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    The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
    The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
    The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
    Audiobook18 hours

    The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

    Written by Les Payne and Tamara Payne

    Narrated by Dion Graham

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm
    X—all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to
    transform what would become dozens of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction.

    The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-beforeseen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with
    purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm’s life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces
    the life of one of the twentieth century’s most politically relevant figures “from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary.”

    In following Malcolm X’s life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm’s Depression-era youth, describing the
    influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street-car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill black pride in
    her children after Earl’s death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm’s exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary.

    With a biographer’s unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations—from the unmasking of the mysterious NOI founder “Fard Muhammad,” who preceded Elijah Muhammad; to a hair-rising scene, conveyed in cinematic detail, of Malcolm and Minister Jeremiah X Shabazz’s 1961 clandestine meeting with the KKK; to a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X’s murder at the Audubon Ballroom.

    Introduced by Payne’s daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father’s death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work
    that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle.

    Editor's Note

    National Book Award winner…

    Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Nonfiction. “Les and Tamara Payne refuse a simplistic depiction of Malcolm X, one of our greatest, and most misunderstood, Americans. Malcolm’s story … is as unlikely as it is profound. Incisive and comprehensive, this intensely human portrait is written with a dedicated beauty and uncompromising detail that matches Malcolm’s own life,” wrote the National Book Awards judges.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 20, 2020
    ISBN9781705008560
    The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

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    Reviews for The Dead Are Arising

    4.5/5

    120 ratings10 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a powerful and inspiring biography of Malcolm X. The book covers his life in detail, from his parents to his assassins. It is well-written and captivating, allowing readers to have a deeper understanding of his life and the challenges he faced. The book evokes emotions and makes readers feel the presence and innate power of Malcolm X. Overall, it is a great read that motivates and inspires.

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Very well written and kept me captivated throughout till the end. It may sound like I'm talking about a thriller, but it is actually one man's life. I could actually feel his presence and innate power. Living through some of this time period in Philadelphia, really made this an emotional read for me

      5 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Excellent. Such a great biography. Allah ﷻ can do all things!

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I’ve read many books about Malcolm X’s life and this book is one of the best.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 2/5
      I didn't feel like I could really trust Les' research
    • 5/5
      Powerful. I’ve read The Autobiography of Malcolm X numerous times and consider myself to be a fan of Malcolm X. This book brought a lot of fascinating, inspiring, and saddening events from Malcolm’s life.
    • 5/5
      What an inspiring book. This book not only motivated me but allowed me to have a deeper understanding about his life and what he went through. Great read!!!
    • 5/5
      Great book covers in detail Malcolm's parents to Malcolm's assassins
    • 4/5
      Detailed account not just of Malcolm X but of the various strands of Black activism, sometimes used as cover for outright criminal enterprises, from the beginning of the twentieth century up until his assassination in 1965. An impressive feat of journalism.Two things that stand out for me are that religious cults are deeply misogynist; and that well-intentioned people can often be duped by corrupt organizations precisely because of their concern and commitment to social justice.
    • 3/5
      Definitely not the book I would recommend if you haven't read the Autobiography first. While Payne definitely fills in some gaps in that work and presents some alternate information about Malcom's youth and his relationship with the Nation of Islam, there are large portions of his life glossed over. That said, I think this makes a good companion for readers who want to go deeper and are OK with a book more interested in facts than writing style.
    • 5/5
      This narrative, sourced from family and Nation Of Islam (NOI) members who had never before spoken out, is well-written, riveting, and a perfect companion to Malcolm X's own 1965 autobiography, written with Alex Haley of Roots fame. Of particular interest and poignancy are the recounting of his early, difficult childhood due to his father's death in a streetcar accident and his mother's mental collapse as she tried to raise eight children alone. His family’s involvement with Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement is explored as an early influence that can also be seen in Malcolm’s later devotion to father figure Elijah Muhammed. Malcolm X's rough teenage years were spent immersed in criminal activity in Boston and Harlem, here enriched by new insights gathered from his close associates at the time. His subsequent impressive, self-motivated education in prison is stunning in light of his triumphant rebirth as an outstanding and inspiring speaker and leader. Described in detail for the first time is Malcolm’s surreal meeting initiated in January 1961 by KKK leader W.S. Fellows, who thought that his group’s opposition to integration meshed well with the NOI policy of Black separation. Malcolm's painful break with Elijah Muhammed, whom he had revered as semi-divine, and the subsequent plotting of the assassination and the identification of his murderers (NOI enforcers commanded by Muhammed with the complicity of J. Edgar Hoover) is stunning in its detail. Although the description of Malcolm’s conversion to true Islam in 1964, while making hajj in Mecca, is not as dramatically told as in the autobiography, the only missing element is the very short shrift given to surviving wife Betty Shabazz and his six daughters. An impressive triumph of research and investigation.Quotes: "Malcolm demonstrated none of the self-doubt, insecurities, or fears that Negroes commonly displayed during close encounters with members of the group dominating American society.”“Malcolm’s persuasive call to arms was widening the gap between his more global view of the dogma of Muhammed’s sect, weighted down with hocus-pocus religiosity.”“Beneath this race canopy of the South, a crazy quilt of petit apartheid structures regulated every stage of social contact between black and white individuals, from diapers to the shroud.”“King and his disciples quickly drew in the journalists who held out hope that their staged, non-violent protests would flare into open violence and front-page news. The unpredictability of this cycle of violence hooked the national media on a gothic civil rights drama that they unfolded on the evening news in the living rooms of America.”“The rise of the Muslims, and Malcolm especially, made Reverend King all the more appealing to the white, mainstream power brokers.”“He would redraw a more pragmatic Mason-Dixon line, declaring, “The South to blacks means south of Canada.”