Reviews tagging 'War'

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi

7 reviews

readandfindout's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

Style/writing: 4 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Perspective: 4 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, Hate crime, War, Violence, Death, and Rape

Moderate: Addiction, Torture, and Racial slurs

ksuazo94's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Medical content, Murder, Grief, War, and Racism

Moderate: Addiction

nadia's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

I'm a little conflicted with my rating here because I definitely think this a book I would like everyone to make time for, but I struggled to get through it, for a handful of reasons.

I listened to the audiobook, and while I've heard others praise this edition highly — and it was awesome to hear so many different Black voices — I just don't think this format was the right one for me to take in this material. Admittedly, I wasn't in the best mood while listening to most of it — which definitely didn't help given the subject matter — but I struggled to focus and gel with some of the chapters, especially a lot of the earlier ones.

I go back and forth between thinking the book was incredible because of its breadth and variety and thinking it was trying to pack in almost too much that I've left it not really remembering any details, which is what I went into the book hoping for. Again, this could be because I listened to the book as opposed to reading the words from a page.

I was a big fan of the structure —  10 parts spanning 40 years and each chapter spanning 5 — and it was fascinating travelling bit by bit from the 17th Century all the way to the present day. I also appreciated the occasional poems mixed in with the essays!

I think I might have preferred a series of books in a very similar style, but with some of the essays going more in depth, and perhaps them having a little bit more of a narrative thread through them.

All in all, a book that's definitely worth your time! My rating is heavily based on my personal enjoyment in the moment.

Note: Around 75% in, there's a chapter on Zora Neale Hurston. I skipped most of it for fear of spoilers of Their Eyes Were Watching God.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Colonisation, Racism, Death, Murder, and War

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Hate crime, Trafficking, War, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Religious bigotry, Classism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Genocide, Child abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Transphobia, Pregnancy, Suicide, Pedophilia, Infertility, Mass/school shootings, Antisemitism, Alcohol, Homophobia, and Ableism

stevia333k's review against another edition

dark informative fast-paced

5.0

This anthology gives me a lot of topics to further look up. Oppression is heartbreaking but I liked how this history took pains to show how things got layered upon layered some melting quicker than others because a lot of histiography tends to act like the time dimension doesn't exist and that things are eternal. Like yeah, we were always bad off but there's been many slow creeps towards fascism, like revolution & counterrevolution. I'm marginalized but I'm white, so I'm feeling awkward about using the pronoun we, but still.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Classism, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Colonisation, Police brutality, Sexism, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Trafficking, War, and Violence

jennie_white2008's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Racism, War, Drug use, Police brutality, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Ableism, Addiction, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Slavery, and Torture

sydapel's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I usually don't rate the anti-racist books I read, but holy shit was this the most impactful thing I've read this year, and I haven't seen it talked about nearly enough. It's so uniquely structured and powerfully written, and more than any other book I've read made me directly confront the white supremacy rooted in this country's history. It's long, but so worth your time. 

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Content Warnings

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