What do you think?
Rate this book
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a revealing vision of the American past and present.
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American 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 source of so much that still defines the United States.
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story builds on The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project,” which reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on the original "1619 Project, "weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This legacy can be seen in the way we tell stories, the way we teach our children, and the way we remember. Together, the elements of the book reveal a new origin story for the United States, one that helps explain not only the persistence of anti-Black racism and inequality in American life today, but also the roots of what makes the country unique.
The book also features an elaboration of the original project’s Pulitzer Prize–winning lead essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones on how the struggles of Black Americans have expanded democracy for all Americans, as well as two original pieces from Hannah-Jones, one of which makes a case for reparative solutions to this legacy of injustice.
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American 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 source of so much that still defines the United States.
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story builds on The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project,” which reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on the original "1619 Project, "weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This legacy can be seen in the way we tell stories, the way we teach our children, and the way we remember. Together, the elements of the book reveal a new origin story for the United States, one that helps explain not only the persistence of anti-Black racism and inequality in American life today, but also the roots of what makes the country unique.
The book also features an elaboration of the original project’s Pulitzer Prize–winning lead essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones on how the struggles of Black Americans have expanded democracy for all Americans, as well as two original pieces from Hannah-Jones, one of which makes a case for reparative solutions to this legacy of injustice.
590 pages, Hardcover
First published August 18, 2019
10202 people are currently reading
67908 people want to read
About the author
Nikole Hannah-Jones
20 books1,010 followersNikole Hannah-Jones is an American investigative journalist known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for The New York Times.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,636 reviews
February 17, 2022
What a ripoff! Conservatives promised me a racist anti-american tirade and all I got was this deeply researched history of black people's struggles and contributions to our democracy and culture, and how there are many disparities stemming from slavery that still need to be fixed. I want my money back dammit!
November 7, 2021
For those who premise that Historians write truth, I, as an Historian, will boldly disagree. Historians write perspective that is grounded in the interpretation of Primary Source Documents created by people — ordinary people, powerful people, people who did, people who observed, and people who had no voice. Rather than attacking this book for not telling the «Truth» or as undermining the mainstream story of our nation,
The 1619 Project is a much needed opportunity for a candid and painful conversation about race in our nation. The contributors to this book are outstanding in their fields and provide cogent and thoughtful parts of this book. Their voices (and so many others) need to be added to the canon of American History and we owe it to History to consider their value in telling the American story.
The 1619 Project is a much needed opportunity for a candid and painful conversation about race in our nation. The contributors to this book are outstanding in their fields and provide cogent and thoughtful parts of this book. Their voices (and so many others) need to be added to the canon of American History and we owe it to History to consider their value in telling the American story.
November 17, 2021
Read it. Read it because a lot of people don't want you to, and the fact that they don't want you to should tell you something powerful is at work here. And it is. This collection of articles is simply amazing, and no matter what someone might want to think about the conclusions being drawn from these stories, no one can deny the obviously verifiable facts found within them. Whether you think America is still the same nation today that it was in the 16, 18 or 19 hundreds, what can't be denied is the importance and the power of learning the stories of the enslaved people and the victims of horrible racist violence throughout that history. Too often we only listen to the part of the story told by those still living to tell it, but by presenting the stories of actual lynchings, The 1619 Project at least reframes the conversation around the source and outcomes of that violence. Read it, even though it's hard. Read it precisely because it's hard. But for love of God, Read This Book!
March 31, 2022
Audiobook….read by a full cast of authors.
Voice narrator….Nikole Hannah-Jones, and full cast.
….18 hours and 57 minutes long
“This is our national truth: America would not be America without the wealth from black labor, without black striving.. . So much . . .
that we export to the world, that draws the world to us, comes forth from Black Americans m that is Black Americans’ Legacy to the nation . . . We cannot change the hypocrisy upon which we were found it . . . But we can atone for it. We can acknowledge the crime. And we can do something to try to set things right, to erase the hardship and hurt of so many of our fellow Americans . . . None of us can be held responsible for the wrongs of our ancestors. But if today we choose not to do the right and necessary thing, THAT burden we own . . . Yes we are to be redeemed, we must . . . finally live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded”.
A successful purpose….
“It aims to reframe the countries history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
The ugly truth is really ugly.
The project angers - it also encourages positive change.
5 stars
Voice narrator….Nikole Hannah-Jones, and full cast.
….18 hours and 57 minutes long
“This is our national truth: America would not be America without the wealth from black labor, without black striving.. . So much . . .
that we export to the world, that draws the world to us, comes forth from Black Americans m that is Black Americans’ Legacy to the nation . . . We cannot change the hypocrisy upon which we were found it . . . But we can atone for it. We can acknowledge the crime. And we can do something to try to set things right, to erase the hardship and hurt of so many of our fellow Americans . . . None of us can be held responsible for the wrongs of our ancestors. But if today we choose not to do the right and necessary thing, THAT burden we own . . . Yes we are to be redeemed, we must . . . finally live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded”.
A successful purpose….
“It aims to reframe the countries history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
The ugly truth is really ugly.
The project angers - it also encourages positive change.
5 stars
January 31, 2022
In this expanded version of the 2019 New York Times magazine of the same name, Nikole Hannah-Jones and a collection of scholars, journalists, and poets tell the story of how slavery and its legacy has shaped and impacted America across many facets of American life since the White Lion ship came ashore in Virginia in 1619 carrying at least 20 Africans onboard. Prose and poetry are used throughout the book to show slavery's lingering impact on topics such as: democracy, church, healthcare, medicine, self-defense, politics, traffic and so much more. Hannah-Jones the creator of the project is a powerful writer. Her writing opens and closes the book where she focuses on issues of Democracy and Justice, she did not come to play with those chapters. In them she makes the case for how Black people have been crucial in the establishment and expansion of our democracy and as a result have a right to be patriotic about this country; while at the same time makes the case for why Black people must have reparations. It is a well-researched book that is written in an accessible way for a general audience. A perfect book for book clubs and group discussions. It is my hope that this book as whole or its part has an impact on our society in the same way that Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America motivated civil rights activists to change and shape America for the better and as it also began to change the racist historical narrative of Reconstruction that was told by the Dunning school. The 1619 Project and other works that have been released in the last decade, many of which are cited in this book, have the potential to also shape how Americans view America’s past and our present moment.
July 12, 2022
Marvelous essays with a scatter of poetry and fiction to add a personal touch. I learned new things and gained perspective I hadn't considered. History is an infinite experience that varies from person to person. The only way to truly understand history is to see it from as many perspectives as possible. The desire to ban perspective is stupid. Yet this book—an educational textbook—has become a forbidden document in many schools.
I should be shocked by all the book banning, but of course I'm not. Reading this book makes me even less surprised because it's clear the same tactics to silence certain voices have been used for centuries. I only hope that the Americans who are mad at the 1619 Project will actually read it before developing an opinion. If you read it and it still makes you mad, that's your decision. But at least your decision will be based on something real.
Side note, the audiobook is highly recommended. Great performances by a full cast.
I should be shocked by all the book banning, but of course I'm not. Reading this book makes me even less surprised because it's clear the same tactics to silence certain voices have been used for centuries. I only hope that the Americans who are mad at the 1619 Project will actually read it before developing an opinion. If you read it and it still makes you mad, that's your decision. But at least your decision will be based on something real.
Side note, the audiobook is highly recommended. Great performances by a full cast.
