"the fire next time" is a book by james baldwin which was published by the new yorker in 1963 before being turned into a book. it contains 2 essays and is considered by some as one of the most influential and books about race relations in the 1960s and one of the first books on the issue in the u.s. in it, baldwin discusses the central role of race in American history. In his article, baldwin suggests that despite biblical statements from Christianity, there was no equality among black and white population in the United States, and that harlem was also an area filled with poverty and danger, which he calls a ghetto. essentially, baldwin gives an inside perspective to the material conditions of racism and racial segregation as nation-wide and deeply-embedded phenomenons which are still relevant in many ways today and are the underlying cause for race riots in the u.s. from that time and since.

The book's title comes from the Negro spiritual line, "God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water but fire next time"