Beginning in 2019, The New York Time Magazine published a series focused on the experiences of African-American citizens in the United States. Created by Nikole Hannah-Smith, the series explored how race has played into our country’s political decisions and culture, and was later developed into the book The 1619 Project. This book is a compilation of essays focused on various events in our nation’s history from the first slave ship to land on American soil to recent riots after the police shootings of several African-American citizens. Further, the audiobook version allows the authors of these essays to read their own words, breathing a life into them to build connections between these moments in time and our own lives.
I give The 1619 Project 4 out of 5 stars. I have learned about many of the events captured in these essays before reading this book, but from the white-washed perspective of most American media and history books. After listening to a Wondery podcast on the Tulsa Race Massacre a few years ago, I have recognized 2 things: as much as I want to say I have no bias, I do have subconscious bias that creeps in; and it is very important to read materials written from a diverse roster of authors in order to see the whole truth. Given these are essays, there were some longer sections that included a higher level of vocabulary that may be more difficult for some readers. With that said, this is a fantastic book to start with if you are looking to read history from a different perspective.
If you, like me, enjoyed that Wondery podcast on the Tulsa Race Massacre, you will like this book, too. With some tough conversations about bias and violence based on racism, I would direct this book to more mature audiences over 13. I could also see this book used as companion text for college American History courses to help balance the narrative.
I chose The 1619 Project for the Read With Lindsey Reading Challenge prompt “about slavery”. This prompt is in honor of Juneteenth and the day that the Emancipation Proclamation was finally announced in the final US territory. For the past few years, I’ve chosen books that truly focused directly on a slave’s experience for this prompt, but I wanted to take it a little further this year and explore how slavery impacts our world today.
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: Marrying the Ketchups, Jennifer Close
- Current audio book: That’s On Me, Mike McHargue
- Book I’m most looking forward to: My Friends, Fredrik Backman
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