August 17, 2020
My issue with this collection is that it is too simplistic in its analysis in a way that verges on counterproductive at times. Yes, slavery is crucial to understanding America. But 1) Not everything is reducible to slavery (as a minor example, the claim that contemporary black hair styles come out of slavery is such a simplification of history as to be essentially false and erases the impact of the "Black is Beautiful" movement of the 1960s) and 2) tracing everything back to slavery ignores the question of why slavery started in the first place, namely capitalism. In fact, the opening essay actually tries to claim that capitalism can be "liberating" if only practiced correctly (whatever correctly means). The reality is if you could only pick one mode of analysis, then you could do much more to solve the problems raised here by examining capitalism than by examining slavery (of course you can and should use both modes of analysis, but I'm highlighting the point), so to not examine capitalism at all is a significant failure in the project.
You will never be able to publish something actually radical (especially Black and radical) in the NYT, but Jones knows that and the NYT knows Jones isn't radical anyway.
I'm glad this exists and if read by the right people it could do some good, but I left disappointed.
You will never be able to publish something actually radical (especially Black and radical) in the NYT, but Jones knows that and the NYT knows Jones isn't radical anyway.
I'm glad this exists and if read by the right people it could do some good, but I left disappointed.
Currently reading
September 19, 2021Thanks PRH/One World for the advanced copy. I’m about 70 pages in and this is clearly the most important American History book written to date. Essential for all High School, Academic, and Public Libraries
December 19, 2021
I deleted the review. It was an interesting experiment. Please move on😃. Have a nice day y’all.
December 4, 2021
4.25 Stars rounded up
I've read this twice and enjoyed it both times.
This has multiple contributors and is able to more than adequately defend its views and claims.
That said its not radical and is inaccurate in regards to capitalism ever being good or a benefit.
Chattel slavery ties directly to capitalism and can't be removed from it.
This is liberal but moderate despite the right wing emotionally rabid response to it.
I've read this twice and enjoyed it both times.
This has multiple contributors and is able to more than adequately defend its views and claims.
That said its not radical and is inaccurate in regards to capitalism ever being good or a benefit.
Chattel slavery ties directly to capitalism and can't be removed from it.
This is liberal but moderate despite the right wing emotionally rabid response to it.
June 19, 2023
Even though the Adam Hochschild published the review in the New York Times Book Review, I strongly recommend reading his review.
I read most of this in the NY Times magazine format when it first came out. This books expands on that and addresses some of the legit criticisms from the first publication.
Honesty, you should read this. The book is not a straight forward history, more of an argument for rethinking how we look at history and frame the US origin myth. Considering how much some, if not most, US schools leave out, this is an important bit.
Those who take issue with the history presented in this book either are not widely read on American history and/or have not taken an American history class outside of high school. The history here is widely available in other sources, some of which are footnoted/cited. As such, this book is more of an introduction or a push to get more people to think beyond the traditional myth. You may argue with the 1619 date (you could ask, for instance, why not a date from when the Europeans stole the land?) but you cannot deny the outsized impact that Virigina had on the development of the country in the beginning. Just like it should be impossible for the average person to not acknowledge the impact that slavery had and still has on this country.
Look, huge parts of this country have had American history taught to them via text books that were approved by the Daughters of the Confederacy. Think about that before you call this collection of essays propaganda. The history here isn't "new" the point- that it should be more widely known, that the origin frame story should be change is the new bit. And it is about time, really.
Towards the end of the book, in her closing essay, Nikole Hannah-Jones writes, "we must do what is just: we must finally live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded". That's the point. Being willfully blind to the history that includes slavery and racism, doesn't do this. This book provides a framework to dismantle that willful blindness and learn more.
I read most of this in the NY Times magazine format when it first came out. This books expands on that and addresses some of the legit criticisms from the first publication.
Honesty, you should read this. The book is not a straight forward history, more of an argument for rethinking how we look at history and frame the US origin myth. Considering how much some, if not most, US schools leave out, this is an important bit.
Those who take issue with the history presented in this book either are not widely read on American history and/or have not taken an American history class outside of high school. The history here is widely available in other sources, some of which are footnoted/cited. As such, this book is more of an introduction or a push to get more people to think beyond the traditional myth. You may argue with the 1619 date (you could ask, for instance, why not a date from when the Europeans stole the land?) but you cannot deny the outsized impact that Virigina had on the development of the country in the beginning. Just like it should be impossible for the average person to not acknowledge the impact that slavery had and still has on this country.
Look, huge parts of this country have had American history taught to them via text books that were approved by the Daughters of the Confederacy. Think about that before you call this collection of essays propaganda. The history here isn't "new" the point- that it should be more widely known, that the origin frame story should be change is the new bit. And it is about time, really.
Towards the end of the book, in her closing essay, Nikole Hannah-Jones writes, "we must do what is just: we must finally live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded". That's the point. Being willfully blind to the history that includes slavery and racism, doesn't do this. This book provides a framework to dismantle that willful blindness and learn more.
April 11, 2022
The 1619 project is a politically motivated story
U.S. history documents the success of American revolutionaries in establishing a new nation for freedom and prosperity. The Founding Fathers were at enormous odds to fight a formidable enemy to end English authority in colonial America. But author Nikole Hannah-Jones, calls her work the 1619 Project named after the arrival of first Africans on American soil. And she seeks to place slavery at the center of American history. According to her, the reason for the declaration of independence from England was colonial America wanted to protect the institution of slavery when abolitionist sentiment grew in England. The story of American founding fathers in this book is different from what we find in the U.S Constitution or American history. It portrays slavery as a uniquely American phenomenon and the revolutionary war was fought to preserve slavery. Hannah-Jones proclaims that Black Americans’ struggle made American democracy real. She claims that the U.S. Constitution gave ironclad protections to slavery without mentioning it. How is that possible when the constitution explicitly states that “all men are created equal.” There are other factual errors, enslavement did not start in 1619 but it was present decades before that.
Quakers comprised of only white population fiercely opposed slavery since colonial days and they were active in freeing slaves, documenting their stories, and connecting freed slaves with long lost relatives. American Revolution was kindled in New England, where anti-slavery sentiment was strongest. Early patriots like James Otis, John Adams, and Thomas Paine were opposed to slavery, and the revolution helped to fuel abolitionism in the North.
The publication of 1619 Project by the New York Times demonstrates that it does not care about the truth, as it has progressively moved to the Far-Left of the political spectrum. It hires and promotes journalists who belong to the woke culture, they misinterpret facts and glorify racism. This is an effort to falsify the history that focus on Black issues rather than the class conflict that occurred prior to 1776. The 13 states were deeply divided over the property right issues, economy, wealth and how a federal government may dominate individual states. The NY Times project is a conspiracy theory developed from the chair of ultimate cultural privilege in America that tries to discredit the American values. The book is malicious and inaccurate which offers a distorted economic history, misrepresents the intentions of Founding Fathers, and the legacy of President Abraham Lincoln.
The 1619 Project curriculum is not an educational enterprise. It is a tool of political indoctrination. Since its publication, school students in all 50 states have been taught parts of its curriculum. The core of the social justice training uses the ideologies Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the Marxism. To teach children that the American Revolution was fought to strengthen slavery would result in misunderstanding the American Revolution, and the loss of one million lives during American Civil War that ended slavery. The future American population will have the notion that their country is racist since day one. Currently, the 1619 Project applies a wide-ranging topics like the broken healthcare system, crime, American music, and the wealth gap.
