I made the mistake of ordering the paperback. When I opened it up I realized the font is very small and the margins are tight. I ended up returning it and ordering the hardcover so it is easier to read. After reading other reviews I will share their caution and verify the dimensions of what you're ordering. I received the 6.4x1.6x9.5 hardcover version, as listed, and it is exactly what i'm looking for. I can easily highlight sections and write in my own comments for later discussion.Yes I still need to read the book but I wanted to share my experience to hopefully save others from doing what I did.
Best book I’ve read so far
A must read for anyone who wants to understand the fabric of America. Truth and history have many facets, and this book helps unravel an important one.
Seeing where he came from and how you poured into himself educating and elevating his mind until he became transformed mentally. I loved being able to hear his mentality change towards the end and how he was as a person
Thick book!? Yes! But it’s a page turner. I’ve read this book and so did my sons when they were teenagers. Now I have a teenaged grandson who’s going thru difficult times. Reading about Malcolm changed my sons for the better. They seemed to grow into manhood smoother. I bought this recently for my grandson. He admitted , after a week that he had NOT opened it yet. 😱 No worries. I’m going to update this review because I have faith in Malcolm X. As soon as lazy azz Carter reads it, I’ll share his journey. Wait for it!
Malcom X, started life, lost his father early, family torn apart. He ventured into the streets and wound up in jail. In jail he turned his life around, and found religon. He had anger and hatred, yet, after visiting Mecca, he found a way forward for all Americans.Great book.Highly recommended.
With our turbulent times in American today, there’s a pattern of systematic and individual racism that can be traced back as far this time period of Malcolm and other civil rights leaders fighting for the rights of the black man. This book has given me the perspective as a black man myself the pride to be one as well truly lift myself to be somebody. Malcolm showed us it doesn’t matter where you started but how you start but how you finish. To see someone truly to ignite the fire of a people, to stand up, to fight if necessary, to truly having a vision for all of us to live in a society as one is truly inspiring. America has a dark history of oppression and everyone should read this book to understand with even how far we’ve come, we still have work to do.
In 2025, what has changed? Amazing read. Best book I’ve read in my life. This should be required reading in every academic institution.
Excellent autobiography. Just wow! I learned so much about Malcom X. I was devastated in finding out that the person that assassinated him was also in the Nation of Islam. A brotha if you will. My heart broke for his wife and children. Malcom did so much for Elijah Muhammad only for him to betray him. There's a saying that goes: It be your own kind sometimes. Ain't that the truth!
This book taught me a lot about the history of the Black Americans and the history of race in the USA. It gave me a clearer picture of the complex person who was Malcolm X. He seems to epitomize the plight of far too many African Americans. I wish that all Americans read this as part of their education. Well written.
The Malcolm Little presented in this autobiography written by the novelist Alex Haley -- who would go on to write "Roots," one of the seminal reads of my college Freshman year -- is extremely unlikable. Yes, we see how he turned into a hustler, crook, and drug addict in Harlem; it was due to his hardscrabble childhood w/ too many children for an overworked mother to feed and raise. The poor woman was institutionalized b/c she was trying to raise eight Black children on her own after their father was murdered! It was so hard to read about his tough childhood in Michigan before his sister took him in when he should have been in high school. Instead, he started working as a shoe-shine boy in a dance club, which changed his life, to say the least.How did Malcolm Little, the "thug," (to use today's vernacular) end up as the religious-firebrand leader Malcolm X? Meeting Allah while in prison, short and simple. The Rev. Elijah Muhammed, the leader of the Nation of Islam, answered Malcolm's letter from prison. Thus began Malcolm's devotion to Mr. Muhammed and his church. Let Malcolm explain it: "Awareness came surging up in me--how deeply the religion of Islam had reached down into the mud to lift me up, to save me from what I inevitably would have been: a dead criminal in a grave, or, if still alive, a flint-hard, bitter, thirty-seven-year-old convict in some penitentiary, or insane asylum...But Allah had blessed me to lift myself up from the muck and the mire of this rotting world." p. 330.Mr. Muhammed eventually turned against Malcolm when Malcolm learned Mr. Muhammed's dirty secret. After his brain-bursting trip to Mecca and being introduced to "true" Islam (in Malcolm's words), Malcolm was more on fire for Allah than ever and was an in-demand speaker all over the United States. However, this made him a marked man by the Nation of Islam. He was assassinated not long thereafter.Who knows what greater heights Malcolm X might have achieved? How many more people he would have introduced to the peacefulness and simplicity of a life dedicated to Allah?This was an uncomfortable read; I had to put it down for days at a time, b/c honestly, Malcolm just wasn't always likable: his extreme hatred of white people - while understandable - got upsetting. I am proud that Malcolm X is finally represented in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol for the State of Nebraska, but I probably wouldn't have liked him personally. 4 stars for an important, long-delayed read of his Autobiography.
