tictactoney's review against another edition

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hopeful informative sad fast-paced

5.0

Love the format of this book!! Bite-sized essays, only a few pages each, each by a different author/specialist, covering in five-year increments the whole of Black history in America since the arrival of the White Lion, the "Adams and Eves of Black America". It's sweeping, yet succinct. It challenges the way Black history in America has been taught, remembered, and edited:
"When we are creating a shared history, what we remember is just a revelatory as what we forget."

Taken as individual essays, you learn SO MUCH reading this book. Every essay invites you to do more research into that small topic, every essay whets your appetite, every essay makes you want to become a specialist so you can go dismantle that one thing. (I in particular wanted to run to the library after the maroons chapter & the Harlem Renaissance chapter!)

Taken in concert, the book shows how small moments in history all added up to where we are now. Like, here's a quote from Ijeoma Oluo's essay that I really liked:
"My mother is white and I am Black because in 1630 a Virginia colonial court ordered the whipping of Hugh Davis..."
Nothing happens in a vacuum, no event is isolated; every little victory and every injustice brings us to 2024, to where we are now. A really great book to add to your anti-racist library. 

mgunn78's review against another edition

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challenging informative sad slow-paced

3.0

c100's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

jmrprice's review against another edition

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4.0

Must read to understand

archytas's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

Conceptually, this is a great idea - 80 essays, one tackling each five year period from 1619 to 2019, each written by a leading African-American historian, with each 40 year block followed by a poem inspired by the history. In practice, it's pretty idiosyncratic. Each historian is given just a couple of pages, meaning most choose to focus on a single theme. Most choose a theme, and rather than pack much information in, reflect on its significance (a notable exception is Penial Joseph who takes us on a hilariously breakneck tour of 1964-1969 in three pages...). This does make for a patchier read, and leaves some notable gaps (WWI, Tulsa riots). Many take important time to connect the themes to the current day, which works less well when reading several in short succession. I have read book length treatments on their topics from some of the featured authors, including angela DAvis, Crystal Feimster and Isobel Wilkerson, making little in the essay new. There are some great reflective pieces on individuals, including Derrick Aldridge on Booker T. Washington; Annette Gordon-Read on Sally Hemmings, William Barber II on David George and Alexis Pauline Gumbs on Phyllis Wheatley. Others that stood out included Sylviane Dalouf on Maroonage, Carig Steven Wilder on Higher Education and Wesley Lowery on the Stono Rebellion, While easy to read, the volume taught me less new material than I hoped (with some notable exceptions, including an excellent essay on Salamishah Tillett on Anita HIll's fight, Ijeoma Ilulu on early 17th Century interracial relationships, Barbara Smith on the Combahee River Collective, and a great reflection on Plessy vs Ferguson by Blair L. M. Kelly ). The poetry works beautifully however.
I suspect this compendium will work best as a dip and out volume for history teachers. And it certainly works as a testament to both the twisting, resliant nature of white supremacy and the incredible survival and ferocity of Black people.


stephaniesteen73's review against another edition

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5.0

Really excellent compilation of 80 essayists, each taking 5 years of the 400 year period from 1619-2019 in African-American history. I'm ashamed to say that many of the stories were new to me and many were painful to hear, but all were riveting.
Loved this on audio.

islandkate's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This was an informative, moving, challenging collection of essays on the history of Black America. Some things I had learned in school or through my own reading, but there were so many accounts of events and people I had never heard of. I listened to the audiobook and loved how each author read their contribution. I appreciated this the most with the 10 poems that ended each section. A true community history. 

danireadsthings's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

joannegraph's review

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slow-paced

4.0

merri217's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5