U.S. history documents the success of American revolutionaries in establishing a new nation for freedom and prosperity. The Founding Fathers were at enormous odds to fight a formidable enemy to end English authority in colonial America. But author Nikole Hannah-Jones, calls her work the 1619 Project named after the arrival of first Africans on American soil. And she seeks to place slavery at the center of American history. According to her, the reason for the declaration of independence from England was colonial America wanted to protect the institution of slavery when abolitionist sentiment grew in England. The story of American founding fathers in this book is different from what we find in the U.S Constitution or American history. It portrays slavery as a uniquely American phenomenon and the revolutionary war was fought to preserve slavery. Hannah-Jones proclaims that Black Americans’ struggle made American democracy real. She claims that the U.S. Constitution gave ironclad protections to slavery without mentioning it. How is that possible when the constitution explicitly states that “all men are created equal.” There are other factual errors, enslavement did not start in 1619 but it was present decades before that.
Quakers comprised of only white population fiercely opposed slavery since colonial days and they were active in freeing slaves, documenting their stories, and connecting freed slaves with long lost relatives. American Revolution was kindled in New England, where anti-slavery sentiment was strongest. Early patriots like James Otis, John Adams, and Thomas Paine were opposed to slavery, and the revolution helped to fuel abolitionism in the North.
The publication of 1619 Project by the New York Times demonstrates that it does not care about the truth, as it has progressively moved to the Far-Left of the political spectrum. It hires and promotes journalists who belong to the woke culture, they misinterpret facts and glorify racism. This is an effort to falsify the history that focus on Black issues rather than the class conflict that occurred prior to 1776. The 13 states were deeply divided over the property right issues, economy, wealth and how a federal government may dominate individual states. The NY Times project is a conspiracy theory developed from the chair of ultimate cultural privilege in America that tries to discredit the American values. The book is malicious and inaccurate which offers a distorted economic history, misrepresents the intentions of Founding Fathers, and the legacy of President Abraham Lincoln.
The 1619 Project curriculum is not an educational enterprise. It is a tool of political indoctrination. Since its publication, school students in all 50 states have been taught parts of its curriculum. The core of the social justice training uses the ideologies Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the Marxism. To teach children that the American Revolution was fought to strengthen slavery would result in misunderstanding the American Revolution, and the loss of one million lives during American Civil War that ended slavery. The future American population will have the notion that their country is racist since day one. Currently, the 1619 Project applies a wide-ranging topics like the broken healthcare system, crime, American music, and the wealth gap.
January 30, 2025
I fear this book will someday soon be banned, deleted from the Library of Congress, and held up as a liberal gaslighting attempt by the 47th administration. The racism was bold and explicit in his first term. Somehow it's even worse now. I cannot understand how they are getting away with it and actually winning and worse, bringing along with them so many Black, Asian, Latinx, and other minority groups with them. How did they convince these marginalized populations that they are on the same side????
If I ask my friend Dave, whom I love but sits directly on the other side of the political spectrum from me, he would say the reason he opposes critical race theory being taught in his son's school is because it blames white people for everything wrong in this country. While that may be reductive, there is also an element of truth to that in so much as it was colonization by white countries that birthed white supremacy and racism into the world in a socially and politically organized system.
Dave would argue that while I may be right about colonization, that was a long time ago and we cannot continue to blame white people for everything gone wrong today. I just want to throw a book at his face and scream at him to read something instead of just watching FOX news all day long. Also, I want him to look in the mirror and see that he is NOT white, even though he was raised among the white middle class. I want to remind him that he's fanboying over people who referred to COVID as "kung flu" and didn't do anything at all when anti-Asian hate was on the rise during the pandemic. And he would tell me that race has nothing to do with it.
We go in circles because he refuses to read a book, and because I refuse to pretend like I haven't read a book or intentionally sought out relationships to help me learn and understand race dynamics better. He may have race superiority, but I claim intellectual and emotional superiority. I admit that I think I'm a better person because I care more about equality whereas he thinks equality is only available to those who work for it, like himself. Rather than look at the illegal immigrants that Abbot shipped up to NYC as refugees and treat them with compassion, he looks at them with disdain and considers them threats to his personal space and safety. This breaks my heart - for him, for his son, and for all those who was forcibly displaced by Abbot (may he (Abbot) experience a very sorrowful, and pain-filled eternal misery in hell).
Because we apparently have more Daves in this country than not-Daves, books like this are so much more critical. Without them, we can too easily devolve into a barbaric society where the only value that drives its survival is insatiable greed. When greed is your only motivating factor, there is only one logical conclusion - chaos that will eventually lead to self-decimation, because it becomes a world where accumulation of more can only be achieved by morally bankrupting the self and physically bankrupting everyone else around you; because it can only be achieved by consuming what other people have so that you can have it instead. We are already on our way to this world - otherwise, we would've already slowed down carbon emissions; we would've already solved food deserts; we would've already diminished maternal mortality rates; we would've already extended affordable college education options to all students. But none of this has been done, and in fact, the country is actively doing everything it can to make sure problems like these only get worse.
I urge folks to read this book and others like it while we still can and to download them onto local devices (vs the cloud) so that you can access it even after it becomes illegal to borrow them from the library or to buy them from stores. The freedoms we've enjoyed in this country under the protection of the Constitution may be eroded or fully disintegrated by the time 2028 rolls around. Carpe diem friends!, and let us hope with all we have that I am 100% wrong about it all and that we will remain "civilized" after all.
If I ask my friend Dave, whom I love but sits directly on the other side of the political spectrum from me, he would say the reason he opposes critical race theory being taught in his son's school is because it blames white people for everything wrong in this country. While that may be reductive, there is also an element of truth to that in so much as it was colonization by white countries that birthed white supremacy and racism into the world in a socially and politically organized system.
Dave would argue that while I may be right about colonization, that was a long time ago and we cannot continue to blame white people for everything gone wrong today. I just want to throw a book at his face and scream at him to read something instead of just watching FOX news all day long. Also, I want him to look in the mirror and see that he is NOT white, even though he was raised among the white middle class. I want to remind him that he's fanboying over people who referred to COVID as "kung flu" and didn't do anything at all when anti-Asian hate was on the rise during the pandemic. And he would tell me that race has nothing to do with it.
We go in circles because he refuses to read a book, and because I refuse to pretend like I haven't read a book or intentionally sought out relationships to help me learn and understand race dynamics better. He may have race superiority, but I claim intellectual and emotional superiority. I admit that I think I'm a better person because I care more about equality whereas he thinks equality is only available to those who work for it, like himself. Rather than look at the illegal immigrants that Abbot shipped up to NYC as refugees and treat them with compassion, he looks at them with disdain and considers them threats to his personal space and safety. This breaks my heart - for him, for his son, and for all those who was forcibly displaced by Abbot (may he (Abbot) experience a very sorrowful, and pain-filled eternal misery in hell).
Because we apparently have more Daves in this country than not-Daves, books like this are so much more critical. Without them, we can too easily devolve into a barbaric society where the only value that drives its survival is insatiable greed. When greed is your only motivating factor, there is only one logical conclusion - chaos that will eventually lead to self-decimation, because it becomes a world where accumulation of more can only be achieved by morally bankrupting the self and physically bankrupting everyone else around you; because it can only be achieved by consuming what other people have so that you can have it instead. We are already on our way to this world - otherwise, we would've already slowed down carbon emissions; we would've already solved food deserts; we would've already diminished maternal mortality rates; we would've already extended affordable college education options to all students. But none of this has been done, and in fact, the country is actively doing everything it can to make sure problems like these only get worse.
I urge folks to read this book and others like it while we still can and to download them onto local devices (vs the cloud) so that you can access it even after it becomes illegal to borrow them from the library or to buy them from stores. The freedoms we've enjoyed in this country under the protection of the Constitution may be eroded or fully disintegrated by the time 2028 rolls around. Carpe diem friends!, and let us hope with all we have that I am 100% wrong about it all and that we will remain "civilized" after all.
