About the book
Born Malcolm Little, the activist known as Malcolm X told his story to the journalist Alex Haley in interviews from 1963 to 1965. It runs from a childhood in Omaha and Michigan, marked by his father's suspicious death and his mother's confinement in a psychiatric hospital, through early adulthood in Boston and New York, organized crime and six and a half years in prison. It follows his rise as national spokesman for Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, his break with the group, and the Mecca pilgrimage that turned him to Sunni Islam. Haley's epilogue covers their collaboration and the final days of Malcolm X, killed before the work was done. It became the basis for Spike Lee's 1992 film.
Ryan Holiday ranks it above The Catcher in the Rye as the story of a man who rose from crime and prison, taught himself to read with a dictionary and found religion. Tools of Titans names it as one of Casey Neistat's favorite books.
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This book has 2 recommendations
Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)
I forget who said it but I heard someone say that Catcher in the Rye was to young white boys what the Autobiography of Malcolm X was to young black boys. Personally, I prefer that latter over the former. I would much rather read about and emulate a man who is born into adversity and pain, struggles with criminality, does prison time, teaches himself to read through the dictionary, finds religion and then becomes an activist for Civil Rights before being gunned down by his former supporters when he tempers the hate and anger that had long defined parts of his message.
Casey Neistat (Founder/368 Creative Space)
Aside from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Casey's favorite book is The Second World War by John Keegan.
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