This is an academic text. As a fan of Black American poetry, I was interested in learning more about abolitionist poets. The author draws heavily from other scholars whose works center around Black American life pre and post Civil War. As I read this book, I didn’t get a clear idea of the author’s thoughts on this important subject matter. It felt like a regurgitation of the other scholars’ works. This book works best as a starting point for finding research and the names of some 19th century Black American poets.

An amazing window into the minds of black folks after enslavement. I feel like I got not only a thorough academically researched into the creativity of Black people during a crucial time in history but a window into the mind of the author of this book and how our ancestors influence us today.

This was a fantastic look into the lives, goals, struggles, and successes of Black poets at the end of slavery. This book is thoroughly researched and while dense, shines an academic lens on the creative work of the reconstruction era. I loved reading segments of poetry throughout, though I could have happily read even more and found myself wishing for some to break up the dense text at times! The connections to Marx made throughout the text were also incredibly interesting, and I'll be examining the ideas in this book for a long time to come.

I must admit that the last time I read about romanticism was in an SAT passage almost a decade ago. However, the proposition of Matt Sandler's "The Black Romantic Revolution" seemed almost too good to pass up. After all, Black writers, especially Black writers during America's Independence War and its bloody aftermath, are often ignored in favor of heavy hitters like Wordsworth or Byron. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed "The Black Romantic Revolution" much more than I expected to.

It's an entertaining, informative and important historical and cultural analysis of Black history, relating the past work of the Black Romantics like Harper, Horton and Whitman to modern day Black resistance movements. As I read, I began to recognize some of the root ideas in Black feminism, in Black feminist thinkers like Audre Lorde. Overall, a good read!

This book was not at all what I had expected, but I think that’s down to my not reading the synopsis carefully enough. In saying that I found this to be a really interesting read, and almost brought me back to my days of analysing texts for an English assignment (in a good way!)
I will say also that I think this book is for a very specific audience, but I would still encourage everyone to branch out and give this a go!

I DNF'd this book at 25%. I thought (and was led to believe) that this book was a poetry collection. I assumed it would progress through the times of black poets. I was so incredibly wrong. This is an academic text. Dull, dry, boring. It is incredibly interesting. I would love to finish this book. However, it is not a book that I can read cover to cover. This is a book I read a page at a time. I will be star rating this book based on how I was feeling as I read what I read. I will be finishing this book, but it could take several months for me to get through.

To be clear, this is a book about the history of the Black Romantic Revolution poets and does not include a poetry collection. It is a comprehensive history that posits that the Black Romantic Poets laid the groundwork for contemporary Black humanities. It is well researched and written. I am not usually a nonfiction reader and was hoping for more inclusion of poetry to exemplify each chapter, so I rate this a 3 because it reads like an academic text: fascinating, but dry.

Advanced copy provided courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.