Frantz Fanon

Revolutionary humanist and radical psychiatrist Frantz Fanon was one of the greatest Black thinkers of the twentieth century. Born in Martinique and known for his involvement in the Algerian liberation movement, his seminal books Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth are widely considered to be cornerstones of anti-colonial and anti-racist thought.

In this essential introduction to Fanon’s remarkable life and philosophy, Nigel C. Gibson argues that Fanon’s oeuvre is essential to thinking about race today. Connecting Fanon’s writing, psychiatric practice, and lived experience in the Caribbean, France, and Africa, Gibson reveals (with startling clarity) his philosophical commitments and the vision of revolution that he stood for. Despite his untimely death, the revolutionary pulse of Fanon’s ideas has continued to beat ever more strongly in the consciousness of successive revolutionary generations, from the Black Panthers and the Black Power to Black Lives Matter.

As Fanon’s thought comes alive to new activists thinking about their mission to “humanize the world,” Gibson reminds us that that Fanon’s revolutionary humanism is fundamental to all forms of anti-colonial struggle, including our own. Introduction

Chapter 1: Martinique, France and Metaphysical Experiences
Chapter 2: Fanon in France
Chapter 3: Black Skin, White Masks
Chapter 4: Fanon in Algeria
Chapter 5: The Algerian Revolution and Beyond: Fanon in Tunis
Chapter 6: Writing from Inside the Algerian Revolution
Chapter 7: Fanon, a Revolutionary Pan-Africanist Ambassador and his Last Days
Chapter 8: Les Damnés de la terre: The Handbook of Revolution

Conclusion

"This book compels readers to step into 'the glare of history's floodlights.' Nigel Gibson expertly explores Fanon's philosophy of liberation and makes a riveting plea for us to listen to Fanon across the ages. Each generation can and should find its revolution 'no longer in future heaven,' but within their own collective consciousness."
—Jane Anna Gordon, author of Statelessness and Contemporary Enslavement

"Gibson excavates Fanon like no other scholar. This book is a truly great read, and a masterful rendering of how and why Fanon keeps coming to life during revolutionary turning points in ever more diverse and comprehensive ways."
—Lou Turner, co-author of Frantz Fanon, Soweto and Black American Thought

"Combat Breathing reads Fanon as Fanon read his patients and comrades—that is, by patiently and brilliantly reframing and researching Fanon's life and work, becoming curious about moments of hesitation and stasis, and seeing what kind of self- and world-making such moments might vivify, if allowed to unfold .... With Fanon, Gibson proposes to cut against the pathologization of resistance, offering tools and theory—a 'Handbook'—by which current movements might critique, transform, and sustain their forms of resistance."
—Parapraxis Magazine

"Gibson firmly situates the reader in the midst of the key theoretical points in Fanon's life, rigorously details the relevant background and source material for each of his texts, and guides the reader through all of Fanon's challenging concepts with lucid and precise commentary"
—Samuel Summers, JAAS Journal of Asian and African Studies

"Gibson lays the foundation for a return to Fanon's texts that goes beyond interrogating his psychoanalytic inheritances. Re-centering Fanon's Marxism and existentialism... allows us to rethink Fanon's concept of violence anew.... [A]n excellent introduction to Fanon's historical context and political thought."
—Rose A. Owen, Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Nigel C. Gibson is Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, Boston, and an expert in the fields of Africana thought and postcolonialism. He is recognized as one of the leading scholars on Frantz Fanon and has authored numerous books on Fanon’s thought.