Prophet of rage

by Arthur J. Magida

In this first ever biography of Louis Farrakhan, Arthur J. Magida presents an independent, objective, and insightful portrait of the controversial leader who has emerged as America's dominant - and most problematic - figure on the African-American scene. Magida, a Jewish journalist whose coverage of Farrakhan won the approbation of Farrakhan himself as well as the head of the B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League, has had unprecedented access to the leader of the Nation of Islam. In Prophet of Rage, Magida penetrates the empassioned rhetoric that surrounds this enigmatic figure to reveal his personal story, tracing Farrakhan's life from his birth as Eugene Walcott in the Bronx, to his disciplined childhood in Boston's Roxbury, to his training as a classical violinist in youth, and his career later as a calypso singer. We learn why Farrakhan turned against Malcolm X and later orchestrated the reestablishment of the Nation of Islam under the original creed of Elijah Muhammad. We see Farr