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I was first introduced to Clint Smith in his youtube series Crash Course: Black American History, where I've been impressed with him, so I was pumped to hear of his book. And the book is great!
How the Word is Passed is a nonfiction book that is kind of doing a bunch of different things. It bases its structure around Smith's visits to different locations in the US (and one in Senegal) where the story of American slavery is (or isn't!) told to various degrees. And he uses these visits to talk about the history of slavery, modern understandings of that history, the ways various sites choose to frame the story, his own reactions to things and parts of his relationship to this history, and the conversations he has with various people (both staff and laypeople, and of multiple races and political persuasions) he meets at these locations. It's clear he sees the humanity of everyone he talks to, but also that he's not going to let that make him give people a pass for racism.
It all works together really well to create a thoughtful book that invites the reader into the narrative, and makes it clear how personal and relevant this issue continues to be today for Black Americans. An excellent book, well worth the read.
Unrelatedly, looking up the author (and the author's age, which is comparable to mine) made me realize that it's not going to be very long before I'm being blown away by books written by people who are a bunch younger than me and feeling very Old about it :P I'm not even that old!
How the Word is Passed is a nonfiction book that is kind of doing a bunch of different things. It bases its structure around Smith's visits to different locations in the US (and one in Senegal) where the story of American slavery is (or isn't!) told to various degrees. And he uses these visits to talk about the history of slavery, modern understandings of that history, the ways various sites choose to frame the story, his own reactions to things and parts of his relationship to this history, and the conversations he has with various people (both staff and laypeople, and of multiple races and political persuasions) he meets at these locations. It's clear he sees the humanity of everyone he talks to, but also that he's not going to let that make him give people a pass for racism.
It all works together really well to create a thoughtful book that invites the reader into the narrative, and makes it clear how personal and relevant this issue continues to be today for Black Americans. An excellent book, well worth the read.
Unrelatedly, looking up the author (and the author's age, which is comparable to mine) made me realize that it's not going to be very long before I'm being blown away by books written by people who are a bunch younger than me and feeling very Old about it :P I'm not even that old!
