{"product_id":"malcolm-before-x","title":"Malcolm Before X","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e Best Nonfiction Book of 2024\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e Finalist for the 2025 ASALH Book Prize\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eDrawing upon interviews, correspondence, and nearly 2000 pages of never-before-used prison records, \u003ci\u003eMalcolm Before X \u003c\/i\u003eis the definitive examination of the prison years of civil rights icon Malcolm X. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In February 1946, when 20-year-old Malcolm Little was sentenced to eight to ten years in a maximum-security prison, he was a petty criminal and street hustler in Boston. By the time he was paroled in August 1952, he had transformed into a voracious reader, joined the Black Muslims, and was poised to become Malcolm X, one of the most prominent and important intellectuals of the civil rights era. While scholars and commentators have exhaustively detailed, analyzed, and debated Malcolm X's post-prison life, they have not explored these six and a half transformative years in any depth. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Paying particular attention to his time in prison, Patrick Parr's \u003ci\u003eMalcolm Before X\u003c\/i\u003e provides a comprehensive and groundbreaking examination of the first twenty-seven years of Malcolm X's life (1925-1965). Parr traces Malcolm's African lineage, explores his complicated childhood in the Midwest, and follows him as he moves east to live with his sister Ella in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, where he is convicted of burglary and sentenced. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Parr utilizes a trove of previously overlooked documents that include prison files and prison newspapers to immerse the reader into the unique cultures-at times brutal and at times instructional-of Charlestown State Prison, the Concord Reformatory, and the Norfolk Prison Colony. It was at these institutions that Malcolm devoured books, composed poetry, boxed, debated, and joined the Nation of Islam, changing the course of his life and setting the stage for a decade of antiracist activism that would fundamentally reshape American culture. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In this meticulously researched and beautifully written biography, the inspiring story of how Malcolm Little became Malcolm X is finally told. ","brand":"Patrick Parr","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46300971434220,"sku":"9781625348166","price":34.94,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46300971630828,"sku":"9781625348173","price":156.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9781625348166.jpg?v=1743074963","url":"https:\/\/intl.allstora.com\/products\/malcolm-before-x","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}