first edition
1971 · New York
by [AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY & LITERATURE] YETTE, Samuel F.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1971. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (22cm). Navy-blue cloth, titled in gilt on spine and front cover; dustjacket; 318pp. A tight, unmarked copy, very Near Fine. In the original dustwrapper, unclipped (priced $6.95 on front flap), fine but for some trivial toning at extremities. An exceptional copy.
Yette's incendiary, controversial, and influential first book, a stark examination of white supremacy which concluded that there existed a "concerted effort in this country to re-enslave, perhaps even to wipe out its black population." Yette characterized Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" as a pacification program, designed to enable the subjugation of Black Americans; the Job Corps as a feeder-system for bringing young Black men into the military; and the Vietnam War as a vehicle of mass extermination.
The Choice became required reading on many college campuses in the Seventies, but it cost Yette his job at Newsweek (where he had been the first African-American to serve as a Washington correspondent). Despite its prescience the book, though still in-print, appears to have fallen somewhat under the radar in the current discourse around questions of American white supremacy and systemic racism - a shame, as it is a first-rate work of combined polemic and investigative journalism. The first edition is genuinely scarce in commerce, especially in fine condition. (Inventory #: 63232)
Yette's incendiary, controversial, and influential first book, a stark examination of white supremacy which concluded that there existed a "concerted effort in this country to re-enslave, perhaps even to wipe out its black population." Yette characterized Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" as a pacification program, designed to enable the subjugation of Black Americans; the Job Corps as a feeder-system for bringing young Black men into the military; and the Vietnam War as a vehicle of mass extermination.
The Choice became required reading on many college campuses in the Seventies, but it cost Yette his job at Newsweek (where he had been the first African-American to serve as a Washington correspondent). Despite its prescience the book, though still in-print, appears to have fallen somewhat under the radar in the current discourse around questions of American white supremacy and systemic racism - a shame, as it is a first-rate work of combined polemic and investigative journalism. The first edition is genuinely scarce in commerce, especially in fine condition. (Inventory #: 63232)