The 1619 Project : : a new Origin Story

Locations
Call Number: 973 Si, Black Studies 973 Si, Adult Book / Nonfiction / History / General / Sixteen Nineteen Project
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Traverwood Branch

"Created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, & The New York Times magazine"--Book jacket.
Preface: Origins / Nikole Hannah-Jones -- Democracy / Nikole Hannah-Jones -- Race / Dorothy Roberts -- Sugar / Khalil Gibran Muhammad -- Fear / Leslie Alexander and Michelle Alexander -- Dispossession / Tiya Miles -- Capitalism / Matthew Desmond -- Politics / Jamelle Bouie -- Citizenship / Martha S. Jones -- Self-defense / Carol Anderson -- Punishment / Bryan Stevenson -- Inheritance / Trymaine Lee -- Medicine / Linda Villarosa -- Church / Anthea Butler -- Music / Wesley Morris -- Healthcare / Jeneen Interlandi -- Traffic / Kevin M. Kruse -- Progress / Ibram X. Kendi -- Justice / Nikole Hannah-Jones.
"The animating idea of The 1619 Project is that our national narrative is more accurately told if we begin not on July 4, 1776, but in late August of 1619, when a ship arrived in Jamestown bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival inaugurated a barbaric and unprecedented system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the country's very origin. The 1619 Project tells this new origin story, placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country. Orchestrated by the editors of The New York Times Magazine, led by MacArthur "genius" and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, this collection of essays and historical vignettes includes some of the most outstanding journalists, thinkers, and scholars of American history and culture--including Linda Villarosa, Jamelle Bouie, Jeneen Interlandi, Matthew Desmond, Wesley Morris, and Bryan Stevenson. Together, their work shows how the tendrils of 1619--of slavery and resistance to slavery--reach into every part of our contemporary culture, from voting, housing and healthcare, to the way we sing and dance, the way we tell stories, and the way we worship. Interstitial works of flash fiction and poetry bring the history to life through the imaginative interpretations of some of our greatest writers. The 1619 Project ultimately sends a very strong message: We must have a clear vision of this history if we are to understand our present dilemmas. Only by reckoning with this difficult history and trying as hard as we can to understand its powerful influence on our present, can we prepare ourselves for a more just future"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

History/Herstory submitted by kath on July 17, 2022, 11:39am A wonderful collection of essays, poems, and facts of our American story. The project covers a wide variety of topics including general history, music, medicine, healthcare, and inheritance. Should be a must-read for most Americans.

Important submitted by emroon on July 5, 2023, 11:46am I found the organization of this book to be interesting. I appreciated that the book was not laid out chronologically, and liked that the chapters were organized by theme. However, this meant that there was a lot of repeated background information from chapter to chapter. I think this book is organized in a way that does not lend it self to reading straight through like a novel, or other historical books that I have read. I like the poems that were included in between each chapter.
The content of this book is obviously so important and should be a must read for all Americans. Took information I had gotten from various different sources and put it all together and gave me more detail to understand how the decisions and events of the past have led to the current moment.

It's hard, but I cannot recommend this enough submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on July 15, 2023, 7:23pm This book is amazing. It covers a vast array of topics over the entirety of American history. I love the organization of it: there are 15-20 page essays that go in depth on big-picture topics (Sugar, Justice, Medicine, Music, Traffic, etc.) broken up with poems and/or 1-2 page fiction pieces, with these shorter pieces given paragraph-long historical context. Every piece of this book adds to the reader’s knowledge.

It's hard. Nothing in here saves a reader’s feelings. Nothing sugar coats American history or the people who lived it or the policies that made it what it was or is. And yet it speaks to strength and resilience, while decrying a system that made that resilience necessary. It condemns those who knew better and did evil anyway, without condemning those who inherited the system. It tells us what we need to know in order to do better from here.