βThis is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.β In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nationβs history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of βrace,β a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and menβbodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coatesβs attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his sonβand readersβthe story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose childrenβs lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
Media Buzz
Late Night with Seth Meyers - November 27, 2015 News at 4: Wednesday Reads - October 21, 2015 Daily Show with Jon Stewart - July 23, 2015 CBS This Morning - July 15, 2015 CBS This Morning - July 13, 2015 Fresh Air - NPR - July 13, 2015 Morning Edition - July 10, 2015 Meet the Press - July 5, 2015
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