December 8, 2021
This is a great book to have and read slowly. It is a combination of history, essays, poems, historical blurbs, that traces the Black American experience since 1619 through the present day. I get why so many people don't like The 1619 Project. It is an unflinching look at some of the terrible things that Americans have done to each other because of the color of someone's skin. You read this and you tell yourself that we have progressed and we have. But we still strive to make a more perfect union for all Americans. And it's plain to see by this compilation, Black Americans are still struggling to get on the same footing as White Americans. I loved how the book was put together and the 18 different chapters that we get into. I think that some of the essays/poems are honestly what hit me the hardest in some cases. I wish that we had gotten a second book that just had poems/essays based on The 1619 Project with maybe some art included. That would be an awesome coffee table book.
My favorite essay was by Berry Jenkins called "Troubled Water" where he tells the story of a slave named Gabriel in the 1800s. Gabriel was 24 years old and was an enslaved blacksmith held captive on a forced labor camp by Thomas Prosser in Henrico County, Virginia. He organized and planned a rebellion. After others shared details about the plot, "Gabriel's Rebellion" is thwarted. He is later tried, found guilty, and hanged.
My favorite poem was by Tim Seibles called "Before His Execution" which is a poem about Denmark Vesey. He was a free Black man. He and 5 others were captured and put on trial for planning a rebellion. He was executed.
My favorite chapter was chapter 8, "Citizenship" I loved the history in this one and it was interesting to find out things I never knew like there was a Colored Convention movement that started in 1830. They started discussing many of the so-called "Black" laws and the prospect of leaving the United States. I found out about Hezekiah Grice who organized the Legal Rights Association, which aimed to prove that Black Americans were citizens.
Most shocking history blurb was "July 30, 1866"
Another shocking one goes into Black Wall Street which I already knew about as well as the blurb about Emmett Till.
My favorite essay was by Berry Jenkins called "Troubled Water" where he tells the story of a slave named Gabriel in the 1800s. Gabriel was 24 years old and was an enslaved blacksmith held captive on a forced labor camp by Thomas Prosser in Henrico County, Virginia. He organized and planned a rebellion. After others shared details about the plot, "Gabriel's Rebellion" is thwarted. He is later tried, found guilty, and hanged.
My favorite poem was by Tim Seibles called "Before His Execution" which is a poem about Denmark Vesey. He was a free Black man. He and 5 others were captured and put on trial for planning a rebellion. He was executed.
My favorite chapter was chapter 8, "Citizenship" I loved the history in this one and it was interesting to find out things I never knew like there was a Colored Convention movement that started in 1830. They started discussing many of the so-called "Black" laws and the prospect of leaving the United States. I found out about Hezekiah Grice who organized the Legal Rights Association, which aimed to prove that Black Americans were citizens.
Most shocking history blurb was "July 30, 1866"
A white mob consisting of many Confederate veterans attacks protestors outside a convention in New Orleans, which has been called by Republican leaders in response to the state's legislature's passage of a law denying African Americans the right to vote. Among those killed in the ensuing violence is Anthony Paul Dostie, a white abolitionist who led the march on the convention. The mob also kills more than thirty-five other people, mostly Black men. National outrage over the violence helps lead to Republicans gaining control of both houses of Congress in that year's midterm elections.
Another shocking one goes into Black Wall Street which I already knew about as well as the blurb about Emmett Till.
October 26, 2021
Fake propaganda
November 26, 2021
Good primer. Most of this history is well known—and uncontroversial—to serious history readers but having it all in one place is useful. Given the excellent writing, it is not surprising it has become a lightning rod.
![Profile Image for laurel [the suspected bibliophile].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1645808644i%2F7494844._UX200_CR0%2C6%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
January 18, 2022
This is a must-read.
Like, every single American needs to have this in their hands and have read it. Require it in schools, require it everywhere. Gift it to your conservative family members who are racist as hell. Give it to your liberal whyte family members who are colorblind and practice tolerance.
Give it to all others, so we can have to smashed into our faces like we do the puppy who pees on the carpet for the 50th time that racism in America is baked into its foundations and spins like a pernicious weed throughout every single system within this country.
Like, every single American needs to have this in their hands and have read it. Require it in schools, require it everywhere. Gift it to your conservative family members who are racist as hell. Give it to your liberal whyte family members who are colorblind and practice tolerance.
Give it to all others, so we can have to smashed into our faces like we do the puppy who pees on the carpet for the 50th time that racism in America is baked into its foundations and spins like a pernicious weed throughout every single system within this country.
March 8, 2020
Worth every moment of your time; ought to be required reading. A couple of pieces relating to health care are particularly relevant right now.
November 24, 2021
It’s kind of funny that this book is so controversial. Maybe I’m more radicalized than I thought but none of this felt like a huge overturning of what I knew of American history, at least the major parts. The 1619 Project looks at Black history, which is American history, in order to broaden our understanding of our country’s founding and progress. It adds a lot of nuance to American history, forcing its readers to look at how slavery, anti-slavery, and black lead civil rights movements have influenced us from the start. A lot of reviews chastise this collection of essays of being a “myopic” or “reductive” or “tunnel vision” view of history…but our current view of American history is reductive if we ignore (out of shame or ignorance or whatever) that slavery was a major factor in the foundation of the country. The book is a mix of nonfiction essays and fiction pieces, which I loved. You get meticulously researched, through essays, then emotionally evocative poetic or prosaic reflection upon the same topic.
I flip flopped between reading & listening and both options are great experiences:
Physical book pros: Pictures! Footnotes! Notes, references and an index in the back!
Audio book pros: A lot of the essays are read by their respective authors, including the poetry, which is great!
I flip flopped between reading & listening and both options are great experiences:
Physical book pros: Pictures! Footnotes! Notes, references and an index in the back!
Audio book pros: A lot of the essays are read by their respective authors, including the poetry, which is great!
November 29, 2021
Slavery arrived on America's shores well before the Founding Fathers - 1619 in Virginia. This is an expanded book based on a groundbreaking piece that appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Including 18 essays, 36 poems and a variety of fiction, it had my attention from the first page. Starting from that first slave ship through modern day all aspects of slavery and oppression are explored as well as daily life, society, the arts and politics. I was absorbed by the essay that discussed how our forefathers denied basic rights to African slaves while stealing land from all the indigenous tribes to further the white expansion and keep the top spot in the caste system. Unlike African Americans however, the Native People were given some rights but only after they converted to Christianity and further rewarded for taking slaves. We can only hope that this tome will open dialogue and foster understanding. This works for readers of books on social change as well as historians. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.
March 31, 2023
The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, approved on July 4, 1776, proclaims that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." But the white men who drafted those words did not believe them to be true for the hundreds of thousands of Black people in their midst. A right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" did not include fully one-fifth of the new country. Yet despite being violently denied the freedom and justice promised to all, Black Americans believed fervently in the American creed. Through centuries of Black resistance and protest, we have helped the country live up to its founding ideals. And not only for ourselves—Black rights struggles paved the way for every other rights struggle, including women's and gay rights, immigrant and disability rights.
Without the idealistic, strenuous, and patriotic efforts of Black Americans, our democracy today would look very different; in fact, our country might not be a democracy at all.
The 1619 Project documents the reality of the history of the United States through a collection of essays, poems, and short stories. This project is one of the most cohesive and eloquent collections of information on the true birth of the United States and its ideals; from 1619 when the first enslaved men and women set foot on what would be known as the United States to today when people are fighting for that very information to be hidden.
The United States of America is a myth. We know freedom isn’t free and we know the “American dream” is just propaganda. The 1619 Project is a plea for you to realize this, a plea to pay attention and consume Truth.
No one cherishes freedom more than those who have not had it.
Who lives up to the true potential of the United States? The founding enslavers that hypocritically preach freedom or the enslaved that believe in and fight for freedom?
