In "Soul on Ice," Eldridge Cleaver's reflections on the plight of American society somehow sounded like those of a prodigiously intelligent man describing a tree though never having seen one. Reading those prison essays, however, you knew that he had read and digested every manual on the subject. The result was, up to a point, brilliant and revealing. Beyond that point, lurked some empty although eloquent abstractions, patently incorrect in their assumptions, judgments and conclusions….

[In his astonishing collection "Post-Prison Writings and Speeches"] Cleaver in freedom has visualized clearly and precisely the trees, as well as the forest.

"The Decline of the Black Muslims" and "The Death of Martin Luther King: Requiem for Nonviolence," are essays on two approaches to the racial problem that Cleaver asserts are "played out." "Open Letter to Ronald Reagan," written in May, 1968, after Cleaver was arrested for violation of parole, denies the charges...