Books by Houston A. Baker

Relating the blues to American social and literary history and to Afro-American expressive culture, Baker offers the basis for a broader study of American culture at its vernacular level. He shows how the "blues voice" and its economic undertones are both central to the American narrative and characteristic of the Afro-American way of telling it.

Condemns those black intellectuals who, the author believes, have turned their backs on the tradition of racial activism in America. This work urges black intellectuals to forge both sacred and secular connections with local communities and rededicate themselves to social responsibility.