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How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America Paperback – December 27, 2022
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This “important and timely” (Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine) #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America—and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives.
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.
It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation-turned-maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.
A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view—whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.
Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith's debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Winner of the Stowe Prize
Winner of 2022 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism
A New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLittle, Brown and Company
- Publication dateDecember 27, 2022
- Dimensions5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100316492922
- ISBN-13978-0316492928
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Get to know this book
What's it about?
This book is about the legacy of slavery in America and how it continues to shape our everyday lives.Amazon editors say...
As Smith travels the country, he reveals how our history of slavery is still hidden in plain sight in this eye-opening read.
Chris Schluep, Amazon EditorPopular highlight
The illogic of it all appears to reveal a simple linear truth that is often lost—oppression is never about humanity or lack thereof. It is, and always has been, about power.1,653 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
The splitting of families was not peripheral to the practice of slavery; it was central.1,429 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories.1,323 Kindle readers highlighted this
From the Publisher
![How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/0f8f1984-dfe8-41ad-880f-7e664ce49afb.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.png)
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“An important and timely book about race in America.”―Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine
"Merging memoir, travelogue, and history, Smith fashions an affecting, often lyrical narrative of witness."―The New York Review of Books
"In this exploration of the ways we talk about — and avoid talking about — slavery, Smith blends reportage and deep critical thinking to produce a work that interrogates both history and memory."―Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe
“Raises questions that we must all address, without recourse to wishful thinking or the collective ignorance and willful denial that fuels white supremacy.” ―Martha Anne Toll, The Washington Post
“Sketches an impressive and deeply affecting human cartography of America’s historical conscience…an extraordinary contribution to the way we understand ourselves.” ―Julian Lucas, New York Times Book Review
"With careful research, scholarship, and perspective, Smith underscores a necessary truth: the imprint of slavery is unyieldingly present in contemporary America, and the stories of its legacy, of the enslaved people and their descendants, are everywhere."―TeenVogue
"History is often contested ground; people argue over whose stories matter, and how they are communicated. In this personal, thoughtful book, Smith visits the landmarks and museums that attempt to tell Americans the story of slavery. Along the way, he talks to all kinds of people, encountering moments of anger and denial as well as sparks of hope, humanity and grace."―People, Black History Month reading list
“Clint Smith, in his new book “How the Word Is Passed,” has created something subtle and extraordinary.”―Christian Science Monitor
"Part of what makes this book so brilliant is its bothandedness. It is both a searching historical work and a journalistic account of how these historic sites operate today. Its both carefully researched and lyrical. I mean Smith is a poet and the sentences in this book just are piercingly alive. And it’s both extremely personal—it is the author’s story—and extraordinarily sweeping. It amplifies lots of other voices. Past and present. Reading it I kept thinking about that great Alice Walker line ‘All History is Current’.”―John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed
“The summer’s most visionary work of nonfiction is this radical reckoning with slavery, as represented in the nation’s monuments, plantations, and landmarks.”―Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
“The detail and depth of the storytelling is vivid and visceral, making history present and real. Equally commendable is the care and compassion shown to those Smith interviews — whether tour guides or fellow visitors in these many spaces. Due to his care as an interviewer, the responses Smith elicits are resonant and powerful. . . . Smith deftly connects the past, hiding in plain sight, with today's lingering effects.”―Hope Wabuke, NPR
“This isn’t just a work of history, it’s an intimate, active exploration of how we’re still constructing and distorting our history.” ―Ron Charles, The Washington Post
“Both an honoring and an exposé of slavery’s legacy in America and how this nation is built upon the experiences, blood, sweat and tears of the formerly enslaved.”―The Root
“The power of an itinerant narrator—Smith journeys to Monticello, Angola Prison, Blandford Cemetery, and downtown Manhattan—is that it reveals slavery’s expansive, geographical legacy. Smith tells his stories with the soul of a poet and the heart of an educator."―The Millions
“What [Smith] does, quite successfully, is show that we whitewash our history at our own risk. That history is literally still here, taking up acres of space, memorializing the past, and teaching us how we got to be where we are, and the way we are. Bury it now and it will only come calling later." ―USA Today
About the Author
Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller and one of the New York Times Top Ten Books of 2021. He is also the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent. The book won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He has received fellowships from New America, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review and elsewhere. Born and raised in New Orleans, he received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University.
Product details
- Publisher : Little, Brown and Company (December 27, 2022)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0316492922
- ISBN-13 : 978-0316492928
- Item Weight : 12.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #8,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Clint Smith](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/n10rk6avgglgdgm7pltm137j27._SY600_.jpg)
Clint Smith is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, "How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America," which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2021. He is also the author of the poetry collection "Counting Descent," which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. His is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @ClintSmithIII.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the writing style poetic, lyrical, and poignant. They also appreciate the powerful, evocative imagery and easy-to-follow content. Readers describe the subject matter as important, painful, and provocative. They find the emotional content informative and heart-wrenching.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the writing style well-written, captivating, and poetic. They also say the stories are told from an authentic and thought-provoking point of view. Readers also say that the language flows over them easily. They find each chapter interesting for its perspective and find the book hard to put down.
