ABSTRACT
One of the major tests of good scholarship is whether time will render it useless. Another significant test is how one answers these questions: “Does the work say anything useful?” and if so, “How well does it say it?” Matthew Holden’s The Politics of the Black “Nation,” published in 1973, answers both of these questions in the affirmative. In my opinion, this is what good scholarship should be about. Given that the papers that make up this symposium were originally presented at the 1998 Annual Meeting of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS), it is proper to put some of the discussion in the context of the maturation of our organization.
