William Attaway Volgorde van de boeken

Set against the backdrop of migrant workers, this novel explores themes of proletarian struggle and economic determinism. It vividly portrays the harsh realities of life on the road, emphasizing the psychological ties between characters and their environment. The naturalistic style reveals a deeper complexity, where seemingly simple narratives conceal profound symbols representing forces beyond the characters' control. This work foreshadows the author's later exploration of similar themes in Blood on the Forge.

This brutally gripping novel about the African-American Great Migration follows the three Moss brothers, who flee the rural South to work in industries up North. Delivered by day into the searing inferno of the steel mills, by night they encounter a world of surreal devastation, crowded with dogfighters, whores, cripples, strikers, and scabs. Keenly sensitive to character, prophetic in its depiction of environmental degradation and globalized labor, Attaway's novel is an unprecedented confrontation with the realities of American life, offering an apocalyptic vision of the melting pot not as an icon of hope but as an instrument of destruction. Blood on the Forge was first published in 1941, when it attracted the admiring attention of Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison. It is an indispensable account of a major turning point in black history, as well as a triumph of individual style, charged with the concentrated power and poignance of the blues.