A review by kirsten0929
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson

5.0

[2016] notes to self…5-stars for quality of writing and content; 1-star for miserable and disheartening reading experience. This book should be required reading in the history curriculum of all U.S. high schools. Anderson discusses five key moments in Black American history from the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction through to the election of Obama in 2008, and in the afterword of my paperback edition, the 2016 election. Although each touchstone is a huge and complex topic in and of itself, she clearly and succinctly but with nuance sums up each in a single informative chapter. As difficult as the entire book was to read, perhaps nothing was more heartbreaking than the picture painted by the paragraphs towards the end of the afterword that started out, “Imagine if Reconstruction had actually honored the citizenship of four million freed people…” Yes, indeed, imagine how much better off we would all be.