I was born in 1989! I was introduced to the Nation of Islam first and then I started to learn more about Malcolm! I’ve watched many YouTube videos on Malcolm and I concluded that Malcolm was a TRUE SOLDIER for his people! I always admire the amount of information that I knew of Malcolm! But this book was the equivalent of a sit down and an extensive conversation with Malcolm myself! Disregarding the stipulations, depictions, narratives and other personal & media driven opinions, I now believe that I truly understand who Malcolm was! I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to digest his thoughts and the selected details of his journey within this well structured book! Alex did a phenomenal job with helping Malcolm put together this book! And personally, I think that a person should only be allowed to exert an opinion on Malcolm only after reading this book! Thank you Malcolm for your contribution to mankind as we know It. (((salute)))
If you had asked me what I thought about Malcolm X before reading the Autobiography, I would have told you he was the militant civil rights leader to contrast the nonviolence of Martin Luther King Jr. But that explanation, which basically encompassed my general knowledge from high school history classes, is such a massive disservice in fully conveying the complexity of a highly fascinating, admirable, and simultaneously tragic human being.The narration begins with hooded Ku Klux Klan members breaking into his parents’ Nebraska home in the 1920s. Once again, when Malcolm is a child, a white supremacist group burns his new home in Michigan down. In the late 1930s, he and his siblings were separated and government officials instituted their mother at a state hospital. In school, despite Malcolm’s incredible intelligence, his white teachers would call his law ambitions unrealistic and demonstrated the lengths to which the United States suppressed the talents of black people. This is a driven and resilient man who would become one of the most important figures of the 20th century despite severe traumas and a cruel, unjust world.Witnessing his journey is tragic because he could have gone even further. His assassination is a testament to the strength of his wisdom and fame because those threatened by him and other civil rights leader were nothing but hateful embodiments of a backward time. It is common to hear people talk about Malcolm X as a controversial figure because while he was outwardly hateful of white people for a long time, he talks about a lot of uncomfortable ideas. It is a shame we did not get to see him explore them in greater depth.
Towards the end of his narrative of his life, Malcolm X challenges his readers: "I want you to just watch and see if I’m not right in what I say: that the white man, in his press, is going to identify me with “hate.”" Indeed, before reading this book I associated Malcolm X with hate, a sort of anti-Christ to MLK's peaceful nonviolence. But then I followed Malcolm's story from a tragic childhood to his rough life in Harlem. I googled "Lindy hopping" and watched videos, then learned all about "conking" one's hair. As an educator, I loved reading about his self-education in prison. His transformation and self-discipline were astounding. Later, his discourses on the history of the brutality of the white man almost had me convinced that white man truly is "Satan" (which is awkward, because I'm white!). Probably my favorite part was his first trip to Mecca and the transformation he underwent while there. And his meetings with leaders of African countries who expressed their solidarity with the plight of African-Americans (and insisted he use that term rather than "Negro"). I feared for his life as he described knowing he would be killed--he knew he wouldn't live to see his autobiography published--and mourned for him, his wife, and children when he was gunned down.His last words to his readers were "I know that societies often have killed the people who have helped to change those societies. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help to destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America—then, all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine."
How many public intellectuals who get famous for espousing one view are willing to reassess that position and modify it? I cannot think of too many. Only having a mind that zealously searched for the truth regardless of where it may lead would have allowed Malcolm X to "re-arrange" and "toss aside" his previous views on race.The entire book is engrossing. The first 150 pages chronicles his life before his religious conversion. His parents were harassed, degraded and ultimately ruined by whites. Despite this, Malcolm was a good student who eventually failed because of his low ceiling as a young, black man was plainly told to him by a teacher. A fascinating portrait of a wayward youth trying to make it on the streets of Boston and Harlem ensues. The level of detail and numerous near misses make for a fascinating story. During this time, you see a very talented mind in the wrong line of work.Prison presents an opportunity for him to change course. He meets an older inmate named Bimbi who commands respect with the words he projects. He converts to Islam and consumes every book he can get his hands on. Once out, his devoutness to Elijah Muhammed is firm. He works relentlessly to build up the Nation of Islam. Malcolm alludes to a faith in Elijah that was so great, greater even than Elijah had in himself. That becomes clear when he confronts Elijah about his infidelity, the leader explains:I'm David. When you read about how David took another man's wife, I'm that David. You read about Noah, who got drunk - that's me. You read about Lot, who went and laid up with his own daughters. I have to fulfill all of these things.Ultimately, jealously and some controversial remarks send him into isolation. Malcolm journeys through the Middle East and Africa. After seeing the interracial brotherhood of the Hajj in Mecca, Malcolm states, "A blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks." Of his change, he says, "I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth."A lot of Malcolm's points hold up surprisingly well in America today. A real seeker of knowledge and of truth, this is a fascinating story.
