Baldwin’s later work continued his themes rather than conceding to changed times.

Evidence

I think that much of this criticism fails to take seriously the continuity of themes running through Baldwin’s body of work: that he continued to examine questions of American identity and history, railed against the traps of categories that narrowed our frames of reference, insisted that we reject the comfort and illusion of safety that the country’s myths offered, and struggled mightily with the delicate balance between his advocacy and his art. Critics preferred to think of the old man going bad in the teeth; that, somehow, he had failed to account for the changing times or became a caricature of himself. But I contend that Baldwin’s later work was a determined effort to account for the dramatic shift in the times, not a concession to them. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 306

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the thesis statement of the entire book — the recanonization argument in one paragraph.
• XREF: connects to: A later work can complete and transform an earlier one rather than contradict it.