SHU Hears from Political Author Nicholas Buccola
Writer reflects on age-old debate over race, power and freedom
Sacred Heart University recently hosted Nicholas Buccola―writer and professor to discuss his most recent book, The Fire is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America.
Buccola’s book recounts a 1965 debate in Cambridge, England, “between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley, Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America’s most influential conservative intellectual,” according to Buccola’s website. He described his book as the first to “tell the full story of the event, the radically different paths that led Baldwin and Buckley to it, the controversies that followed, and how the debate and the decades-long clash between the men continues to illuminate America’s racial divide today.”
Buccola, a scholar of American political thought, is the Elizabeth and Morris Glicksman Chair of Political Science at Linfield University in McMinnville, OR. He also wrote The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass: In Pursuit of American Liberty, and he edited The Essential Douglass: Writings and Speeches, and Abraham Lincoln and Liberal Democracy.
At SHU, he described the debate detailed in his book, and he discussed Buckley’s and Baldwin’s legacies. Referring to them as “poets of their respective revolutions,” Buccola said their legacies amplify the “urgency and relevance of what they were debating.”
Buccola and discussion moderator Bill Yousman, SHU communication and media studies professor, added depth to the presentation with captivating dialogue. Yousman asked Buccola to reflect on the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol siege with the same political lens he used when writing his book. Weaving in another Baldwin debate, Buccola explained why leaders are just as responsible for upheaval as followers of various political groups, perhaps even more so.
The SHU presentation wrapped up with questions from the audience, many of whom couldn’t wait to discuss their thoughts with Buccola. Questions ranged from “how to prevent a future political uproar” to rebutting the argument, “If you don’t like it, leave.”
Students described the program as informative, timely and enlightening. “It was interesting to hear more about Baldwin’s life and the debate itself, because I didn’t know much about either. It also was great to learn about the impact Baldwin had on the world today,” said Christina Massei, graduate student in SHU’s School of Communication, Media & the Arts (SCMA).
“I think the relevance of this information with our political climate and the state of current events is insane to think about,” said Maeve St.Onge, graduate student in SCMA. “I really liked this event, and it made me think about all the things that have happened and why they’re still happening now. Times have changed and, at the same time, they have not changed at all, which is crazy.”
Photo by Patrick Coyne '22