Across four chapters and a conclusion, Cornell explores revolutions involving diverse nations, theorists, and writers. The introduction details racism, decolonization, socialism, and the queer movement’s role in forging revolutions and mentions many renowned theorists, including Toni Morrison. The first chapter examines violence and nonviolence using theories of Frantz Fanon, Max Weber, Thomas Hobbes, Hannah Arendt, Angela Davis, and Étienne Balibar, who propose collective action to address ethnic and political struggles and violence. Citing C. L. R. James's socialist ideology, the second chapter recounts revolutions in Europe and Black liberations. The following chapter addresses revolutions and organizations and considers the role of political parties in insurrections. The final chapter centers on feminism, particularly Black feminism, and mentions the works of Barbara Smith and bell hooks. Another focus of the book is on ethics and morals and includes citations from Immanuel Kant, Carol Gilligan, and Lawrence Kohlberg. The conclusion, “Tomorrow’s Revolution,” sounds the revolutionary call for democratic socialism. Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty and general readers.

Choice Reviews

Drucilla Cornell's Today's Struggle, Tomorrow's Revolution: Afro-Caribbean Revolutionary Thought is a firecracker of a book! Cornell draws on current events, scholarly erudition, and street protest to project Afro-Caribbean struggle as global revolution against racialized capitalism. Cornell calls for real economic democracy for global justice that de-centers Europe and the US.

Naomi Zack, Lehman College, CUNY

With her typical insight and rigor, Cornell offers in this book a profound and provocative call to action. Drawing from a deep well of resources in Afro-Caribbean Philosophy, the South African shack-dwellers’ movement, and Black Lives Matter, this book articulates a vital and timely “political spirituality” directed toward a genuine human liberation.

Michael J. Monahan, University of Memphis

Barack Obama has declared that uBuntu was Mandela’s greatest gift to South Africa and to humanity. By giving to that concept its full force and meaning as the open-ended project of achieving a new way of being human together, Drucilla Cornell’s book offers the most powerful demonstration of that statement.

Soulemayne Bachir Diagne, director of the Institute of African Studies, Columbia University