Much of the information provided in The 1619 Project is not new. Much of it is obvious if you pay attention and open yourself (with the privilege of access) to an education. What The 1619 Project does is provide a cohesive whole that gives easy access to information that is vital but hard to find because it is so scattered. My opinions and principles have not changed, they have been reinforced. What The 1619 Project has changed for me is my ability to better argue for Truth because I now have a more firm foundation to uphold my knowledge.
If someone tells you not to read something, please read it as soon as you can. Don’t let them lie. Don’t let them manipulate. Listen to both sides of an argument. The 1619 Project provides the other side of the argument that has been purposefully omitted for hundreds of years.
The people that challenge books like this don’t do so because they believe them to be false. They do so because they believe the knowledge is dangerous for themselves—their power, their wealth, their politics. When someone is aware of the truth, they are then capable of refuting the lie. Ignorance is a foundation for manipulation. If ignorance benefits you, then you are the problem.
Why would a specific group of people fear easy access to education and books? Because knowledge destroys their base.
Those that seek to deny rights to others are not true Americans. Those that seek equality and access are representative of the true face of the United States of America. The true ideal that America was made to represent.
Black people have seen the worst of America, yet, somehow, we still believe in its best.
America has many faults: the plague that is capitalism, the imperialism, the poverty, the enslavement, the genocide, etc, etc, etc… But America represents an ideal that can be achieved by those that do not deny its history and it’s failings. Hypocrites preach from the highest perch. But Truth can bring it down.
We were told once, by virtue of our bondage, that we could never be American. But it was by virtue of our bondage that we became the most American of all.
Without the idealistic, strenuous, and patriotic efforts of Black Americans, our democracy today would look very different; in fact, our country might not be a democracy at all.
The 1619 Project documents the reality of the history of the United States through a collection of essays, poems, and short stories. This project is one of the most cohesive and eloquent collections of information on the true birth of the United States and its ideals; from 1619 when the first enslaved men and women set foot on what would be known as the United States to today when people are fighting for that very information to be hidden.
The United States of America is a myth. We know freedom isn’t free and we know the “American dream” is just propaganda. The 1619 Project is a plea for you to realize this, a plea to pay attention and consume Truth.
No one cherishes freedom more than those who have not had it.
Who lives up to the true potential of the United States? The founding enslavers that hypocritically preach freedom or the enslaved that believe in and fight for freedom?
Much of the information provided in The 1619 Project is not new. Much of it is obvious if you pay attention and open yourself (with the privilege of access) to an education. What The 1619 Project does is provide a cohesive whole that gives easy access to information that is vital but hard to find because it is so scattered. My opinions and principles have not changed, they have been reinforced. What The 1619 Project has changed for me is my ability to better argue for Truth because I now have a more firm foundation to uphold my knowledge.
If someone tells you not to read something, please read it as soon as you can. Don’t let them lie. Don’t let them manipulate. Listen to both sides of an argument. The 1619 Project provides the other side of the argument that has been purposefully omitted for hundreds of years.
The people that challenge books like this don’t do so because they believe them to be false. They do so because they believe the knowledge is dangerous for themselves—their power, their wealth, their politics. When someone is aware of the truth, they are then capable of refuting the lie. Ignorance is a foundation for manipulation. If ignorance benefits you, then you are the problem.
Why would a specific group of people fear easy access to education and books? Because knowledge destroys their base.
Those that seek to deny rights to others are not true Americans. Those that seek equality and access are representative of the true face of the United States of America. The true ideal that America was made to represent.
Black people have seen the worst of America, yet, somehow, we still believe in its best.
America has many faults: the plague that is capitalism, the imperialism, the poverty, the enslavement, the genocide, etc, etc, etc… But America represents an ideal that can be achieved by those that do not deny its history and it’s failings. Hypocrites preach from the highest perch. But Truth can bring it down.
We were told once, by virtue of our bondage, that we could never be American. But it was by virtue of our bondage that we became the most American of all.
February 23, 2022
I graduated from High School in 2010 from a school in Upstate NY that did an excellent job teaching us about the history of African Americans in America. I learned correctly about the absolute brutality and down right evil that was inflicted upon those who were literally stolen from their homes and sold as property. I learned about the grueling middle passage as well as about the unrelenting labor they were forced to endure day in and day out with absolutely no regard to these men and women as image-bearers of God.
I also learned about the Underground Railroad and the brave abolitionists (both black and white) who took great risks to see men and women freed from their prisons. I still remember even from an elementary school age learning songs in music class such as ‘Follow the Drinking Gourd’ and their significance to our history.
With all of that being said, I appreciate being reminded once more of the atrocities of our past as a nation in this book… we must never forget or seek to diminish this great stain caused by sin and absolute depravity.
Why, then, would I offer only two stars for this work?
Because although it is littered with historical truths (and many that I was not aware of), I cannot get past the subjective commentary that seeks to further divide an already divided culture.
What’s just as surprising as what you do find in this work is what you don’t find… grace and forgiveness. Even the slightest admission to a white man’s involvement in the American journey toward African American freedom and civil rights is immediately walked back with three reasons why their help wasn’t really in good faith… really?
I read this book because I wanted to know why Republicans and the right were so against it. Although the words ‘critical theory’ don’t appear in this work, the tone is clearly one of ‘us’ (the oppressed) vs ‘them’ (the oppressors). It’s blatantly obvious that at least some of the authors of these works were heavily influenced by the works of Karl Marx.
Why is it so hard for us to see that no one wins if it’s oppressors vs the oppressed? What do we gain by the oppressed overcoming the oppressors only to in-turn become the oppressors in a new age of an endless cycle of turmoil?
There is another way to see this world: “… our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
There is a sickness in ALL of us that so many are trying to define. Some call it “systemic racism”, but I see ALL of our insistence to show partiality to one another; through race, sex, social status, income status, physical appearance, cognitive ability, ethnicity, etc, as a symptom of our deeper disease (James 2).
We all know that this world is truly broken in far more than one way. But do you know that the bill always comes due? Justice will be exacted for every egregious action and every careless word we have spoken regardless of our pigmentation.
The good news is that you and I don’t have to make our defense before The Judge without representation. But it’s our choice. Are we going to plead our case explaining how our good outnumbered our bad and hope He agrees? Or are we going to see, like so many before us, that the cost of that debt we add to daily is more than we can pay and put our trust in One who advocates for us on our behalf because of what He, alone, accomplished?
Read this book. You will learn something and hopefully you’ll walk in the shoes of some of these incredible Americans who overcame so much and at the end of the day were able to raise an American flag and be proud to live in this Country despite the evil overshadowing it’s past, like Nikole’s father.
But ask yourself if dehumanizing an entire group of people based on skin pigment is really the solution to the damage that has already been done by some who had… and some who do today blindly do the same. Is that really what we want to instill in our kids and in their kids? Is this really the answer?
I also learned about the Underground Railroad and the brave abolitionists (both black and white) who took great risks to see men and women freed from their prisons. I still remember even from an elementary school age learning songs in music class such as ‘Follow the Drinking Gourd’ and their significance to our history.
With all of that being said, I appreciate being reminded once more of the atrocities of our past as a nation in this book… we must never forget or seek to diminish this great stain caused by sin and absolute depravity.
Why, then, would I offer only two stars for this work?
Because although it is littered with historical truths (and many that I was not aware of), I cannot get past the subjective commentary that seeks to further divide an already divided culture.
What’s just as surprising as what you do find in this work is what you don’t find… grace and forgiveness. Even the slightest admission to a white man’s involvement in the American journey toward African American freedom and civil rights is immediately walked back with three reasons why their help wasn’t really in good faith… really?
