Conversations in Maine

"Conversations in Maine was an essential text for my generation of radicals."—Robin D.G. Kelley

Meditations on activism following the turbulent 1960s—back in print

After the Detroit Rebellion of 1967, James and Grace Lee Boggs decided they should rethink what activism looks like. Pairing with trusted veteran activists Freddy and Lyman Paine, they ruminated on central questions emerging from their politics and activism, and they discussed the purpose and responsibilities human beings share for the future. The recorded dialogue among these four friends invites readers to consider the fundamentals of activism with tough, thought-provoking questions. Their conversations at the Paines’ home on Sutton Island, Maine, not only function as political act but also present unsettling truths and develop connections between philosophy, music, art, gender difference, family structure, Marxism, and more. Conversations in Maine is a call to all citizens to work together and think deeply about the kind of future we can create. 

Grace Lee Boggs (1915–2015) was a first-generation Chinese American philosopher activist. She is author of Living for Change: An Autobiography (Minnesota, 1998, 2016) and The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-first Century, with Scott Kurashige. 

James Boggs (1919–1993) was an activist, auto worker, and author of numerous books and articles, including The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker’s Notebook. 

Freddy Paine (1912–1999) and Lyman Paine (1901–1978) were radical activists and members of the Johnson-Forest Tendency, a socialist splinter group founded by Grace Lee Boggs, Raya Dunayevskaya, and C. L. R. James.