Co-edited and introduced by Toni Morrison, Birth of a Nation'hood illuminates one of the grimmest--and most revealing--moments of recent American history: the O.J. Simpson case. As they relate to the scandal, the issues of race, sex, violence, money, and the media are refracted through the lens of twelve powerful essays, specially written for this book by a wide range of distinguished intellectuals--black and white, male and female. Together these keen analyses focus on the script and spectacle of the insidious tensions that rend American society, and reveal the historical, cultural, political, legal, psychological, and linguistic ramifications of an affair that left Americans at once fascinated and horrified.

The contributors include Toni Morrison, David Roediger, Andrew Ross, A. Leon Higginbotham with Aderson Bellegarde Francois and Linda Y. Yueh, Ann duCille, George Lipsitz, Nikol G. Alexander and Drucilla Cornell, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, Ishmael Reed, Leola Johnson, Patricia J. Williams, Armond White, and Claudia Brodsky Lacour.

 
Toni Morrison Feature