We Were Eight Years in Power

This book is a hard, necessary read, and I hope people pick it up. If you’re new to Coates’, his writing style can be a bit difficult to get into a groove with and he makes statements that are meant to rouse critical thinking and instant impact.

I started this book without much knowledge of the layout or format. While I might say this is a good introductory volume to Coates’ work, I think it helps if you’ve read either <I>Between the World and Me</i> or <i>The Beautiful Struggle</i>. This memoir is laid out as an essay collection that attempts to span black American history from slavery until modern day, but in the lens of President Obama’s eight-year tenure.

At first I was a little disappointed. I’ve read most of Coates’ work in The Atlantic before, and the book is roughly 35 percent new content and 65 percent articles either directly from The Atlantic or adapted from the publication itself. I shouldn’t have been; Coates offered insight and new content prefacing each of these older articles, giving context and a bit of hindsight knowledge. It was also great to revisit some of Coates’ journalistic work, since I find that reading in print (or on Kindle) is a very different experience than reading in a Web browser.

Those who have been living blind to their privilege may feel threatened or attacked by his words. Coates doesn’t soften the blow, and he is pretty highly critical of Obama’s race-blind policies.

I would suggest reading this section by section - read the new material, then the essay or article from The Atlantic - but take breaks between sections. It’s a lot to read if you plow through it all at once like I did, and since it’s not a truly narrative volume, breaking it into sections is a good way to ponder the material. I also think this work would make a great book club pick.

Eloquent, brilliant, poignant and essential are the words that instantly come to mind upon completing Coates's highly anticipated collection of political essays. I hope that this book and Between the World and Me become required reading in high school and university classrooms across this country.

American history buffs and news junkies of all ideological backgrounds should have Ta-Nehisi Coates on their radar. Whether you love him or hate him, Mr. Coates has an uncanny ability to command the reader to consider his point of view, if only for a moment -- a power that will elate his followers and provide a welcome challenge to his critics.

Divided into eight essay chapters each with its own introduction, the book spans the whole gamut of black American history and how it is reflected back into the author's own life as a writer, a family man, and an individual. Citing news reports, primary sources, and other verifiable data, the case is laid out that the United States has systematically maintained an underclass of black Americans in the interest of preserving peace and stability for everyone else.

Critics will point out that while the essays meticulously lay out this case, it makes no attempt to provide remedies. The author himself points this out, but refers to H.R. 40, [https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/40/text] a bill introduced year after year by Representative Conyers, to establish a commission to study the long term effects of slavery, Jim Crow, housing discrimination, "the war on drugs," etc. Presumably, the argument is that the author doesn't have the answers, but that more needs to be done to explore what those answers may be.

In a political climate that invites and celebrates self-righteous raving, We Were Eight Years in Power is calm, intellectual, and impeccably sourced. It lays out some pretty damning evidence -- but it's not ranting and raving. Mr. Coates is not necessarily trying to make you feel the same way he feels -- but he is very invested in making sure you know the same things he knows.