The Evidence of Things Not Said: James Baldwin and the Promise of American Democracy

Book info: The Evidence of Things Not Said: James Baldwin and the Promise of American Democracy (Hardcover, 208 pages) – Cornell University Press, 2000. Language: English.

This examination of James Baldwin's essays explores his contribution to political theory.... The book concludes with a discussion of Baldwin's complicated relation with language and a consideration of his significance in the political landscape of the 21st century.― Journal of Social Work Education

The Evidence of Things Not Said employs the rich essays of James Baldwin to interrogate the politics of race in American democracy. Lawrie Balfour advances the political discussion of Baldwin's work, and regards him as a powerful political thinker whose work deserves full consideration.

Baldwin's essays challenge appeals to race-blindness and formal but empty guarantees of equality and freedom. They undermine white presumptions of racial innocence and simultaneously refute theories of persecution that define African Americans solely as innocent victims. Unsettling fixed categories, Baldwin's essays construct a theory of race consciousness that captures the effects of racial identity in everyday experience.

Balfour persuasively reads Baldwin's work alongside that of W. E. B. Du Bois to accentuate how double consciousness works differently on either side of the color line. She contends that the allusiveness and incompleteness of Baldwin's essays sustains the tension between general claims about American racial history and the singularity of individual experiences.

The Evidence of Things Not Said establishes Baldwin's contributions to democratic theory and situates him as an indispensable voice in contemporary debates about racial injustice.

Lawrie Balfour's original book carefully explores James Baldwin's contribution to the democratic project as well as the unique challenges Baldwin posed to its understanding. Sure to be a classic in Baldwin studies, The Evidence of Things Not Said is a pleasure to read and an important piece of work.

Lawrie Balfour is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia.