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Title details for We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates - Available

We Were Eight Years in Power

An American Tragedy

by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Beresford Bennett
Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
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3 of 3 copies available
In this “urgently relevant”* collection featuring the landmark essay “The Case for Reparations,” the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me “reflects on race, Barack Obama’s presidency and its jarring aftermath”*—including the election of Donald Trump.
New York Times Bestseller • Finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times • USA Today • Time • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Essence • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Week • Kirkus Reviews
*Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”
But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period—and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history. Coates powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his intimate and revealing perspective—the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office, interviewing a president.
We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates’s own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 3, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780525494836
      • File size: 393067 KB
      • Duration: 13:38:53

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This collection of essays by Coates on the African-American experience contains one piece published in THE ATLANTIC magazine during each year of the Obama administration. Narrator Beresford Bennett's deliberate performance reflects his respect for the author, but his uneven cadences and unexpected emphases pull listeners out of the material. The essays--which cover topics ranging from Michelle Obama to Civil War restitution, the housing and finance sectors, and the prison system--are renewed via Coates's introductions and the perspective of time. The well-researched articles deserve listeners' full attention, but Bennett's questionable accents and mispronunciations eventually become too distracting. WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER, destined to be one of the most talked-about books of the year, should be read in print. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 14, 2017
      National Book Award-winner Coates (Between the World and Me) collects eight essays originally published in the Atlantic between 2008 and 2016, marking roughly the early optimism of Barack Obama's presidency and the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. The selection includes blockbusters like "The Case for Reparations" and "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration," which helped to establish Coates as one of the leading writers on race in America, as well as lesser-known pieces such as his profile of Bill Cosby (written in late 2008, before the reemergence of rape allegations against Cosby) and a piece on Michelle Obama before she became first lady. The essays are prefaced with new introductions that trace the articles from conception to publication and beyond. With hindsight, Coates examines the roots of his ideas ("Had I been wrong?" he writes, questioning his initial optimism about the Obama Administration) and moments of personal history that relay the influence of hip-hop, the books he read, and the blog he maintained on his writing. Though the essays are about a particular period, Coates's themes reflect broader social and political phenomena. It's this timeless timeliness--reminiscent of the work of George Orwell and James Baldwin--that makes Coates worth reading again and again. (Oct.)

      This review has been corrected; an earlier version said he won the Pulitzer Prize, for which he was nominated; in fact he won the National Book Award.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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