A dramatic expansion of the award-winning special issue of The New York Times Magazine — named one of the “top works of journalism of the decade” — this ground-breaking book reveals a new vision of America’s history and identity.
The 1619 Project charts this new story of the origins of America by starting in August 1619 when a ship arrives in Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years.
Orchestrated by the editors of The New York Times Magazine and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project weaves together 18 essays that explore The legacy of slavery in present-day America with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle and resistance — including archival portrait photography of Black Americans.
By …
A dramatic expansion of the award-winning special issue of The New York Times Magazine — named one of the “top works of journalism of the decade” — this ground-breaking book reveals a new vision of America’s history and identity.
The 1619 Project charts this new story of the origins of America by starting in August 1619 when a ship arrives in Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years.
Orchestrated by the editors of The New York Times Magazine and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project weaves together 18 essays that explore The legacy of slavery in present-day America with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle and resistance — including archival portrait photography of Black Americans.
By providing a fresh context for the faultlines of race that shape the world today, this landmark book reveals how this troubling history continues to influence our modern lives.
This book isn't the easiest to read, but it is the most important one I've read in years. It fills in gaps and reframes our country's history to include black americans. I am sorry that at the same time this crucial truth is getting recognition there are people trying to shut down any acknowledgement of the impact of systemic racism in America. How can we succeed if we don't acknowledge the truth around us?
Angelou's quote about knowledge and action that I borrowed for the title of this review was not quoted during this text, (as far as I can recall) however it was on the top of my mind throughout my reading of it. Part of being able to make a just society is to educate the ignorant portions of that society to the the injustices inherent in it. This text does that. My own ignorance of the depth of inequality in the US, established and perpetuated by the self interest of the powerful as expressed through racist policy was vast. This compilation of great work inspires me to dig deeper, and to do more.
Kudos to the authors and the editors for pulling together such a fascinating collection of 18 essays backed with twice that many poems/short prose to illustrate the timeline. history lessons, sociology lessons, lessons in humanity/inhumanity and the cognitive dissonance that is the usa.
