Between the World and Me

ByTa-Nehisi Coates

Release Date: 2015-07-14
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs

Score: 4.5

4.5

From 2,983 Ratings

Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT

Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone)

NAMED ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY • NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • AN OPRAH DAILY BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE PAST TWO DECADES

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, People, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, New York, Newsday, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Reviews

Amazing
5
By BK’NDABX
This book is full of history. Have amazing stories and gut-wrenching realities. It’s a powerful book that all should read.
Open Your Eyes
5
By BigAppleGreg
Picked this up after absorbing an interview with Kara Swisher.
An important lesson in implicit bias.
One thinks they understand walking in another’s shoes - you don’t.
An eye opening, emotional, important read.
Banned
5
By MissSheri
I have no doubt that this is a powerful letter. Not only from the author to his son but to all of America and that makes it dangerous. Undoubtedly on many banned book lists, this is a must read. It is provocative and emotive.
Jarring
5
By Anella Wetter
Simply jarring. A must read.
Best book I’ve ever read
5
By msromoo
Had my anti-racist book club read it and all of them absolutely loved this book. As do I.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5
By nikindc
This is a book that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Eye opening!
5
By Glam-ma T
Once I started reading this book I could not put it down. Even now I feel robbed that it’s over. So much power in the words of and from a black man to his son. BRAVO!
An eye opening experience
5
By Naturesfan
The way he casts his journey like a long hike with twists and turns then a strong slap in the face! With passion and reckoning, i couldn’t put it down.
Between the World and Me
5
By Razzlebarry
Coates draws a stark and moving portrait of the damage the dream of whiteness does directly to black bodies, the earth, and, therefore, to the dreamers. It hurts to acknowledge the status that privilege has bestowed on me and to know there is so little I can do to wake my fellow dreamers. A must read for all who care about justice and particularly for those who don’t.
A beautifully...
5
By SirGregOfMays
written coming of age story and tribute to — among other things — the majesty of the Howard University experience for young black men and women.