Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell’s classic “Politics and the English Language,” but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories—our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking—expose and distort our realities.
In the first of the book’s three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Then he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on his own book’s banning, but also explores the larger backlash to the nation’s recent reckoning with history and the deeply rooted American mythology so visible in that city—a capital of the Confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. Finally, in the book’s longest section, Coates travels to Palestine, where he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narratives, and the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground.
Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.
Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell’s classic “Politics and the English Language,” but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories—our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking—expose and distort our realities.
In the first of the book’s three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Then he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on his own book’s banning, but also explores the larger backlash to the nation’s recent reckoning with history and the deeply rooted American mythology so visible in that city—a capital of the Confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. Finally, in the book’s longest section, Coates travels to Palestine, where he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narratives, and the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground.
Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.
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Find The Message Ta-Nehisi Coates in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find The Message Ta-Nehisi Coates in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
2 books in catalog
Nonfiction examining contemporary American race relations, systemic inequality, and political discourse gained widespread national visibility with the publication of Between the World and Me. Written by author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates as a personal letter to his teenage son, the book won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and established a landmark entry in modern socio-political writing.
Born on September 30, 1975, in Baltimore, Maryland, Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates built an influential career in journalism, serving as a national correspondent for The Atlantic where his prominent essays brought critical attention to systemic injustice. In addition to earning a MacArthur Fellowship in 2015 and a National Magazine Award, Coates expanded his creative reach into comic books, writing Marvel's The Black Panther series beginning in 2016. He has served as a distinguished writer in residence at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and held the Sterling Brown endowed chair at Howard University. Coates resides in New York with his wife and son.
Coates is known for blending personal narrative, historical scholarship, and social commentary without relying on polemic rhetoric. His writing frequently addresses racial identity, urban policing, systemic racial bias, and power structures, subtly linking historical events to the lived realities of contemporary individuals. Whether crafting memoirs, long-form journalism, or speculative fiction such as The Water Dancer, Coates maintains a measured and reflective prose style that prompts readers to interrogate American history.
2 books in catalog
Nonfiction examining contemporary American race relations, systemic inequality, and political discourse gained widespread national visibility with the publication of Between the World and Me. Written by author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates as a personal letter to his teenage son, the book won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and established a landmark entry in modern socio-political writing.
Born on September 30, 1975, in Baltimore, Maryland, Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates built an influential career in journalism, serving as a national correspondent for The Atlantic where his prominent essays brought critical attention to systemic injustice. In addition to earning a MacArthur Fellowship in 2015 and a National Magazine Award, Coates expanded his creative reach into comic books, writing Marvel's The Black Panther series beginning in 2016. He has served as a distinguished writer in residence at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and held the Sterling Brown endowed chair at Howard University. Coates resides in New York with his wife and son.
Coates is known for blending personal narrative, historical scholarship, and social commentary without relying on polemic rhetoric. His writing frequently addresses racial identity, urban policing, systemic racial bias, and power structures, subtly linking historical events to the lived realities of contemporary individuals. Whether crafting memoirs, long-form journalism, or speculative fiction such as The Water Dancer, Coates maintains a measured and reflective prose style that prompts readers to interrogate American history.
