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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
I will be thinking about the facts and ideas presented in these essays for a long time. Deepened my insight around American politics and white supremacy from a historical to a present day concrete perspective
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Took me a minute to get through it, but Coates is a fantastic writer. Must read for anyone working on anti racism
This book is essentially a collection of pieces by Ta-Nehisi Coates originally published in The Atlantic. These are interspersed with retrospective chapters, introducing and contextualizing each essay. These introductory chapters function as part auto-biography, part self-critique, and come together nicely with the 8 essays - one for each year of Barack Obama's presidency - that Coates has selected for this volume.
I don't take the time to read as much non-fiction as I should, so despite Coates' preeminence, all of the writing in this volume was new to me. The commentary on the essays is both helpful and honest - some of these essays are better than others, some of them hold up to scrutiny better than others, some of them are more persuasive, better argued, more poignant. But all are thought-provoking and in my case, enlightening.
The highlights for me were 'Why do so few blacks study the civil war' and 'My President was black' - the former because it reshaped the way I think about civil war history and our retelling of it, the latter because it's magnificently insightful and even a little hopeful (and look, I love reading about Obama, what can I say).
All in all, I think the perspective offered in these essays is critically important. It definitely challenged me and left me with a lot of thoughts and a fresh way of thinking.
I don't take the time to read as much non-fiction as I should, so despite Coates' preeminence, all of the writing in this volume was new to me. The commentary on the essays is both helpful and honest - some of these essays are better than others, some of them hold up to scrutiny better than others, some of them are more persuasive, better argued, more poignant. But all are thought-provoking and in my case, enlightening.
The highlights for me were 'Why do so few blacks study the civil war' and 'My President was black' - the former because it reshaped the way I think about civil war history and our retelling of it, the latter because it's magnificently insightful and even a little hopeful (and look, I love reading about Obama, what can I say).
All in all, I think the perspective offered in these essays is critically important. It definitely challenged me and left me with a lot of thoughts and a fresh way of thinking.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Another great and moving work by Coates, though I regret listening to the audio book because of a) my inability to refer back to each section's intro, and b) Coates not narrating the audio book (which he did for Between the World and Me). But a GREAT essay collection.
We Were Eight Years in Power is a collection of essays that Coates wrote for the Atlantic during the Obama presidency. The essays themselves were powerful, poignant, and beautifully written, and the commentary he includes before each piece provides useful context. From the beginning, Coates shows himself to be a uniquely gifted writer and journalist, and throughout the work one can see him develop into a brilliant scholar as well. We Were Eight Years in Power masterfully conveys both the feelings and historical-cultural context surrounding the first black presidency and its (current) horrifying political aftermath from an important perspective rooted in the modern African American struggle.
I won a copy through a Goodreads giveaway. Everyone should read this book! Powerful, important content.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Reading this in the age of trump has been telling of both, where we have been, and how we got here. Coates brings another masterpiece to the table in the form of his collected articles published throughout Obamas's term in office. Whether you are a supporter of Obama or not, this book can offer so much in the way of hashing out dynamics that you might have missed played out in real time. It tells the story of every corner of black america, including those who were against obama and those who fought decades ago for him to have access to the opportunity of being president.