The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story Hardcover – November 16, 2021

"Would America have been America without her Negro people?"–W.E.B. DuboisIn exposing our nation’s troubled roots, the 1619 Project challenges us to think about American exceptionalism that we treat as the unquestioned truth. It asks us to consider who sets and shapes our shared national memory and what and particularly who gets left out.Ana Lucia Araujo writes in Slavery in the Age of Memory, “despite its ambitions of objectivity,” public history is molded by the perspectives of the most powerful members of society. And in the United States, public history has often been “racialized, gendered and interwoven in the fabric of white supremacy." Yet it is still posed as objective.This critique is not to imply that this generation of America's white citizens are personally responsible for slavery, or to suggest that the current generation of whites are ALL racist. Instead, this serves as a historical analysis of legal violence, subjugation, legal discrimination, and terrorism performed on behalf of white supremacist ideology. The 1619 Project provides a diagnosis and proposes a cure to the chronic illness of anti-black racism that continues to plague this country through hostile policy and hostile institutions.Academically crafted, the text unpacks America's history in accordance with American law with the addition of statements from a number of the country’s leaders, and other relevant documentation to make its case. In addition, Nikole Hannah Jones has assured that the data is present to match her argument as further evidence of a prolonged intentional injustice that has evolved into modern day abstractions designed with similar malicious intentions. She and an all-star cast of writers layout the causes and effects of policy that has placed us at this current racial reckoning moment in the US, in which many had claimed to be post-racial after the election of Barack Obama.The very fact that numerous Republican states have made united efforts to ban this book is a testament to censoring voices that offer productive solutions that sincerely attempt to lead to a more perfect union. A union that is unapologetically braggadocious about its freedom of speech. That is until it's time to deconstruct what is implied to "Make America Great Again?"For who?When was it great?Why was it great?... Are just a few of the questions that entangles mythology with reality for the sake of political aims. The 1619 Project disrupts that line of thinking by arguing on behalf of so much human potential made to unreasonably suffer because of primitive debunked logic that has not improved the lot of the country as a whole.Included are poems, photographs, and essays that argue, humanize, question and romanticize moments in Black American history. Also included, is relentless pain, suffering and ridicule, yet Black Americans continue believing in the idea of democracy truly fulfilled one day for all Americans. And it will require an authentic moment of truth and reconciliation from us all to get there.A truly monumental book!

Well written chapters on many important topics.

Excellent book i found alot of things I didn't know

I bought this book a few months ago and have started reading it last month. It's a slow read and am only about a quarter of the way in, but it's very informative in regards to how this country that became the US, and the world in general, was created by Europeans who convinced themselves to be superior.Some of what I've read I already knew from learning about it over the years and there were many accounts my never knew about, but not surprised. And despite what history has been taught, due to how European descendants choose to have history written, this book goes into deep detail of the previously untold history, or should I say the whitewashing of history, as never before told nor will ever be in history books.Although I still have the rest of the book to read, I find that the author wrote this in great detail, with much research of the chronicles events that took place from across the pond to the land that's called the US.

Very Informative

I purchased this book as a gift.To see the person's face light up was well worth the search and money.

I understand why some places are using this book in classrooms. It can open your eyes to a different interpretation of our history. We should never be afraid of someone else’s views and in fact we should celebrate them. I would love it if we could put this ugly history behind us, I’m optimistic it’s coming. This book and others like it are important for everyone to read.

Professor Hannah-Jones Book is a vital and important document review and insight into the history of our time and the black peoples lived experience especially the underpinning of the American economic miracle born of 18 century Black energy innovation and creativity and the lived experience of the Baldwinesq "after times"

Full of history about slavery in America and how this influences all of us to this day. A must read for every citizen.

Great, book. Very insightful!

This is one of the best books I have read. Full of history, compassion, suffering, hope and triumphs. As many already stated in the reviews, this should be required reading for students (rather than banned as it is in some schools that were forced to do so by their state governments).

Viele setzen den Beginn der US-amerikanischen Geschichte auf das Jahr 1776, den Sieg über die Kolonialmächte, die Verfassung. Das 1619-Projekt datiert den Ursprung der USA zurück auf die Ankunft des ersten Schiffes, gefüllt mit afrikanischen Sklav*innen zur Ausbeutung im beginnenden amerikanischen Wirtschaftssystem. Was Nikole Hannah-Jones im NY Times Magazin begann, liegt nun ausgearbeitet als Buch vor. Wie brisant das Projekt ist, zeigt sich auch an den heftigen Gegenreaktionen des konservativen Lagers in den USA, das mit Macht versucht, den Einsatz des 1619-Projekts in Schulen zu unterbinden.

This is a phenomenal book- coming from someone who predominantly reads fiction. It provides a critical analysis of North American history and answers a lot of questions about why the USA is the way it is in present day.It is heartbreaking to read at times. But it would be a disservice to the enslaved people to look away from their story, a story that isn’t often told or given its due respect.P.s. the 1619 podcast is exceptional too!