Between the World and Me

For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police. In his trademark style -- a mix of lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, essayistic argument, and reportage -- Coates provides readers a thrillingly illuminating new framework for understanding race: its history, our contemporary dilemma, and where we go from here.

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Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Spiegel & Grau, 2015
​Source: Library

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates' examination of why black people must constantly live in fear, and what needs to change in order for this to stop. It's written for his son and uses historical events as examples for why he felt the way that he did. He mentions famous cases of black men being killed by police throughout the book, and he tells of his personal connection to one of them - Prince Jones. He himself had always been afraid of dying at the hands of police, and Jones' death had a profound effect on him. His work is lyrical, personal, and fierce. Do not be fooled by the shortness of Between the World and Me. It has an extremely powerful message. It can make the reader uncomfortable at times, but there is no way that the subject matter itself is comfortable. In order to change our world, we need to go outside of our comfort zone. I think that this book can be read multiple times, and every time the reader will get something new or different out of it.