Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom

Set the World on Fire examines Black nationalist women activists who worked to advance global Black liberation movements between the 1920s and 1960s. The book focuses on lesser-known female leaders who operated outside mainstream civil rights organizations, revealing their crucial roles in building international networks and advancing Black nationalist ideologies. Through extensive archival research, Blain traces the activities of women like Amy Ashwood Garvey, Amy Jacques Garvey, and Mittie Maude Lena Gordon as they organized across borders and oceans. These activists created grassroots organizations, published newsletters, and fostered connections between Black nationalist groups in the United States, Caribbean, and Africa. The narrative demonstrates how these women navigated both racial discrimination and gender barriers within their own movements while pursuing radical visions of Black empowerment. Their work linked domestic civil rights struggles with global anti-colonial movements. By centering women's leadership in Black nationalist organizing, the book expands understanding of twentieth-century Black internationalism and challenges male-dominated narratives of the movement. The text reveals how women's grassroots activism shaped Black nationalist thought and strategy across decades of struggle.

Readers highlight how the book uncovers previously overlooked Black women activists, particularly noting the stories of Mittie Maude Lena Gordon and Amy Jacques Garvey. Many reviews mention learning about women-led grassroots organizing they had never encountered in other historical texts. Reviewers appreciate the detailed archival research and documentation of how these women built international networks. Multiple readers note the book's examination of working-class Black women's activism, rather than focusing only on elite leaders. Some readers found the academic writing style dense and terminology challenging for general audiences. A few reviews mention wanting more biographical details about the featured activists. Ratings: Goodreads: 4.34/5 (108 ratings) Amazon: 4.8/5 (31 ratings) "Finally gives these revolutionary women their due" - Goodreads reviewer "Sometimes gets bogged down in academic language" - Amazon reviewer "Changed my understanding of Black nationalist movements" - Goodreads reviewer

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🔥 Author Keisha N. Blain uncovered many of the book's stories through extensive research in personal papers, FBI files, and newspaper archives that had never been thoroughly examined before. 📚 The book highlights how Black women activists operated across borders, forming networks from Chicago to Kingston, Jamaica, and beyond to fight colonialism and racism in the early-to-mid 20th century. 👑 Queen Mother Audley Moore, one of the women featured in the book, advocated for reparations for slavery decades before it became a mainstream political discussion and influenced Malcolm X's thinking on Black nationalism. 🗞️ The Ethiopian Crisis of 1935 became a galvanizing force for many of the women featured in the book, who organized protests, fundraisers, and letter-writing campaigns to oppose Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia. 🏆 Set the World on Fire won the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize and was named one of CHOICE's Outstanding Academic Titles in 2018.