Andrew Kersten's A. Philip Randolph: A Life in the Vanguard accomplishes its goals to an exceptional degree. In clear, often eloquent, prose Kersten relates the essentials of Randolph's life and achievements. Kersten's sympathetic, but not uncritical, portrait is grounded in the extensive primary sources and recent scholarly studies without being overwhelmed by them. For the interested general reader and the discerning undergraduate, Kersten's Randolph should be the biography of choice.

John H. Bracey Jr., University of Massachusetts, Amherst

This very fine biography of A. Philip Randolph reminds us that the roots of the 20th century civil rights movement are found as much in the urban North as in the rural South. Andrew Kersten never lets us forget that Randolph proved such a successful tribune because he faithfully advanced the aspirations of a restless, multiracial working class, within the world of Pullman service and without.

Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara