Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

7 reviews

kurtwombat's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

 

This staggering work seeks to reset our understanding of slavery and its lingering aftermath—to take our limited view of history and expand it dramatically—like an empty balloon suddenly filled. It does so with a collection of essays that approach our American history and our American present from many different angles—political, economic, geographic, psychological, sociological etc. The essays are bridged by recollections and poetry and short fiction that act as palate cleansers before the plunge into the next demanding chapter.  I listened to the 18+ hour audiobook and enjoyed the different voices—especially when the bridges were performed. The spoken narration drew me out of myself and I believe I was more receptive to the information. The bridges reaffirmed what the chapters had to say or prefaced what was to come.  The essays themselves vary in quality and impact but as a collection 1619 packs quite a wallop—alternately inspiring outrage and sadness but always inspiring. I understand the desire to add this to school curriculums—and even to create entire courses around it (I think in some form or another it should be in every school until our educational system improves enough to grow beyond it)—but I would encourage close monitoring for younger readers. Some of this material, making up the fabric of our nation, covers the worst of what humanity is capable—horrific  brutality the thread of which still runs through today.  Indeed much of the impact comes from blending the intimate with the big picture—looking into the eyes of history. I see this book as kind of a solution guide. I knew there was a puzzle and I could see some of the pieces and suspected there were others but I had no idea how many or how they all fit together. If you doubt the need for such a book, take a look at a few of the one star reviews—filled with the kind of negative passion born of ignorance and fear. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Violence, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Rape, Child abuse, Confinement, Police brutality, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Racism, Slavery, and Torture

A fantastic must read by all Americans. Suggest pre-high schoolers read with parental supervision.

lmfry's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, Genocide, Police brutality, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Trafficking, Slavery, Rape, Racism, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Islamophobia, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Child abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

mysterymom40's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Racism, Violence, Death, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Torture, Slavery, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, and Bullying

Moderate: Police brutality, Child death, Colonisation, and Forced institutionalization

kimveach's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

A book blogger suggested that this is a great audiobook. I'm afraid I have to disagree. The authors read the essays; unfortunately, not all authors are great narrators. The performances of the poems would be the exception. After nearly falling asleep while driving the car, I decided to try reading it another way. Thankfully, Kindle had a sale that included both the written and audio versions of the book.

The essays are enlightening and contain the history I wish I had learned in school.

While there have been criticisms, I feel this New York Times response best describes the purpose of the book. "The very premise of The 1619 Project, in fact, is that many of the inequalities that continue to afflict the nation are a direct result of the unhealed wound created by 250 years of slavery and an additional century of second-class citizenship and white-supremacist terrorism inflicted on black people (together, those two periods account for 88 percent of our history since 1619). These inequalities were the starting point of our project — the facts that, to take just a few examples, black men are nearly six times as likely to wind up in prison as white men, or that black women are three times as likely to die in childbirth as white women, or that the median family wealth for white people is $171,000, compared with just $17,600 for black people. The rampant discrimination that black people continue to face across nearly every aspect of American life suggests that neither the framework of the Constitution nor the strenuous efforts of political leaders in the past and the present, both white and black, has yet been able to achieve the democratic ideals of the founding for all Americans."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Blood, Confinement, Deportation, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Violence, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Death of parent, Grief, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and War

franklola's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Medical content, Police brutality, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Murder, Slavery, Suicide, Grief, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, and War

bandysbooks's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

The history of America told from the perspective of Black historians. While the history itself wasn’t entirely new to me, the perspectives provided really challenged me to think about some of the misconceptions I held regarding the history of this nation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Colonisation, War, Grief, Sexual assault, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Racial slurs, Classism, Medical trauma, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

deadeye's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cultural appropriation, War, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Gun violence, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Death, Colonisation, Classism, Confinement, Chronic illness, Child death, Child abuse, and Cancer