Receive an exclusive offer when membership for our Reading Is a Lifestyle subscriptions opens next month.
View cart “Anxious for Nothing” has been added to your cart.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present.

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the English colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.

The New York Times Magazine‘s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself.

This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction–and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life.

Featuring contributions from: Leslie Alexander – Michelle Alexander – Carol Anderson – Joshua Bennett – Reginald Dwayne Betts – Jamelle Bouie – Anthea Butler – Matthew Desmond – Rita Dove – Camille T. Dungy – Cornelius Eady – Eve L. Ewing – Nikky Finney – Vievee Francis – Yaa Gyasi – Forrest Hamer – Terrance Hayes – Kimberly Annece Henderson – Jeneen Interlandi – Honorée Fanonne Jeffers – Barry Jenkins – Tyehimba Jess – Martha S. Jones – Robert Jones, Jr. – A. Van Jordan – Ibram X. Kendi – Eddie Kendricks – Yusef Komunyakaa – Kevin M. Kruse – Kiese Laymon – Trymaine Lee – Jasmine Mans – Terry McMillan – Tiya Miles – Wesley Morris – Khalil Gibran Muhammad – Lynn Nottage – ZZ Packer – Gregory Pardlo – Darryl Pinckney – Claudia Rankine – Jason Reynolds – Dorothy Roberts – Sonia Sanchez – Tim Seibles – Evie Shockley – Clint Smith – Danez Smith – Patricia Smith – Tracy K. Smith – Bryan Stevenson – Nafissa Thompson-Spires – Natasha Trethewey – Linda Villarosa – Jesmyn Ward

The 1619 Project lyrical picture book for children is available too! Check it out

$38.00

Have a question for Nikole and/or the book's contributors?

Product price: $38.00
Total options:
Order total:

DISCLAIMER:  If this is a Pre-Order, please check the publication date below (this is the product’s official release date) BEFORE placing your order to avoid holding up the delivery of the other items in your order. Please review our FAQs page here for more information about how we process and deliver orders.

Editor

Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine

Format

Hardcover

Publication Date

November 16, 2021