The 1619 Project: Uncovering America's True Founding Story

MM: I don’t mind the large print but thought I would mention it because I didn’t see it when I ordered the book. (Beautiful copy nevertheless.) Ibram X Kendi’s work never disappoints & I look forward to reading the other author’s sections.

Netherlands on Dec 02, 2023

Patrick C. K.: This is one of the best books I have read. Full of history, compassion, suffering, hope and triumphs. As many already stated in the reviews, this should be required reading for students (rather than banned as it is in some schools that were forced to do so by their state governments).

Italy on Oct 30, 2023

Samuel H. Burr Jr.: I just finished the book "The 1619 Project" which was excellent. It is my hope that people who have heard nothing but negative things about the book and project would be adventurous and read it. I think the vast majority would be surprised and wonder about all the negativity surrounding the book. Hopefully, it might open minds to see how people will try to inflame passions and divide us by creating "bogey" men in order to preserve cruel mythologies that continue to harm people. All this to say that near the end of the book is a great quote: "We can't change the hypocrisy upon which we were founded. We cannot change all the times in the past when this nation had the opportunity to do the right thing and chose to return to its basest inclinations. We cannot make up for all the lives lost and dreams snatched, for all the suffering endured. But we can atone for it. We can acknowledge the crime. And we can do something to try to set things right, to ease the hardship and hurt of so many of our fellow Americans. It is one thing to say you do not support reparations because you did not know the history, that you did not understand how things done long ago helped create the conditions in...

United States on Aug 21, 2023

Valerie: A pivotal piece of American history that explores slavery at its core and the long-term repercussions that are still prevalent today. It is gritty, truthful and well researched. An eye opening lesson in Black history.

Canada on Jul 22, 2023

Ricardo Mio: His name was Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a New York entertainer who performed under the stage name of T. D. Rice. In 1828, Rice had been a nobody actor in his early twenties, touring with a theater company in Cincinnati, when he saw a decrepit, disfigured old Black man singing while grooming a horse on the property of a white man whose last name was Crow. "On went the light bulb," writes Wesley Morris, one of several authors who composed essays for "The 1619 Project". "Rice took in the tune and the movements but failed, it seems, to take down the old man's name. So in his song, the horse groomer became who Rice needed him to be."

"Weel about and turn about jus so," went his tune, "ebery time I weel about, I jump Jim Crow."

With that, this white man invented the character who would become the mascot for two centuries of legalized racism in America.

Morris continues: "That night, Rice made himself up to look like the old Black Man, or some such thing like him, because for this getup, Rice most likely concocted skin blacker than any actual black person's; he invented a gibberish dialect meant to imply Black speech, and he turned the old man's melody and hobbled...

United States on May 31, 2023

Douglas Hamilton: This book tells the truth about the early American experience with slavery. It is simply painting a clear picture of what that reality was. The American original sin is yet to be healed. This history is very improtant in light of what has risen and been exposed today, with Trumpian politics.

Canada on Apr 05, 2023

diemg: I thought I understood the history of slavery and emancipation in USA - I do now. From the first Africans landing in 1619 who worked on the land and created the first houses to the 21st century when their descendants continue to live in the poorest areas and have less prospects than white kids with less academic achievements Project 1619 describes the continuing shame of Black discrimination. Black discrimination that means reparation for indigenous people, Japanese interned during WW2, and Holocaust survivors, but not for the descendents of Black slaves who provided the free labour that generated wealth. A must read for anyone that truly wants to understand the fight for equality, that has precipitated the Black Lives Matter movement.

(If reading on kindle, Don't be put off by "time to read" as half of this book is acknowledgements and references)

United Kingdom on Jun 26, 2022

J. KINSELLA: I'm going to do something you normally don't do when writing a review: state my affiliations & biases up front. I am a white male, raised in rural Central New York by conservative middle class parents, who was a registered member of the Republican Party until 2016. I also have a deep love of history, especially that of the United States. While I have never shied away from the darker stories in American history, I have always felt pride at the history of this nation.

I came to the 1619 Project in a backwards way. I started by reading the criticisms of the many people who were negative about it. These included a long list of professors and historians, some of which I have read and respected (e.g. James McPherson). Next I decided it was time to find out what all this commotion was all about, so I read the collection of essays that made up the original 1619 Project. And finally, I ordered this book and read it on arrival.

I think everyone in the US should read this book, and here are my reason why:

#1: The Black story of America needs to be told - I was raised in the northeast with a public school education. In social studies, we talked about slavery, the...

United States on Nov 16, 2021