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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
An extremely good book, chronicling the Obama years through contemporaneous articles and later commentary. All the essays are good, but "The Case for Reparations" is just fantastic. The book is still worth a read for that essay alone.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
It's kind of depressing how relevant a lot of this book was to me. It tries to grapple with a lot of the same things I've been trying to grapple with in the wake of Trump's second term as president. This book came out the year of Trump's first year in office and the fact that we have learned nothing as a nation and now have to deal with an even more unhinged, bigoted, egotistical, and authoritarian Trump this time around... I just want to light something on fire. Coates writes just the most gut-punching observations and ties things together in a way few others can. Highly recommend.
Coates is one of the best thinkers in American writing today, regardless of topic, but his thoughts on race and culture are particularly insightful. He offers a retrospective of his experiences of the Obama administration, both critiquing and celebrating the first black president, while examining how the legacy of slavery and racism in America both allowed for the Obama presidency and brought about the backlash that is the rise of Trump. Hard hitting, perceptive, and always brilliant.
informative
medium-paced