ONE OF TIME’S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America.
S.R. Williams, Jr. –
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Riveting Book.
BOOK REVIEW–THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X–AS TOLD TO ALEX HALEY It’s an astoundingly, refreshing and moving work of non-fiction by the late author Alex Haley that I’ve ever read and it has changed me and my way of thinking perhaps forever. I believe, now at this particular time–and according to the will of the Creator–that, by the Father’s timing, I was allowed to read this book. I had purchased this book years ago but because of moving around from state to state, lost it. I praise the Almighty for blessing me with the finances to procure a copy of the book once more and to absorb it’s contents. It is true that Malcolm X met an untimely death in 1965 and it is most unfortunate because I would’ve love to have met him. I came into the world a year later. I’ve always admired him and as a child growing up he was one of my heroes with Muhammad Ali being a close second. Most people believed Malcolm to have been a racist, a “hate-monger”, an “enemy of the state.” He was none of those, at least not to me. He just believed that the so-called Black man and Black woman should live in this society free and equal and not be disenfranchised or demoralized by racism and or the tenets thereof. His pilgrimage to Mecca opened his eyes in ways that we can’t even begin to imagine or let the heart accept. I remember watching the Spike Lee movie which is based upon the autobiography which is very good for what it was, but for one to get a better, more intimate perspective regarding the man, read the book. After having read the book, the movie vastly pales in comparison and should be considered a visual companion to the book. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, you are greatly missed!
Winsol M. Jones –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good read
My second time reading and I got so much more out of it this time. There was much more of Malcolm’s life that I missed in the first reading. Thanks for making this available on Kindle!
One person found this helpful
Faria Tasin –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Page quality!
Poor page quality
jamie –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Malcolm was a great role model@
To go from a “loser in society”, to a transformative “leader of the people”- after prison-, should be inspiring to anyone!
One person found this helpful
John Doe –
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is absolutely astounding thus far
This has been one of the most life changing books I’ve ever read.For context, I am a black male in his late 20’s reading this for the first time. I’m only maybe one-third of the way through and it has been an eye-opening read thus far. I’m sure many people out there will disagree with Malcolm’s view on things, and those people are entitled to their opinion. However, what you cannot deny is Malcolm’s history. It is every black man’s history. It is all the traps and pitfalls we try to avoid as we attempt to escape the metaphorical “bucket filled with crabs.”Again, I’m only a third through the book, however, Malcolm thus far has eloquently displayed the story of a black man who possesses impressive levels of self-awareness and reflection. His “let me put you on to the game brotha” style of sharing about his Boston and Harlem days so very well match how we can assume he felt as a naïve country boy for Lansing when he arrived in Harlem, NY.Malcolm sees the black male. The rest of the world doesn’t. This autobiography is him poking black men directly in the soul. Couldn’t be more grateful for picking up this book. Highly Recommend. And my copy came in great condition. (thumbs up emoji)
One person found this helpful
Leslie Taylor –
5.0 out of 5 stars
THIS IS FOR YOU TOO
I must say that I knew about this BOOK but had never read it and when someone asked me, “You have read the autobiography of Malcolm X, haven’t you”, I was so embarrassed to say that I had NOT read it. Well, now I have read the explosive book and I am quite impressed. The beginning of the book was a tad slow for me,. Perhaps, it was the literary style but after the first 100 pages or so, the book took off and really exploded. The “forward” for this book was brilliantly written by his daughter, Attallah. The apple does not fall far from the tree, she writes beautifully about such an important man and how we must learn to honor and not confuse the message that he tried so hard to deliver.I am so glad that Malcolm finally learned to embrace his heritage. I find that his philosophy was ahead of time even though he was most often misunderstood. I found him to be a honest and simple man with few needs. He was not materialistic and died poor with no wealth left for his family. I do not understand how a man could accomplish so many things without much sleep or rest. ? His dedication to the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad is purely dedication even foresaking his family. Just to think of his horrible death and how he was treated afterwards is disrespectful . Even after death and all the hate to just get the man buried was totally disgraceful.Toward the end, it was so sad. This book is full of life lessons that I hope like Malcolm we will all embrace.Leslie Taylor
Abba –
5.0 out of 5 stars
A remarkable man!
A victim of a Racist regime!Starting the book I couldn’t stop reading, for five consecutive days, the first two chapters tell the story of his family and his childhood,heartbreaking events that are full of suffering, pain and humiliation this human race have suffered!Chapter 3 becomes more detailed with a very few boring pages, chapter four becomes more interesting with his life at 16 in the ghetto, becoming a dancer and later a Harlemite. Chapter five have pages with his daily routines, way of living, gambling, pimping, gangster life, etc.” black victims of the white man`s American social system”, indeed at those times a black man’s life was a day at a time survival and the USA was a place where the criminal, the law and the politician inseparable!.A vivid image is delivered in the later chapters of the decayed way of life of the white man elite in New York in the 1940s. We later see his introduction to Islam, a wrong version of it, a very wrong one, more of a mythical movement than a religionWe see how his deep interest in Islam and the desire to start writing about it drove him to read and educate himself, this changed his life from a life of crime to a life of 15 hours of self-learning a day.There are so many lessons to be learned from this remarkable man! He is to be respected for his honesty and courage in relating all these events and the way he upheld to his convictions. I will not say more about the contents of this, I loved it and I have compassion with the cause of African Americans, nothing that can be done is enough to compensate the hundreds of years of injustice that they have been subjected to!
