Review of "Cry, the Beloved Country"

We're using this 1940's classic for our Freshman Reading program at JBU. We even got some plaudits from a national conservative scholars' group for making this pick (not that everyone is happy about that recommendation). It's a powerful book about truth, justice, and reconciliation, and I think our students (those who engage with it) will get a lot out of this work.

But it was written over 60 years ago, and there are times that you feel that some of the issues involved have passed us by. The blatant racism in the book will be hard for our "uber-tolerant" teenagers to relate to. I keep thinking, as a consequence, is that our students need to be challenged where their current blindspots are. Perhaps this book will do that on the materialism side of things or the call to personal faithfulness in an unjust world? We'll see.