I read this book because I wanted to know why Republicans and the right were so against it. Although the words ‘critical theory’ don’t appear in this work, the tone is clearly one of ‘us’ (the oppressed) vs ‘them’ (the oppressors). It’s blatantly obvious that at least some of the authors of these works were heavily influenced by the works of Karl Marx.
Why is it so hard for us to see that no one wins if it’s oppressors vs the oppressed? What do we gain by the oppressed overcoming the oppressors only to in-turn become the oppressors in a new age of an endless cycle of turmoil?
There is another way to see this world: “… our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
There is a sickness in ALL of us that so many are trying to define. Some call it “systemic racism”, but I see ALL of our insistence to show partiality to one another; through race, sex, social status, income status, physical appearance, cognitive ability, ethnicity, etc, as a symptom of our deeper disease (James 2).
We all know that this world is truly broken in far more than one way. But do you know that the bill always comes due? Justice will be exacted for every egregious action and every careless word we have spoken regardless of our pigmentation.
The good news is that you and I don’t have to make our defense before The Judge without representation. But it’s our choice. Are we going to plead our case explaining how our good outnumbered our bad and hope He agrees? Or are we going to see, like so many before us, that the cost of that debt we add to daily is more than we can pay and put our trust in One who advocates for us on our behalf because of what He, alone, accomplished?
Read this book. You will learn something and hopefully you’ll walk in the shoes of some of these incredible Americans who overcame so much and at the end of the day were able to raise an American flag and be proud to live in this Country despite the evil overshadowing it’s past, like Nikole’s father.
But ask yourself if dehumanizing an entire group of people based on skin pigment is really the solution to the damage that has already been done by some who had… and some who do today blindly do the same. Is that really what we want to instill in our kids and in their kids? Is this really the answer?
October 26, 2021
Do yourself a favor and skip this one
November 23, 2021
This book contains so much factually false information it should be classified as fiction. The author attacks US history through the lens of a racist and fails to present any real evidence to back up their conclusions. Waste of time, which I could get my money back.
June 28, 2022
I'm giving myself 30 minutes to write this review before I start my next tasks for work, because I finished this book last night and I can't stop thinking about it.
The controversy surrounding this collection is somewhat interesting to me. Nothing makes people want to read a book more than to tell them they SHOULDN'T read it. But... As someone who has been on something of a mission to educate myself on social issues, and more relevantly to this book, race, racism, white privilege, and the many ways that those concepts manifest in American society, this was always going to be a book I would want to read.
And I learned so much, despite the fact that much of it was repetitive (I'll come back to this in a sec) and despite the fact that I think there was quite a few things left out that could have been included, this was highly informative and, maybe more importantly, an excellent contextual narrative that shows how each decision, and policy, and practice, and attitude formed and influenced the next... leading us to where we are now.
Ibram X. Kendi's essay "Progress" was especially eye opening for me, because despite all of the reading I have done on this topic, I still bought into the fallacy that racial equality was inevitable, and that all the commentary saying "We've come so far, but we still have a ways to go" is a red herring. On a surface level, it's true. We have come very far, and there's still work to be done. But what Kendi argues in his essay is that this statement does two things - 1) it implies that life is much better now for Black people in this country, and 2) it defers the actual continuing and continual work of achieving racial equality to some mythical future when it will just... *poof* BE. It removes accountability for WORKING toward this goal, and just implies that, through the magic of inevitability, eventually things will be fair and just. We have to just be patient. (And by "we", the implication is that Black people need to just be patient. More patient, forever patient. Unendingly patient.)
This essay struck me strongly because I bought into the idea that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. And I WANT so much to believe that, but it's meaningless unless WE PUT IN THE WORK TO MAKE IT SO. And therein lies the problem. These statements are sort of nebulous future promises that imply that we can sit back and not worry about it, because the future will be better, regardless.
Edit to make sure that my meaning is crystal clear here: When I say "we need to put in the work" I mean white people. Black people have ALWAYS put in the work. White people have, historically, implied that the reluctant, truculent, resentful, often miniscule concessions to equal rights granted to Black people in the last 400+ years are enough, and they aren't. White people say it now to basically use it to avoid any responsibility for doing anything because we've already done "so much". We have not done nearly enough.
And now I'm down to 3 minutes on my timer. Dang it.
OK, this collection is wonderful and covers a massive amount of information spanning, obviously, hundreds of years of Black history and culture in the US. As the essays contained here were written by different people, some of them obviously overlapped, or touched on similar topics or events. Hence the repetition I mentioned earlier. But, while usually that sort of repetition is a negative for me, in this case, it really brought home how everything was linked and affected the whole tapestry of this history, right up to present day.
This is an incredible collection, and I highly recommend reading it, or, if you can, LISTEN to it. I listened to most of this while walking my neighborhood nightly, and I loved hearing these essays written by those who wrote them, and while they weren't all what I would call professional voice talent, it's worth it to hear their inflections and their voices telling these stories. Plus, there's more than a few poems mixed in, and listening to them was far preferable to me than reading them (my eyes just don't do verse - sorry literature!).
Speaking of poetry, the section on Music really brought home why poetry and spoken word is such an important part of Black culture, specifically how minstrelsy (the Jim Crow/blackface kind, not the medieval lute playing kind) was so problematic that it led to changes in Black performances, so as to be differentiated from the racist imitations.
There are so many eye-opening things like this in this collection. I really can't recommend it enough.
The controversy surrounding this collection is somewhat interesting to me. Nothing makes people want to read a book more than to tell them they SHOULDN'T read it. But... As someone who has been on something of a mission to educate myself on social issues, and more relevantly to this book, race, racism, white privilege, and the many ways that those concepts manifest in American society, this was always going to be a book I would want to read.
And I learned so much, despite the fact that much of it was repetitive (I'll come back to this in a sec) and despite the fact that I think there was quite a few things left out that could have been included, this was highly informative and, maybe more importantly, an excellent contextual narrative that shows how each decision, and policy, and practice, and attitude formed and influenced the next... leading us to where we are now.
Ibram X. Kendi's essay "Progress" was especially eye opening for me, because despite all of the reading I have done on this topic, I still bought into the fallacy that racial equality was inevitable, and that all the commentary saying "We've come so far, but we still have a ways to go" is a red herring. On a surface level, it's true. We have come very far, and there's still work to be done. But what Kendi argues in his essay is that this statement does two things - 1) it implies that life is much better now for Black people in this country, and 2) it defers the actual continuing and continual work of achieving racial equality to some mythical future when it will just... *poof* BE. It removes accountability for WORKING toward this goal, and just implies that, through the magic of inevitability, eventually things will be fair and just. We have to just be patient. (And by "we", the implication is that Black people need to just be patient. More patient, forever patient. Unendingly patient.)
This essay struck me strongly because I bought into the idea that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. And I WANT so much to believe that, but it's meaningless unless WE PUT IN THE WORK TO MAKE IT SO. And therein lies the problem. These statements are sort of nebulous future promises that imply that we can sit back and not worry about it, because the future will be better, regardless.
Edit to make sure that my meaning is crystal clear here: When I say "we need to put in the work" I mean white people. Black people have ALWAYS put in the work. White people have, historically, implied that the reluctant, truculent, resentful, often miniscule concessions to equal rights granted to Black people in the last 400+ years are enough, and they aren't. White people say it now to basically use it to avoid any responsibility for doing anything because we've already done "so much". We have not done nearly enough.
And now I'm down to 3 minutes on my timer. Dang it.
