Paul Robeson

The Years of Promise and Achievement

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by Sheila Tully Boyle and Andrew Bunie

University of Massachusetts Press

Due/Published October 2005, 568 pages, paper

ISBN 1558495053

The son of a former slave, Paul Robeson (1898-1976) rose to become an All-American athlete, Phi Beta Kappa student, internationally celebrated singer and actor, and champion of racial equality. Yet despite his courage and many accomplishments, he could not overcome the combined effects of racism and McCarthyism. He was forced to live his last years in internal exile under FBI surveillance, a broken man.

Over twenty years in preparation, this massively researched biography takes Robeson from his humble beginnings in rural New Jersey to international fame on the eve of World War II. Drawing on a variety of new sources, the book presents a fully rounded picture -- a portrait that corrects, supplements, and revises previous work on Robeson and his circle.