On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance

New York Times bestselling author and living legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shares how the power of the Harlem Renaissance led him to become the man he is today--basketball superstar, jazz enthusiast, historian, and Black American icon.

In On the Shoulders of Giants, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar invites us on an extraordinarily personal journey back to his birthplace of Harlem through one of the greatest political, cultural, literary, and artistic movements in history. He reveals the tremendous impact the Harlem Renaissance had on both American culture and his own life.

Travel deep into the soul of the Renaissance--the night clubs, restaurants, basketball games, and fabulous parties that have made footprints in Harlem’s history. Meet the athletes, jazz musicians, comedians, actors, politicians, entrepreneurs, and writers who not only inspired Kareem’s rise to greatness but an entire nation.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is recognized by Sports Illustrated and Time magazine as history’s greatest basketball player (he is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer). The author of several New York Times bestsellers, Kareem’s previous books include Giant Steps, Kareem, Black Profiles in Courage, A Season on the Reservation, and Brothers in Arms. Since his retirement as a player in the NBA, Kareem has worked as a special assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers and acted as a volunteer coach for children on the White Mountain Apache reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona. On the Shoulders of Giants is currently in production as a documentary film.

Raymond Obstfeld is an associate professor of English at Orange Coast College, and is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including studies of the Italian Renaissance, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Moby-Dick.