OK, this collection is wonderful and covers a massive amount of information spanning, obviously, hundreds of years of Black history and culture in the US. As the essays contained here were written by different people, some of them obviously overlapped, or touched on similar topics or events. Hence the repetition I mentioned earlier. But, while usually that sort of repetition is a negative for me, in this case, it really brought home how everything was linked and affected the whole tapestry of this history, right up to present day.
This is an incredible collection, and I highly recommend reading it, or, if you can, LISTEN to it. I listened to most of this while walking my neighborhood nightly, and I loved hearing these essays written by those who wrote them, and while they weren't all what I would call professional voice talent, it's worth it to hear their inflections and their voices telling these stories. Plus, there's more than a few poems mixed in, and listening to them was far preferable to me than reading them (my eyes just don't do verse - sorry literature!).
Speaking of poetry, the section on Music really brought home why poetry and spoken word is such an important part of Black culture, specifically how minstrelsy (the Jim Crow/blackface kind, not the medieval lute playing kind) was so problematic that it led to changes in Black performances, so as to be differentiated from the racist imitations.
There are so many eye-opening things like this in this collection. I really can't recommend it enough.
January 31, 2025
I am the American heartbreak,
the rock on which freedom stumped
Its toe,
The great mistake that Jamestown made
Long ago.”
Langston Hughs, American Heartbreak, 1619
”The 1619 Project is not the only origin story of this country. There must be many. But it is one that helps us fundamentally understand the nation’s persistent inequalities in ways that more familiar origins stories cannot.”
”For Black Americans, the traditional origin story has never rung true. Black Americans understand that we have been taught the history of a country that does not exist.”
”In exposing our nation’s troubled roots, the 1619 Project challenges us to think about a country whose exceptionalism we treat as the unquestioned truth. It asks us to consider who sets and shapes our shared national memory, and what and who gets left out.”
”White Americans desire to be free of a past they do not want to remember, while Black Americans remain bound to a past they can never forget.”
Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project is a monumental reframing of America’s origin story. It is a corrective, of sorts, to the mythology tinged story of American exceptionalism that most of us learned in school and that is the scripture of America’s civic religion. Instead of centering 1776 and the Declaration of Independence as the pivotal origin date, Hannah-Jones’ project centers 1619, the date the Dutch ship White Lion landed the first African slaves in Jamestown. Africans were in America before the Pilgrim’s famous landing at Plymouth Rock. Their exploitation through hundreds of years of chattel slavery, Jim Crow, systemic racism and targeted incarceration have left those of African descent largely written out of America’s traditional story about itself — ignored and marginalized, their stories and contributions to the building of America, their defending of America, largely untold. The 1619 Project restores that ignored perspective.
This book is not a single, traditional history. It is a collection of related essays focused on American slavery and its ongoing legacy, along with interspersed poems and prose that dramatizes the struggle. I found Nikole Hannah-Jones’ own contributions to be the strongest parts of the book, but the work as a whole is impressive.
The pushback against The 1619 Project, which has been wide, vociferous, panicked, and often unhinged, stands as proof of the necessity of this corrective, and the truth of much of its claims. Those long accustomed to privilege of place become frantic when their comfortable mythologies are challenged, and react as if the corrective itself is at fault — fake news in their parlance. But nothing here is new, just long ignored. The great Frederick Douglass stated the stark truth of this perspective over 170 years ago. He is quoted at length in this book, and I will end my review with these words from his 1852 oration:
”What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty of which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted liberty an unholy license, your national greatness a swelling vanity, your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your denunciation of tyrants brass-fronted impudence, your shouts of liberty and equality hollow mockery, your prayers and hymns, your sermons of thanksgiving, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy, a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There’s not a nation on the Earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour.”
the rock on which freedom stumped
Its toe,
The great mistake that Jamestown made
Long ago.”
Langston Hughs, American Heartbreak, 1619
”The 1619 Project is not the only origin story of this country. There must be many. But it is one that helps us fundamentally understand the nation’s persistent inequalities in ways that more familiar origins stories cannot.”
”For Black Americans, the traditional origin story has never rung true. Black Americans understand that we have been taught the history of a country that does not exist.”
”In exposing our nation’s troubled roots, the 1619 Project challenges us to think about a country whose exceptionalism we treat as the unquestioned truth. It asks us to consider who sets and shapes our shared national memory, and what and who gets left out.”
”White Americans desire to be free of a past they do not want to remember, while Black Americans remain bound to a past they can never forget.”
Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project is a monumental reframing of America’s origin story. It is a corrective, of sorts, to the mythology tinged story of American exceptionalism that most of us learned in school and that is the scripture of America’s civic religion. Instead of centering 1776 and the Declaration of Independence as the pivotal origin date, Hannah-Jones’ project centers 1619, the date the Dutch ship White Lion landed the first African slaves in Jamestown. Africans were in America before the Pilgrim’s famous landing at Plymouth Rock. Their exploitation through hundreds of years of chattel slavery, Jim Crow, systemic racism and targeted incarceration have left those of African descent largely written out of America’s traditional story about itself — ignored and marginalized, their stories and contributions to the building of America, their defending of America, largely untold. The 1619 Project restores that ignored perspective.
This book is not a single, traditional history. It is a collection of related essays focused on American slavery and its ongoing legacy, along with interspersed poems and prose that dramatizes the struggle. I found Nikole Hannah-Jones’ own contributions to be the strongest parts of the book, but the work as a whole is impressive.
The pushback against The 1619 Project, which has been wide, vociferous, panicked, and often unhinged, stands as proof of the necessity of this corrective, and the truth of much of its claims. Those long accustomed to privilege of place become frantic when their comfortable mythologies are challenged, and react as if the corrective itself is at fault — fake news in their parlance. But nothing here is new, just long ignored. The great Frederick Douglass stated the stark truth of this perspective over 170 years ago. He is quoted at length in this book, and I will end my review with these words from his 1852 oration:
”What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty of which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted liberty an unholy license, your national greatness a swelling vanity, your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your denunciation of tyrants brass-fronted impudence, your shouts of liberty and equality hollow mockery, your prayers and hymns, your sermons of thanksgiving, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy, a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There’s not a nation on the Earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour.”
June 26, 2025
"In fact some might argue that this nation was founded not as a democracy but as a slavocracy."
The 1619 Project is as the synopsis states "A groundbreaking work of journalism, that reframes our understanding of American history ". August 1619 is when what is believed to be the first ship The White Lion arrived in the colonial United States (Virginia) carrying 30 captive Africans. Kicking off 400 years of racial discrimination against Black people. It is some say the Original Sin of this nation. The United States was built on and still runs on systemic racism, meaning that every aspect of the government and life overall is based on discrimination against Black people.
I don't really feel like I have the mental facilities to review this book. You know I read about History nonstop and even i learned new things...Even the interstate is racist. It's an incredible indictment of American society and I understand why white people don't want anyone to read this. In fact a U.S. Senator, Tom Cotton introduced a bill that would defund schools that taught The 1619 Project.
"Nations need to control national memory, because nations keep their shape by shaping their citizens understanding of the past."
There is a belief that Civil Rights was popular so that's why Black people got more rights in the 1960s but that untrue. In a 1950 poll on school integration only 41% of respondents supported Black and white kids attending the same schools. For some reason people in the majority class believe that expanding Rights to more people means you are taking rights away from them...It doesn't there are enough Rights to go around.
Black people built this country. We have fought in every war since the Revolutionary War. The most patriotic people I know are Black people but unfortunately this country has never loved Black people back. We appear in history only where it is unavoidable, other than that we are ignored.
Anti-Blackness has played a central role in the development of our society and it's institutions. I mean the first Gun Control laws were passed by Republicans because they didn't want Black people to own guns. The National Rifle Association supported taking peoples guns...when it's the Blacks.
