Malcolm X is without doubt a central figure in African American history, and his importance to black America has been confirmed by the fevered response to Manning Marable's recent biography. Robert Terrill's Cambridge Companion to Malcolm X has thankfully not whipped up such a controversy. The collection includes fourteen specially commissioned essays from an eclectic array of scholars and offers an impressionistic view of its subject, from his relationship with his mentor Elijah Muhammad to his particularly African American rhetorical strategies.

Claude Clegg evaluates the paternal Elijah Muhammad–Malcolm X relationship but shies away from speculating as to the extent of the former's involvement in the assassination plot. His is the only essay to deal exclusively with Malcolm X's period in the Nation of Islam, although Angela Dillard uses material from this period as evidence for Malcolm X's conservative credentials before moving on to reveal his influence on black conservative thought. Alex Gillespie dissects the narrative techniques that make Malcolm X's autobiography such a compelling read and urges readers to consider the writing of the autobiography as a reconstitutive moment in Malcolm X's life. The autobiography was the basis for two screenplays based on the life of Malcolm X, and Brian Norman's thought-provoking juxtaposition of James Baldwin's unfilmed screenplay with Spike Lee's 1992 biopic offers highly suggestive insights into the strengths of the former and the critical reaction to the latter. Jeffrey Leak highlights Malcolm X's patriarchal gender ideology while Sheila Radford-Hill focusses on the “web of female relationships” that surrounded and supported Malcolm X (64). The theme of personal relationships is picked up by James Smethurst, who details how Malcolm X influenced numerous individuals who later became part of the Black Arts Movement. In emphasizing Malcolm X's legacy for African American cultural activism, Smethurst paves the way for Richard Turner's examination of Malcolm X's importance to the hip-hop generation, an essay which stresses the importance of Malcolm X's Muslim faith. Three essays focus on Malcolm X's speeches. Mark McPhail applies Richard Lanham's concepts of rhetoric to Malcolm X's speeches and James Tyner explores their dystopian visions. Robert Terrill offers a close reading of “The Ballot or the Bullet” and an untitled speech from February 1965. These essays reconfirm the importance of Malcolm X's oratory to the student of African American history. The volume concludes with three essays that apply a broader lens to Malcolm X. Molefi Kete Asante offers a brief Afrocentric reading; Kevin Gaines thoughtfully positions Malcolm X in a global perspective, with a particular view towards his African sojourns; and William Sales concludes the volume with a wide-ranging survey of Malcolm X's legacy.

The volume stands as a neat and accessible supplementary text that will be particularly useful for undergraduate students seeking a variety of disciplinary approaches to Malcolm X's life and legacy. It is not flawless, however. The volume's chronology of Malcolm X's life leaves much to be desired and greater examination of Malcolm X's hajj and the importance of Garveyism to his thought would have rounded out the book's intellectual history. Deep readings of more of Malcolm X's speeches would have enabled a more sustained discussion of one of the book's sublimated themes, namely Malcolm X's evolving concept of black nationalism. Nevertheless, the essays encourage the reader to return to Malcolm X's works and think again about one of the most inspiring and controversial American figures of the twentieth century. For, as Terrill acknowledges, Malcolm X's significance is intimately tied to his speeches, and no collection of essays can truly compete with the words that Malcolm X spoke himself.