard Philcox
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon’s masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said’s Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of postindependence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other. Fanon’s analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.

About the Author

Frantz Fanon (1925 – 1961) was an author from Martinique, essayist, psychoanalyst, and revolutionary. He was perhaps the preeminent thinker of the 20th century on the issue of decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization. His works have inspired anti-colonial liberation movements for more than four decades

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 2874 KB
  • Print Length: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Grove Press (30 Nov 1964)
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B001C32HE6
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Not Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #182,554 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Fanon was born in Martinique in 1925 and trained as a doctor (specializing in psychiatry) in France. He was assigned to a hospital in Algeria during the uprising against the French. He chose to throw in his lot with the "rebels" and became one of their most articulate spokesmen. He did not live to see the French leave Algeria as he died of leukaemia at the age of thirty-six.

In this book, Fanon provides an insight into the true nature of imperialism. He details the mental, economic and physical degradations that characterize the relationship between "the settler" and "the native" and how violence is a central feature of this relationship. Fanon explains how violence is central to the de-colonization process and the forging of a unifying consciousness amongst the colonized populace. He provides further insights into the organization of colonial struggle, the different roles played by town "elites" and rural people and also, very interestingly, the impact of the violence that characterized the colonial order on the mental health of everyone involved.

I found this a fascinating read. The evils of imperialism are often glossed over in many accounts and Fanon majors on destroying this myth. These are the considered opinions of a man not afraid to call it as he sees it. Colonial struggles are a thing of the past now. However, Fanon's analysis of the relationship between the "First" and the "Third" World is still quite relevant.
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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...Sarte's introduction had me hooked and I couldn't wait to begin reading Fanon's comments. I was a bit disappointed at first, but as I got into the text I began to realize that I couldn't put it down. Fanon is very insightful as to what happens during an anti-colonial struggle. He explains how the anti-colonial struggle is divided between the rural areas and the towns, whereas most Westerners see the movement as a coherent body. In Fanon's opinion, violence is the way forward. Many are quick to criticize this opinion, citing Gandhi as an example of how a non-violent movement can work. However, violent and non-violent movements must be examined on a case by case basis and Fanon shows how violence is important to the nation to establish itself as a truly independent nation that will not endure Neo-Colonialism. It is also essential towards building a national solidatory, something difficult when the area is usually composed of different tribal groups that have different cultures and who have been encouraged to fight each other by the colonial authorities.

In conclusion, you should read this book if you want to gain an insight into the philosophy of the anti-colonial struggle. This book has truths that are still relevant to this day and which will continue to be relevant for some time to come.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By John P. Jones III TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
...which should certainly be viewed as an appropriate response. Frantz Fanon was a Black psychiatrist who was born on the French island of Martinique. During the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62) he worked in Algerian hospitals, and developed a strong sympathy for the struggle of the native Algerians (who were not of European origins!). Fanon died in 1961, far too young, at 36, stricken by leukemia. Alistair Horne wrote the classic, dispassionate account of the Algerian War, entitled A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York Review Books Classics). Fanon wrote his own classic masterpiece, a cri de coeur, literally on his death bed. This book would be an essential inspirational text for those who fought in the remaining anti-colonial wars as well as the Black civil rights movement in the United States. The book also contains an introduction from Jean-Paul Sartre.

In the introduction, Sartre says in his indubitable style: "The European elite undertook to manufacture a native elite. They picked out promising adolescents; they branded them, as with a red-hot iron, with the principles of Western culture; they stuffed their mouths full with high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck to the teeth. After a short stay in the mother country they were sent home, whitewashed. These walking lies had nothing left to say to their brothers; they only echoed." Sartre is utterly oblivious. Willfully oblivious? How many of those "natives" who were educated in European "rights of man" values went back to lead the revolts against their colonial masters? A minority, for sure, but surely a majority of those who actually revolted, from Ho Chi Minh to Pol Pot. And is Frantz Fanon himself a "walking lie"?
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Roman Clodia TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Fanon wrote this in 1961 when the world was locked into the Cold War between the USSR and the USA, and postcolonialism was in its infancy. As a psychiatrist as well as a political philosopher and revolutionary thinker, he was especially interested in the psychopathology of colonialism, what it means to be objectified as a 'black', a 'native', somehow a 'sub-human'.

His chapter 'On Violence' has especially been misquoted and simplified, taken as an incitement to violent revolution, rather than as the intellectual analysis of the intrinsic violence of imperial colonialism and capitalism.

Like all texts and thinkers, this reflects the material, political and economic conditions of Fanon's time - but there are reasons why he has influenced and been quoted by people as diverse as Malcolm X, Steve Biko, Che Guevara... and Barack Obama.

Most of all, this book analyses the way in which colonialism sets up a fundamental opposition between the colonist and the colonised as two essentially separate species with all the chilling implications that entails.

Today's world isn't, of course, the same as it was in 1961 but that doesn't mean Fanon is no longer relevant (just as we still read Freud, Darwin, Descartes, Marx even though 'our' world is very different from the worlds which shaped these texts). It's worth reading Fanon especially against Edward Said (Orientalism, Culture And Imperialism) and Foucault.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Fanon is insightful and notes the key factors that maintain settler dominance in his account of colonisation. Great read, fast pace and rewarding to read!
Published 1 month ago by Rida
3.0 out of 5 stars A gift
Again, it wasn't for me, but bought as a gift, so cannot really rate it!
I am sure that the recipient enjoyed it!
Published 1 month ago by Duke of Sheffield
5.0 out of 5 stars Item & Service
All round (item & service) very good. I'd like to know how items are priced though. transparency is the key!
Published 6 months ago by Kadishaf
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful
coming from a former British colony I found this book to be a great read. I believe every person from a former colony should read this book to understand how terrible the colonists... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Esoo Limes
5.0 out of 5 stars A book worth reading
it is a good insight into the minds of the oppressor and the oppressed. The understanding can be the basis for negotiating and making peace.
Published on 26 May 2010 by Mk Opoku
3.0 out of 5 stars Some parts useful, most just hot air
This is the "scripture" promising the vibrant and independent Third World that never came to be, despite the success of Fanon's liberation movements. Read more
Published on 7 May 2010 by Harry
5.0 out of 5 stars THE HATE THAT HATE PRODUCED
I have given this five stars - not because I agree with its contents - but because of its indispensable insight into the anti-colonial/anti-imperialist mindset of much of the... Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2010 by S. O'Donnell
3.0 out of 5 stars an impassioned plea, historically past its best-before date
While this book had been on my shelf for years, I never got beyond the Sartre preface to read the whole thing until this month, after watching The Battle of Algiers on a movie... Read more
Published on 9 May 2009 by DavidW.
5.0 out of 5 stars fanons classic colonial assessment
the book is a bit strong in some places but overall fanon thinks seriously and deeply about the african and the colonial
Published on 24 April 2009 by Adgoodies
5.0 out of 5 stars 'Must read' in 2009
(review also published on Amazon.com). This extraordinary book, first published in 1961, must be read now in 2009. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2009 by Index Research
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Popular Highlights

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&quote;
Decolonization is the encounter between two congenitally antagonistic forces that in fact owe their singularity to the kind of reification secreted and nurtured by the colonial situation. &quote;
Highlighted by 74 Kindle users
&quote;
colonialism is not a machine capable of thinking, a body endowed with reason. It is naked violence and only gives in when confronted with greater violence. &quote;
Highlighted by 69 Kindle users
&quote;
It is the colonist who fabricated and continues to fabricate the colonized subject. The colonist derives his validity, i.e., his wealth, from the colonial system. &quote;
Highlighted by 65 Kindle users

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