Fred Moten memorably wrote that the “history of blackness is testament to the fact that objects can and do resist.” Alex Zamalin reaffirms this assertion through exquisite examination of narratives of resistance—not merely protest—by David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Huey Newton, and Angela Davis. Zamalin’s deft treatise demonstrates how Afro-modern political thought refashions our fundamental understandings of resistance and the attendant ideals of democracy and freedom. 

Neil Roberts, author of Freedom as Marronage, Williams College

In intellectually compelling and valuable ways, this book presents significant (but relatively neglected) figures in the canon of African American political theorizing and relates them both to broad idioms of American political thought and to our contemporary political conjuncture. 

George Shulman, Professor of Political Science at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University

Zamalin thoughtfully and concisely illustrates how his chosen writers reveal not only the paradoxes of resistance but also the inherent tensions within American democracy. Struggle on Their Minds will work well in undergraduate classrooms as a systematic deconstruction of the idea that America has arrived at a ‘so-called postracial moment.’ . . . He shows how Walker, Douglass, Wells, Newton, and Davis have radically explicated the inherent, continual, pervasive and pernicious commitment to white supremacy that runs throughout U.S. history. 

Chernoh M. Sesay Jr., Journal of American History

Zamalin…make[s] a significant contribution to contemporary political theory by demonstrating the importance of taking black thinkers seriously. 

Justin Rose, Contemporary Political Theory