9 people found this helpful
Steve –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
Knocked me out. Hard to express the power and depth of this autobiography. I am a white, 44 year old male from a rural New England background. I’ve always been interested in the history of black America, from slavery to the twenty-first century, and this book is a riveting account to end the twenthtieth century, giving us all something to dwell upon as we face the future.Malcolm’s story is passionate, raw and fascinating, from his violent and unstable upbringing through his years as a Harlem hustler through prison to his final dramatice end. He keeps the beat. Sometimes he brags, other times he is sensitive but through it all he tells the story of himself and the hypocrisy he faced as a black man in America. It is amazing to read of the culture of race relations in America in the 1930s and ’40s. I had always assumed that racial relations (sexually speaking) were nearly non-existent among black and whites at this time, but I was wrong. According to Malcolm, blacks and whites in NYC were mixing it up for decades. This is the essense of what can be learned from this autobiography: Things are not what they seemed; blacks and whites were joined together in mysterious ways; people bent the rules to satisfy their curiosity while keeping a “white than thou” image for their neighbors. Malcolm witnessed it all and wrote it down so we – every American – could learn from it.MLK notwithstanding, this book is a must-read for all Americans to understand the human struggle, a struggle that transcends and defines race. I dare you not to be changed by this book
6 people found this helpful
C. Wallace –
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Importance of Knowledge
This was a book I needed to read. Malcolm X wasn’t always correct in his beliefs yet he stood up for what he believed in and you have to respect that.
2 people found this helpful
Yoon –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not new
Needed for college. Probably better condition than was expected also it’s not new used book
Gtrain –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Read
“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” is an amazing read about☝🏾of the 🌎’s most influential people.This 📕 has been on my list for a while & I finally felt ready for it. I have always been intrigued by Malcolm X & just have delayed taking this 📖 in. Never mind him & I share the same birthday.A review of the book does not serve it justice. One has to be willing to learn about the pain & suffering Malcolm X went through along with being ready to learn about his work and message.
2 people found this helpful
Dustin stoneDustin stone –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
Bought a new paperback and got a clearly used copy. Still a great read
Sharise Johnson Moore –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Go Tell It On The Mountain!!!
I decided to buy this book because you hear bits and pieces of a story about a person in history but I wanted find out for myself. This book was very educational for me and it cleared some things up for me as far as his life was concerned. It’s sad the way he died, by the very people that he had pledged his allegiance to and it shows how when you start thinking for yourself, away from the crab barrel…people that you have stood by and honored will turn on you in a twinkling of a eye bc your not doing what they want you to do bc it’s not benefitting them anymore.
4 people found this helpful
Jose –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Necessary and Life-Changing Reading
If you had asked me what I thought about Malcolm X before reading the Autobiography, I would have told you he was the militant civil rights leader to contrast the nonviolence of Martin Luther King Jr. But that explanation, which basically encompassed my general knowledge from high school history classes, is such a massive disservice in fully conveying the complexity of a highly fascinating, admirable, and simultaneously tragic human being.The narration begins with hooded Ku Klux Klan members breaking into his parents’ Nebraska home in the 1920s. Once again, when Malcolm is a child, a white supremacist group burns his new home in Michigan down. In the late 1930s, he and his siblings were separated and government officials instituted their mother at a state hospital. In school, despite Malcolm’s incredible intelligence, his white teachers would call his law ambitions unrealistic and demonstrated the lengths to which the United States suppressed the talents of black people. This is a driven and resilient man who would become one of the most important figures of the 20th century despite severe traumas and a cruel, unjust world.Witnessing his journey is tragic because he could have gone even further. His assassination is a testament to the strength of his wisdom and fame because those threatened by him and other civil rights leader were nothing but hateful embodiments of a backward time. It is common to hear people talk about Malcolm X as a controversial figure because while he was outwardly hateful of white people for a long time, he talks about a lot of uncomfortable ideas. It is a shame we did not get to see him explore them in greater depth.
