Stamped from the Beginning
Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America -- it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis. As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation's racial inequities. In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.
What you might want to know about Stamped from the Beginning
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Ibram X. Kendi traces the history of racist ideas in the United States through five intellectual lives, Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, William Lloyd Garrison, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Angela Davis.
Yes. Stamped from the Beginning won the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Ibram X. Kendi later co-wrote a YA adaptation, Stamped, with Jason Reynolds, and a children's adaptation Stamped (For Kids).
Stamped from the Beginning is a sweeping history of racist ideas in the United States, accessible to general readers but with academic rigor. It is widely assigned in college and graduate courses on race and American history.
Stamped from the Beginning was written by Ibram X. Kendi, published in 2016 by Beck C. H..
Stamped from the Beginning is 599 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Stamped from the Beginning takes most readers 9 to 13 hours to finish.
Stamped from the Beginning is a standalone novel by Ibram X. Kendi, not part of a series.
Stamped from the Beginning is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