"...With meticulous research and poignant storytelling, Smith takes readers on a journey across various sites in the United States, exploring how they..." Read more
"...It was poetic. I felt like I was next to him as he traveled to the different historical sites throughout...." Read more
"...Each chapter was interesting for its perspective, but I found his final chapter where he discusses a grandparent on his mother and father's side of..." Read more
"...The book reads very fluidly. The subject matter is difficult, but the book is written in a way that it flows easily from one chapter to another...." Read more
Customers find the book very informative, fascinating, and life-changing. They say it's an essential and required read that captures the history of slavery in a way that is needed now more. Readers also mention that the book is easy to follow and poetic.
"...His writing is both lyrical and incisive, drawing readers in with vivid descriptions and thought-provoking insights." Read more
"Poet and author Clint Smith delivers eloquent and thoughtful insights about America's historical memory of slavery, it's authenticity and varied..." Read more
"...The subject matter is complex, but the book is written in a way that flows easily from one chapter to another...." Read more
"...How the Word is Passed was phenomenal. In my opinion, it is essential and should be required reading...." Read more
Customers find the emotional content of the book heart-wrenching, horrifying, and provocative. They also describe it as poetic, beautiful, and mind-blowing.
"...as museums and source locations in Africa, Mr Smith paints a vivid, horrifying, shameful picture of the complicity of both slave and free states in..." Read more
"...This book is powerful. Poetic. Beautiful. Painful. Provocative. Real...." Read more
"...This book is interesting, informative, personal, and deeply disturbing...." Read more
"...Every page was an emotive, beautifully written narrative about a raw and vulnerable journey I envied taking myself someday...." Read more
Customers find the book deeply moving and eye opening. They also say the information provided is moving and flows easily from one chapter to another.
"...The subject matter is complex, but the book is written in a way that flows easily from one chapter to another...." Read more
"...difficult, but the book is written in a way that it flows easily from one chapter to another...." Read more
"...His writing is poetic, lyrical, moving." Read more
"...book; accurate, based on research and well documented, but deeply moving...." Read more
Reviews with images
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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His writing is both lyrical and incisive, drawing readers in with vivid descriptions and thought-provoking insights.
1) Monticello Plantation
2) The Whitney Plantation
3) Angola Prison
4) Blandford Confederate Cemetery
5) Galveston Island
6) New York City
7) Gorée Island, Dakar, Senegal
Each site presents compelling discourses and interrogations in reflection of what's evidently true opposed to mythology. Smith's journey questions how to present those facts and how to justly tell the story of the enslaved who are often overlooked, whitewashed, or written out.
History's authenticity is dependent upon who is telling the story.
How the Word is Passed was phenomenal. In my opinion, it is essential and should be required reading. It was an easy five star read, and my top ten nonfiction book of all time. From the first page to the very last, I was in awe of Smith's ability to blend his own insight, research, writing, and history. It was poetic. I felt like I was next to him as he traveled to the different historical sites throughout.
Earlier this year, Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson took booksta by storm. I couldn't help but feel they pair well together.
Quotes that stood out:
“I’ve come to realize that there’s a difference between history and nostalgia, and somewhere between those two is memory,” he said. “I think that history is the story of the past, using all the available facts, and that nostalgia is a fantasy about the past using no facts, and somewhere in between is memory..."
"We can't continue to view enslaved people only through the lens of what happened to them... We have to talk about who they were, we have to talk about their resiliency, we have to talk about their resistance, we have to talk about their strength, their determination, and the fact that they passed down legacies."
"But there is enermous value in providing young people with the language, the history, and the framework to identify why their society looks they way it does. Understanding that all of this was done not by accident but by design. That did not strip me of agency, it gave agency back to me."
In each of the chapters, Smith discusses the connection of the site to the story of slavery of African-Americans in the US, its position, and then relates his perspectives and interactions with people at each site - ranging from tour guides educating tourists about the history of slavery in NYC to people looking to learn more about Thomas Jefferson to Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Each chapter was interesting for its perspective, but I found his final chapter where he discusses a grandparent on his mother and father's side of the family to have the greatest impact. Here, for him, the story of slavery becomes both very personal and very real as he relates stories from his grandparents.
One other note - I don't often read books by poets, so I was not prepared for many of Smith's rhetorical flourishes...
"She moved with a dexterity that belied her eight decades, her curly white hair coiled around her head and her eyes as calm as dusk."
"Her shoulder-length hair was composed of tight black curls with a faint trace of red highlights dressing their corkscrew tips. Deliberate but inviting, her sense of humor would interweave itself into her monologues outlining some of our nation's darkest moments."
"Sound emanated from every direction: the staccato jackhammers cracking blocks of concrete in their search for softer earth; cranes stretching their steel joints to lift rubble from one corner of the street to another; ambulances mazing their way through cars and crosswalks, their red flares howling a loud and urgent incantation."
Top reviews from other countries
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Probably my favourite non-fiction read of the year (I've also listened to the audiobook, which I'd highly recommend in addition to the print/eBook edition).