SOURCE: A review of Adam by Adam, in The New Yorker, Vol. XLVII, No. 39, November 13, 1971, 1971, pp. 202-03.

In the following excerpt, the critic offers a brief review of Adam by Adam.

[Adam by Adam is an] impenitent apologia by the energetic, flamboyant former congressman from New York. Mr. Powell insists that the various moves against him were retaliation for his pertinacious pursuit of racial equality—a plausible point, inasmuch as the actions, including a suit by the Internal Revenue Service and the House of Representatives' refusal to seat him, were not sustained. And there is no question but that the style of Negro leadership throughout most of Powell's younger days was decidedly hat-in-hand and Powell's was not. He is less persuasive describing his other role: as a Baptist minister, his theology seems to boil down to "as you like it." He is a strikingly good describer of all...