BOOK REVIEW--THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X--AS TOLD TO ALEX HALEY It's an astoundingly, refreshing and moving work of non-fiction by the late author Alex Haley that I've ever read and it has changed me and my way of thinking perhaps forever. I believe, now at this particular time--and according to the will of the Creator--that, by the Father's timing, I was allowed to read this book. I had purchased this book years ago but because of moving around from state to state, lost it. I praise the Almighty for blessing me with the finances to procure a copy of the book once more and to absorb it's contents. It is true that Malcolm X met an untimely death in 1965 and it is most unfortunate because I would've love to have met him. I came into the world a year later. I've always admired him and as a child growing up he was one of my heroes with Muhammad Ali being a close second. Most people believed Malcolm to have been a racist, a "hate-monger", an "enemy of the state." He was none of those, at least not to me. He just believed that the so-called Black man and Black woman should live in this society free and equal and not be disenfranchised or demoralized by racism and or the tenets thereof. His pilgrimage to Mecca opened his eyes in ways that we can't even begin to imagine or let the heart accept. I remember watching the Spike Lee movie which is based upon the autobiography which is very good for what it was, but for one to get a better, more intimate perspective regarding the man, read the book. After having read the book, the movie vastly pales in comparison and should be considered a visual companion to the book. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, you are greatly missed!
I have never written a review before. But I am taking the time to do so now even though I know I will probably fall short of meaningful expressions. I heard of MalcomX ( will short it as MX for future reference) and always in comparison of MLK . MX was violent. MLK was peaceful. So I bought both autobiographies because I wanted to learn beyond what I heard from others. I naively called myself a MLK girl because I believed it made me look “ non threatening “. But after reading, this, I have become undone. I have become undone at the misrepresentation and the misunderstanding of MX. I have become undone by the truths as harsh as they were hard to swallow for me as a African and as a person whose community is mainly made up of white. I was undone by the truths that indeed History about Africans and African décents around the globe and certainly in America has be rewritten or I would dare to say erased. I was undone by the truth that as a Christian I would not have been allowed to worship under the same roof, The God Who created all men equal. And that ultimately, I would have probably chosen Islam as my religion, because it was the only religion in which people of any races or social or economic background could eat, drink or pray together during that era . But mainly I was undone with the truths that MX never raised a weapon against anyone and if his words were to be considered weapons, then they would have been double edged swords. I didn’t agree with everything MX said. Some of this views scared me, especially after I had read MLK autobiography. But I had to approach them with objectivity. I had to understand his background. I had to accept to walk with him on his evolving journey. And I am so glad I did. Because the MX I discovered is not the one I heard about. He is not the MX history portrayed. He predicted this broken representation of his life. And that proved his point: the truth will never be truth until you seek it yourself . I am shocked. And I will shock you. I would dare to say that I would have join him on his crusade. Yes, indeed, I would have.
I must say that I knew about this BOOK but had never read it and when someone asked me, "You have read the autobiography of Malcolm X, haven't you", I was so embarrassed to say that I had NOT read it. Well, now I have read the explosive book and I am quite impressed. The beginning of the book was a tad slow for me,. Perhaps, it was the literary style but after the first 100 pages or so, the book took off and really exploded. The "forward" for this book was brilliantly written by his daughter, Attallah. The apple does not fall far from the tree, she writes beautifully about such an important man and how we must learn to honor and not confuse the message that he tried so hard to deliver.I am so glad that Malcolm finally learned to embrace his heritage. I find that his philosophy was ahead of time even though he was most often misunderstood. I found him to be a honest and simple man with few needs. He was not materialistic and died poor with no wealth left for his family. I do not understand how a man could accomplish so many things without much sleep or rest. ? His dedication to the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad is purely dedication even foresaking his family. Just to think of his horrible death and how he was treated afterwards is disrespectful . Even after death and all the hate to just get the man buried was totally disgraceful.Toward the end, it was so sad. This book is full of life lessons that I hope like Malcolm we will all embrace.Leslie Taylor
A victim of a Racist regime!Starting the book I couldn’t stop reading, for five consecutive days, the first two chapters tell the story of his family and his childhood,heartbreaking events that are full of suffering, pain and humiliation this human race have suffered!Chapter 3 becomes more detailed with a very few boring pages, chapter four becomes more interesting with his life at 16 in the ghetto, becoming a dancer and later a Harlemite. Chapter five have pages with his daily routines, way of living, gambling, pimping, gangster life, etc.” black victims of the white man`s American social system”, indeed at those times a black man’s life was a day at a time survival and the USA was a place where the criminal, the law and the politician inseparable!.A vivid image is delivered in the later chapters of the decayed way of life of the white man elite in New York in the 1940s. We later see his introduction to Islam, a wrong version of it, a very wrong one, more of a mythical movement than a religionWe see how his deep interest in Islam and the desire to start writing about it drove him to read and educate himself, this changed his life from a life of crime to a life of 15 hours of self-learning a day.There are so many lessons to be learned from this remarkable man! He is to be respected for his honesty and courage in relating all these events and the way he upheld to his convictions. I will not say more about the contents of this, I loved it and I have compassion with the cause of African Americans, nothing that can be done is enough to compensate the hundreds of years of injustice that they have been subjected to!
