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Langston Hughes

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The Ways of White Folks Paperback – December 12, 1971

by Langston Hughes (Author)

4.8 1,102 ratings

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One of his best-known works, Hughes wrote The Ways of White Folks while living in Carmel, California. In it, he shares acrid and poignant stories of blacks colliding--sometimes humorously, but often tragically--with whites throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

The book consists of fourteen moving stories:

"Cora Unashamed"
"Slave on the Block"
"Home"
"Passing"
"A Good Job Gone"
"Rejuvenation Through Joy"
"The Blues I'm Playing"
"Red-Headed Baby"
"Poor Little Black Fellow"
"Little Dog"
"Berry"
"Mother and Child"
"One Christmas Eve"
"Father and Son"

Print length

248 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage Books
Publication date

December 12, 1971
ISBN-10

0394713044
ISBN-13

978-0394713045
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage Books; First Edition (December 12, 1971)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 248 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0394713044
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0394713045
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.1 ounces

Best Sellers Rank: #6,963,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #94,119 in Short Stories (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.8 1,102 ratings

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Langston Hughes

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James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri.

He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue".

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Carl Van Vechten [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Tamara Gantzler

Easy read

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2023

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Easy and enjoyable read, though you will be once again disappointed in the ways of white people.

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2023

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These short stories are both treasures and tragic reminders of the past. Langston Hughes was an amazing author! Great book!

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Cheryl McFadden

It’s like reading real stories about real people

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2023

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It’s Langston Hughes- what can I say? I purchased this book (a second copy) because I love his writing style of storytelling - conversational and convincing. The speakers are easy to listen because this person has something to say and you know immediately. Langston Hughes writes life’s lessons using the voices of everyday heroes whose wit, smarts and humanity helped them to survive in spite of the times. This collection of musings from various strangers who talk about a situation or a time in the storyteller’s life so profound, it’s worth telling. Most importantly it’s the lessons that are told from a birds eye view into the ways of white folks. You will laugh, chuckle, sigh and shed a tear, but you will and must reread these stories again and again.

4 people found this helpful

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Deborah D. Sitton

Great Literature in the pontification of English

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2021

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Pushed into integration in SC, traumatized as a young child, always feeling cold from the horrible plan and lack of organization of the tranfer of children into integration from segregation.

Eventually as all young students, the evil given forth by racist individuals creates personalities where you either emotionalize the anger, by releasing it or keeping it in and following the rules of miseducation until you lucked up and happened to get a teacher that cared. I had teachers that cared.

One such teacher was my seventh grade english teacher who knew my mom, probsbly my pops too. He'd heard the white teachers talk about me being a problem child. He probably came to the rescue. He took me to the library, He introduced me to Langston Hughes among the other American great literature authors.

This is his book of poetry. No one today will ever come clost to realizing our America in their America like Langston Hughes. All of his works stand alone as major works in the english genre of major importance. Keeping his tone, without the aide of other messy :"non-american" edits I've seen on a couple of books sent recently is important.

This book, in it's pristine form does not devalue the importance of the Lantston Hughes Canon, it proves his genius, it's a pathway for a necessary revisit into our culture defining who we are especially today, January 20 2021.

9 people found this helpful

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AJC

Very insightful

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2022

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I’ve heard so much about Langston Hughes over the years, I decided to read one of his books. Very insightful and entertaining. But, I think he’s overrated as far as being storyteller goes. It was OK. But that’s really all

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Linda Johnson

Important work by an eloquent author.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2023

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This is an important book full of insights. I have given copies to my grandsons.

One person found this helpful

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Hyacinth E. Palmer

Emotional

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2023

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The plight of Black people. Reading these stories put you in the mindset of days not so long ago. Have we advanced in our thinking in regards to Black people? In some sense, yes, but in the most basic way. . .I think not.

3 people found this helpful

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Alison Barrows-Young

Excellent Literature and Social Commentary

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2022

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Deeply poetic, gorgeously written and socially haunting fiction on the injustices done to black folk, both by white people and the privileges of white American culture. The short stories are hard to read, but also hard to put aside. All these many years later one would hope what is captured in Dr. Hughes work would be passé and yet, unfortunately, it still rings true and needs to be heard and contended with.

6 people found this helpful

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miguel

Worth reading

Reviewed in Spain on March 10, 2023

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Wonderful stories about the either hateful or patronizing way in which we white people address racial issues

-Edward

FIVE STARS

Reviewed in Canada on October 27, 2019

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Don't really have time for this so FIVE STARS must suffice

MKH

Superb

Reviewed in Germany on May 1, 2019

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Read it a few times, it is so worth it.

petit jacques

préjugés raciaux dans la vie quotidienne

Reviewed in France on October 12, 2018

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précédemment, j'avais lu "the best of simple", qui est un livre très humoristique; ce n'est pas le cas dans ce recueil de nouvelles (ou alors, je suis passé à côté); ce sont des histoires tristes ou les préjugés s'appliquent inéluctablement et impitoyablement : souvent, des "blancs" qui sont persuadés d'avoir l'esprit juste et ouvert (par exemple en élevant un enfant noir orphelin), et qui finissent par exprimer leurs conceptions discriminantes et humiliantes.
dans la dernière nouvelle "father and son", le conflit prend la forme de la violence ouverte.

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T. Liburd

I discovered Langston Hughes this year (2015) when Google celebrated ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2015

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I discovered Langston Hughes this year (2015) when Google celebrated his birthday and I so wish I had read his works growing up in the 70's in Cardiff in the UK. It would have helped me no end to read classics by black authors. Well written a real page turner - I have already purchased other works by this author and his contemporises.

4 people found this helpful

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The Ways of White Folks Paperback – December 12, 1971

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Langston Hughes