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An American Tragedy
One World
October 2017
On Sale: October 3, 2017
400 pages ISBN: 0399590560 EAN: 9780399590566 Kindle: B01MT734OD Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir | Non-Fiction Political
In these “urgently relevant essays,”* the National Book
Award–winning author of Between the World and Me “reflects
on race, Barack Obama’s presidency and its jarring
aftermath”*—including the election of Donald Trump. “We were eight years in power” was the lament of
Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American
experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of
white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping
collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates
explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time:
the unprecedented election of a black president followed by
a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man
Coates argues is America’s “first white president.” But the story of these present-day eight years is not just
about presidential politics. This book also examines the new
voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over
this period—and the effects of the persistent, haunting
shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history. Coates
powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his
intimate and revealing perspective—the point of view of a
young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment
office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office,
interviewing a president. We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays
first published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black
President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black
Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” along with eight
fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama
administration through Coates’s own experiences,
observations, and intellectual development, capped by a
bracingly original assessment of the election that fully
illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern
America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic
moment.
No awards found for this book.
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