Manning Marable describes his theoretical approach to the writing of African history and the construction of black studies, which is directly connected with living history. He argues that oppressed people in the United States generally think about their living history very differently from those closer to centers of institutional power. Because of the difficult circumstances of their lives, the oppressed often celebrate myth over factual accuracy. No black poets have written about Clarence Thomas or Condi Rice, but entire books, films, symphonies, and even an opera have been composed about the life of the heroic figure Malcolm X.
Manning Marable is M. Moran Weston/Black Alumni Council Professor of African-American Studies, and Professor of Public Affairs, History and Political Science at Colombia University in New York City. Marable has written, edited or contributed to twenty-seven books, including *How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America* (1983), *Black American Politics* (1985), *Black Leadership* (1998), *The Great Wells of Democracy* (2002), and *Living Black History* (2006). He is currently completing a major new biography of Malcolm X.