Stamped from the Beginning
The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
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4.8, 18 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society.
Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America--it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.
In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis.
As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation's racial inequities.
In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.
Praise for Stamped from the Beginning:
"We often describe a wonderful book as 'mind-blowing' or 'life-changing' but I've found this rarely to actually be the case. I found both descriptions accurate for Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning... I will never look at racial discrimination again after reading this marvellous, ambitious, and clear-sighted book." - George Saunders, Financial Times, Best Books of 2017
"Ambitious, well-researched and worth the time of anyone who wants to understand racism." --Seattle Times
"A deep (and often disturbing) chronicling of how anti-black thinking has entrenched itself in the fabric of American society." --The Atlantic
Winner of the 2016 National Book Award for NonfictionA New York Times BestsellerA Washington Post BestsellerOn President Obama's Black History Month Recommended Reading List
Finalist for the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for NonfictionNamed one of the Best Books of the Year by the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Chicago Review of Books, The Root, Buzzfeed, Bustle, and Entropy
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
From the Puritans to the present, historian Ibram X. Kendi surveys centuries of racist ideas and policies in the United States. Kendi frames his narrative around five American intellectuals: slavery-endorsing preacher Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W. E. B. DuBois, and activist Angela Davis. The author uses these public figures’ words and actions to illuminate how racist thought contributes to hot-button issues like standardized tests and mass incarceration. A fascinating and urgent read, Stamped from the Beginning won the National Book Award for nonfiction the year after Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me took home the prize—and it’s just as essential for understanding racism’s impact on American life.
Customer Reviews
Fascinating
Fascinating and eye opening , so glad I found this book.