rachel –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read
Great read
Bled Tanoe –
4.0 out of 5 stars
The truth will never be truth until you seek it yourself
I have never written a review before. But I am taking the time to do so now even though I know I will probably fall short of meaningful expressions. I heard of MalcomX ( will short it as MX for future reference) and always in comparison of MLK . MX was violent. MLK was peaceful. So I bought both autobiographies because I wanted to learn beyond what I heard from others. I naively called myself a MLK girl because I believed it made me look “ non threatening “. But after reading, this, I have become undone. I have become undone at the misrepresentation and the misunderstanding of MX. I have become undone by the truths as harsh as they were hard to swallow for me as a African and as a person whose community is mainly made up of white. I was undone by the truths that indeed History about Africans and African décents around the globe and certainly in America has be rewritten or I would dare to say erased. I was undone by the truth that as a Christian I would not have been allowed to worship under the same roof, The God Who created all men equal. And that ultimately, I would have probably chosen Islam as my religion, because it was the only religion in which people of any races or social or economic background could eat, drink or pray together during that era . But mainly I was undone with the truths that MX never raised a weapon against anyone and if his words were to be considered weapons, then they would have been double edged swords. I didn’t agree with everything MX said. Some of this views scared me, especially after I had read MLK autobiography. But I had to approach them with objectivity. I had to understand his background. I had to accept to walk with him on his evolving journey. And I am so glad I did. Because the MX I discovered is not the one I heard about. He is not the MX history portrayed. He predicted this broken representation of his life. And that proved his point: the truth will never be truth until you seek it yourself . I am shocked. And I will shock you. I would dare to say that I would have join him on his crusade. Yes, indeed, I would have.
4 people found this helpful
Melissa –
5.0 out of 5 stars
I had no idea..
Towards the end of his narrative of his life, Malcolm X challenges his readers: “I want you to just watch and see if I’m not right in what I say: that the white man, in his press, is going to identify me with “hate.”” Indeed, before reading this book I associated Malcolm X with hate, a sort of anti-Christ to MLK’s peaceful nonviolence. But then I followed Malcolm’s story from a tragic childhood to his rough life in Harlem. I googled “Lindy hopping” and watched videos, then learned all about “conking” one’s hair. As an educator, I loved reading about his self-education in prison. His transformation and self-discipline were astounding. Later, his discourses on the history of the brutality of the white man almost had me convinced that white man truly is “Satan” (which is awkward, because I’m white!). Probably my favorite part was his first trip to Mecca and the transformation he underwent while there. And his meetings with leaders of African countries who expressed their solidarity with the plight of African-Americans (and insisted he use that term rather than “Negro”). I feared for his life as he described knowing he would be killed–he knew he wouldn’t live to see his autobiography published–and mourned for him, his wife, and children when he was gunned down.His last words to his readers were “I know that societies often have killed the people who have helped to change those societies. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help to destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America—then, all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.”
4 people found this helpful
TheHighlander –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Truly Insightful
I approached this book with great curiosity. Malcolm X has a legend that everyone knows but I truly didn’t know much about the facts behind the legend.I found that he had a troubled childhood and lived many different lives in his one short life. A hustler, a drug dealer, an armed robber, a bootlegger, a woman beater, a drug addict, a convict, a preacher, an 8th grade dropout, a leader of men, and a world traveler. His ideas were very harsh. He spoke of the “white devils” and believed that blacks and whites should live seperately but for most of his young life wanted to be with white women, and had white girlfriends. He was befriended and helped by white people in his youth as well as hurt by them. The amount of trouble this man had seen before the age of 21 is equaled only by the amount of controversy he saw after his conversion to Islam.He saw Islam and it’s leader in the United States, Elijah Mohammed as the savior of his life. The true religion of the black man. He seems to have been single handedly the most responsible for the growth of the religion in the United States in the 1950s. He criss crossed the country opening new temples, sometimes going from East to West coast three of four times a week. He did all this in the name of Islam, with an oath of poverty. At the time of his death he left his pregnant wife and four young children with no savings, no checking, no credit, no insurance and no hope for security in the future. To him Islam meant more than his family.This book offers true insight into the man and his thinking. The reasons behind his actions. While I found myself upset many times by his thinking I had to read on to see why he thought that way. It was interesting to see his revelations after his Holy trip to Mecca and how it refined his thinking on blacks, whites and religion. This is a very good book that should be read by many both black and white. I think it sheds light on a previous generation more so than the religion of Islam. I had to keep reminding myself that things have changed in the United States so much in the last 50 years that it is impossible for me to truly understand the deep problems of racial division that were present in Malcom’s time.
One person found this helpful
Donald Mack –
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Hero
This is one of the best books I’ve ever read because it is the true story of a Great Man. I happen to share my birthday with him, and I’m so proud of this fact. Much respect and praise to the author for his ability to capture, relate, and share the meaning real and true meaning behind this individual of truly unique and special qualities. Malcolm X was a human being who was granted the privilege to live a life of a thousand years in only 39 years. He got to experience what it means to go through the metamorphosis of becoming a true human being through trials, tribulations which broaden his and understanding and filled him with the understanding of one who’s lived many lives and the wisdom of God. He will live forever, for he came to us to enlighten the world, much as did Jesus, Gandhi, and Dr. King.
10 people found this helpful
John M –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Informative
Good Book.
One person found this helpful