"Mr. Baker perceives the Harlem Renaissance as a crucial moment in a movement, predating the 1920"s, when Afro-Americans embraced the task of self-determination and in so doing gave forth a distinctive form of expression that still echoes in a broad spectrum of 20th-century Afro-American arts. . . . Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance may well become Afro-America"s "studying manual."—Tonya Bolden, New York Times Book Review