van_worldexplorer's review
4.0
Great info. Well written. The later parts I skipped just because I knew some of it and got bored but the first 2/3 was really good!
socraticgadfly's review
3.0
OK, to almost good overall, but nowhere near great.
It's definitely informative on the factual side, with me learning several new details of black history, though none of them was earth-shattering.
There's two main drawbacks.
One, this book at times approaches conservative stereotypes of what "revisionist history" is. Biggest example? The author doesn't even mention Truman's desegregation of the armed forces. And he downplays Lincoln's and LBJ's (especially LBJ's) legitimate civil rights actions.
Second, the book isn't always that "coherent." I don't mean that as far as lack of understandability, but rather, a lack of "flow."
It's definitely informative on the factual side, with me learning several new details of black history, though none of them was earth-shattering.
There's two main drawbacks.
One, this book at times approaches conservative stereotypes of what "revisionist history" is. Biggest example? The author doesn't even mention Truman's desegregation of the armed forces. And he downplays Lincoln's and LBJ's (especially LBJ's) legitimate civil rights actions.
Second, the book isn't always that "coherent." I don't mean that as far as lack of understandability, but rather, a lack of "flow."
lauracrawford823's review
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Such an amazing history about American politics through the lens of African Americans and Black people. In-depth and very informative.
leo92's review
4.0
There’s so much good history in this and so many good stories! This is definitely something I’ll reread and go back to!
mmariericker's review
4.0
Definitely a heavy read, and one that’s sat on my bookshelf since I went to City Lights in 2018 (grad school prevented me from wanting to read heavy nonfic) but such an important one. This was written in 2010, so it would certainly be interesting to see it updated for Obama’s second term and the Trump administration. But the nuances of learning about the earlier presidents and founding fathers failures to act were so interesting.
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