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Reviews tagging 'Racism'
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi
28 reviews
sydapel's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Police brutality, Murder, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, War, Violence, Racism, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Hate crime, Drug use, Mental illness, Torture, Rape, Colonisation, and Sexual assault
mydearwatsonbooks's review against another edition
Graphic: Kidnapping, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Death, Grief, Murder, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Racial slurs
Mention of several celebrities and prominent figures who have committed rape and/or sexual assualtskitch41's review
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Racial slurs
emily_koopmann's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Gun violence, and Sexual violence
caidyn's review
4.0
Graphic: Racism and Slavery
gabi_tron's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Murder, Colonisation, Confinement, Police brutality, Racism, Slavery, and Violence
steveatwaywords's review
4.75
Widely researched (though awkwardly cited with difficult-to-navigate and unmarked end notes), nearly every essay hints at still deeper scholarship to be revealed. I say "nearly every essay" because this is one of two concerns I had about the project:
1) While I am not certain of the directives given the various writers, not each approached the task with equal devotion to scholarship. I expected (and desired) analysis and judgments to accompany the topics and, especially in the earlier essays, these appeared, solidly built upon documented evidence. In a few (fortunately quite few) cases, however, there was more judgment than analysis and more still than documented detail. This was frustrating, as the tone for the book had been set by more focused historians earlier. But when the rhetoric grew powerful in place of scholarship, the interest in learning waned. In my view, it undermined the credibility of the collection as a whole.
2) My other concern is not truly that. As large as the collection is (80-odd brief essays with 10 poems), it is yet incredibly brief, barely skimming the richness and nuanced diversity of narratives we have of black history. In other words, I found myself reading the work as an introduction to larger studies (some completed or underway by the writers), or as a first volume, perhaps, to another few thousand which might still be written. To be sure, this is hardly a criticism but a printing limitation; but to that end, I would have appreciated a section which pushed readers to more serious scholarship out there on its topics. The brief writer bio entries at the end were in this way somewhat helpful, but not reliably focused on expanding the reader's experience.
Still, as I purge my bookshelf of over 5000 titles, <i>Four Hundred Souls</i> will stay, because it a volume I am confident to return.
Graphic: Death, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Violence, and Racism
The nature of the history of black Americans is rife with abusive treatment. These historians do not flinch from discussing it where relevant; however, each is treated factually as essential to its topic and never gratuitously.booksgamesvinyl's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, and Violence
just_one_more_paige's review
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Violence, Slavery, Sexism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Gaslighting, and Colonisation
apworden's review
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Xenophobia, Violence, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Hate crime