All the stars. All the recommendations!
The 1619 Project is as the synopsis states "A groundbreaking work of journalism, that reframes our understanding of American history ". August 1619 is when what is believed to be the first ship The White Lion arrived in the colonial United States (Virginia) carrying 30 captive Africans. Kicking off 400 years of racial discrimination against Black people. It is some say the Original Sin of this nation. The United States was built on and still runs on systemic racism, meaning that every aspect of the government and life overall is based on discrimination against Black people.
I don't really feel like I have the mental facilities to review this book. You know I read about History nonstop and even i learned new things...Even the interstate is racist. It's an incredible indictment of American society and I understand why white people don't want anyone to read this. In fact a U.S. Senator, Tom Cotton introduced a bill that would defund schools that taught The 1619 Project.
"Nations need to control national memory, because nations keep their shape by shaping their citizens understanding of the past."
There is a belief that Civil Rights was popular so that's why Black people got more rights in the 1960s but that untrue. In a 1950 poll on school integration only 41% of respondents supported Black and white kids attending the same schools. For some reason people in the majority class believe that expanding Rights to more people means you are taking rights away from them...It doesn't there are enough Rights to go around.
Black people built this country. We have fought in every war since the Revolutionary War. The most patriotic people I know are Black people but unfortunately this country has never loved Black people back. We appear in history only where it is unavoidable, other than that we are ignored.
Anti-Blackness has played a central role in the development of our society and it's institutions. I mean the first Gun Control laws were passed by Republicans because they didn't want Black people to own guns. The National Rifle Association supported taking peoples guns...when it's the Blacks.
All the stars. All the recommendations!
November 25, 2021
Jones is a journalist who is spreading propaganda in well-crafted prose and storytelling. Cherry-picking data to advance a radical ideological narrative and revisionist history is an insult to any honest examination of historical events.
March 29, 2022
Anyone interested in American history should be interested in African American history, and scholarly thought over the past forty years or so has built a strong basis for the idea that what used to be called “the Negro problem” stands at the center of U.S. history, past and present. The nation’s prosperity, northern as much as southern, was built on uncompensated labor, mostly the labor of Black people, and slavery and its aftermath have driven much of the nation’s policy debates up to the present, in terms that limit our ability to achieve our national aspirations. This is a view no longer controversial or even fresh among historians, but it has not sunk into the public consciousness to any great extent.
The 1619 Project—both in its original form in the New York Times Magazine and in the expanded book form presented here—has done a lot to raise the profile of this idea, though a lot of the discussion it has sparked has been misleading, reductionist, or defensive. That’s a pity, because it’s a very well-reasoned and reasonable argument well supported by documentation. But like so many hot-button issues in the United States, it has not been well served by exposure to the popular consciousness, which magnifies cartoon versions of ideas and obsesses about details.
This book does make a laudable attempt to present a comprehensive survey of the ways slavery and post-slavery policies affecting Black people are central to our history, but in the present form The 1619 Project has its flaws. One of the flaws lies in its conception, as a team-produced effort of essays by multiple authors, punctuated by poems and short creative-writing pieces. Reading it reminded me of my early years in academic publishing, when every other volume seemed to be a festschrift—a collection of essays in honor of a senior scholar. Those books, like this one, included essays of uneven quality and so much repetition that they were painful to read as a single volume. Here, certain historical moments are described over and over again; this reader found them painful and traumatic enough on a single reading, and their lessons easily enough absorbed, without the recurrent pain of the third and fourth and fifth recounting. The intensity combined with repetition ultimately led me to read only about a chapter a day, which made the process somewhat more manageable. As for the poetry and creative-writing bits that led into each chapter, I felt they detracted from the didactic integrity of the work. Many of them were very well written and most very moving, so rather than eliminate them altogether I would have preferred to see them in a short companion volume partnered with the main one. But I’ve always been resistant to genre-mixing, so that might just be my personal bias.
There were some standout chapters I’d like to see every American read: “Capitalism,”“Punishment,” and “Progress” were especially enlightening for me, eloquent and persuasively argued. And Nikole Hannah-Jones’s pieces at the beginning and end establish the framework well. Someone coming to this subject for the first time, however, might prefer a book written by a single author, such as How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith, even though a single volume can’t address as many aspects of the issue as this one does. Then progress to dipping into this book, and if you get really engaged, check the extensive endnotes in this volume for other titles focusing on particular subjects.
The 1619 Project—both in its original form in the New York Times Magazine and in the expanded book form presented here—has done a lot to raise the profile of this idea, though a lot of the discussion it has sparked has been misleading, reductionist, or defensive. That’s a pity, because it’s a very well-reasoned and reasonable argument well supported by documentation. But like so many hot-button issues in the United States, it has not been well served by exposure to the popular consciousness, which magnifies cartoon versions of ideas and obsesses about details.
This book does make a laudable attempt to present a comprehensive survey of the ways slavery and post-slavery policies affecting Black people are central to our history, but in the present form The 1619 Project has its flaws. One of the flaws lies in its conception, as a team-produced effort of essays by multiple authors, punctuated by poems and short creative-writing pieces. Reading it reminded me of my early years in academic publishing, when every other volume seemed to be a festschrift—a collection of essays in honor of a senior scholar. Those books, like this one, included essays of uneven quality and so much repetition that they were painful to read as a single volume. Here, certain historical moments are described over and over again; this reader found them painful and traumatic enough on a single reading, and their lessons easily enough absorbed, without the recurrent pain of the third and fourth and fifth recounting. The intensity combined with repetition ultimately led me to read only about a chapter a day, which made the process somewhat more manageable. As for the poetry and creative-writing bits that led into each chapter, I felt they detracted from the didactic integrity of the work. Many of them were very well written and most very moving, so rather than eliminate them altogether I would have preferred to see them in a short companion volume partnered with the main one. But I’ve always been resistant to genre-mixing, so that might just be my personal bias.
There were some standout chapters I’d like to see every American read: “Capitalism,”“Punishment,” and “Progress” were especially enlightening for me, eloquent and persuasively argued. And Nikole Hannah-Jones’s pieces at the beginning and end establish the framework well. Someone coming to this subject for the first time, however, might prefer a book written by a single author, such as How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith, even though a single volume can’t address as many aspects of the issue as this one does. Then progress to dipping into this book, and if you get really engaged, check the extensive endnotes in this volume for other titles focusing on particular subjects.
May 30, 2020
Read all the stories | Listen to the PodcastFrom traffic to healthcare to incarceration, every facet of our society can be traced to the history of slavery and continued racism in our country. The 1619 Project is a collection of essays that examines the legacy of slavery and is a good first step for people looking to educate themselves and confront their privilege.
I read all of the essays and then listened to the podcast episodes, and highly recommend both formats. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of archival records in the podcast and that they supplement one another.
“Tea Party resistance to giving more to categories of people deemed undeserving is more than just an argument about taxes and spending,” they note in “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism”; “it is a heartfelt cry about where they fear ‘their country’ may be headed.” And Tea Party adherents’ “worries about racial and ethnic minorities and overly entitled young people,” they write, “signal a larger fear about generational social change in America.”If you only read one of these essays, please read What the Reactionary Politics of 2019 Owe to the Politics of Slavery.
It is worth mentioning that not all historians agree with interpretation of history in this collection, as discussed in this Atlantic article "Historians Clash with The 1619 Project", but the facts presented are historically accurate. History is about the analysis of events, and it is rare for a consensus to be reached in the field - especially when it's reframing the history of an entire country.
Confronting the systems of power in place to disenfranchise people is difficult but important work. The first step is realizing how insidious these systems are and how we unknowingly play into and benefit from them.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,636 reviews