Ibram X. Kendi is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is an Ideas Columnist at the Atlantic and a correspondent with CBS News. He is the author of five books, including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction; the New York Times bestsellers How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, coauthored with Jason Reynolds; and Antiracist Baby.
"Stamped from the Beginning delivers a timely and bold corrective
to the history of racist and anti-racist ideas that explodes our
understanding of the root of anti-black violence as we know it
today. Kendi's deft analysis of key thinkers from Cotton Mather to
Angela Davis illustrates how racial thought, specifically debates
about racial difference, take shape across space and time and
influence racial policies and the persistence of racial
discrimination. This book is a must read for those interested in
working to unearth the foundational ideas and practices that hinder
true racial progress."--Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, Associate Professor,
Brown University, and author of Black Women against the Land Grab:
The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil
"Stamped from the Beginning is a history of how racist ideas are
built, and how they are built to last. Understanding this history
is essential if we want to have any hope of progress. This book
will forever change the way we think about race."--Tour�, MSNBC
contributor and author of Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness
"A deep (and often disturbing) chronicling of how anti-black
thinking has entrenched itself in the fabric of American
society."--The Atlantic
"A staggering intellectual history of racism in America that is
both rigorous and ...readable."--New Republic
"A work as prodigious as the subtitle implies.... Had Kendi only
provided history, Stamped from the Beginning would be a meaningful
contribution to the literature, but it is so much more. It a call
for all Americans to look inward."--Albany Times Union
"Ambitious...Kendi bases his exhaustive study in one central
thought: Racist ideas...have historically sprung from racist
policies, and self-preservation of the ruling class. The policy
leads to the ideology, not vice versa."--Dallas Morning News
"Ambitious, well-researched and worth the time of anyone who wants
to understand racism."
--Seattle Times
"An accomplished history of racist thought and practice in the
United States from the Puritans to the present... In this tour de
force, Kendi explores the history of racist ideas-and their
connection with racist practices-across American history.... Racism
is the enduring scar on the American consciousness. In this
ambitious, magisterial book, Kendi reveals just how deep that scar
cuts and why it endures, its barely subcutaneous pain still able to
flare."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"An altogether remarkable thesis on history, but, in ways that are
both moving and immediately painful, it also reverberates with the
post-election autopsy we're all conducting right now... Stamped
from the Beginning is a riveting (and often rivetingly written)
work, well deserving of the National Book Award."--The Stranger
"An engrossing and relentless intellectual history of prejudice in
America.... The greatest service Kendi [provides] is the ruthless
prosecution of American ideas about race for their tensions,
contradiction and unintended consequences."--Washington Post
"An intricate look at the history of race in the U.S., arguing that
many well-meaning American progressives inadvertently operate on
belief systems tinged with a racist heritage."--TIME
"Blending deep research and analysis with a powerfully intimate and
personal voice, Kendi...renders this work of intellectual history
as compelling as the juiciest biography."--Los Angeles Times
"Both a penetrating treatise and a wonderfully accessible work of
intellectual history, Stamped from the Beginning reveals the
heritage of ideas behind the modern dialectic of race-denial and
race-obsession. By historicizing our entrenched logic of racial
difference, Kendi shows why "I don't see color" and other
professions of post-racialism remain inexorable alibis for white
supremacy. Stamped from the Beginning has done the cause of
anti-racism a great service."
--Russell Rickford, Associate Professor, Cornell University, and
author of We Are an African People: Independent Education, Black
Power, and the Radical Imagination
"Essential reading."
--Bustle
"I honestly wish every American would read this book, especially
people who haven't been exposed to the history of blatant,
transparent racism in our public policy."
--Chicago Review of Books, Best Books of 2016
"Ibram Kendi is an important new voice in African American
intellectual and social history. This book, an intellectual history
of racist ideas, promises to break important new ground for
scholarly and general audiences interested in the construction of
racism in America."--Peniel E. Joseph, author of Stokely: A Life
and Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour
"In his ambitious, illuminating, and engaging book, Ibram X. Kendi
seamlessly assembles sources from Cotton Mather to Angela Davis;
the Great Awakening to Black Lives Matter; the Birth of a Nation to
Hip Hop culture, to show how not only race but racist ideas are at
the center of American thought."
--Paula J. Giddings, EA Woodson Professor, Smith College, and
author of Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign
Against Lynching
"In his relentless odyssey through the making of America's
particular brand of prejudice...Kendi challenges our assumptions
about racism by exposing the development of racist ideas-and their
connection to racist actions and policies throughout our
history."--Stephenie Livingston, University of Florida
"Kendi has done something that's damn near impossible: write a book
about racism that breaks new ground, while being written in a way
that's accessible to the nonacademic. If you've ever been
interested in how racist ideas spread throughout the United States,
this is the book to read."--The Root
"Kendi is able to decisively quell the arguments that racism is a
bygone byproduct of ignorance...Kendi's writing style is
plainspoken, detail-oriented, and straightforward...In the midst of
leaving Jefferson and his fellows open to judgment, Kendi leaves
plenty of room for self-questioning, and for drawing connections
between the racist apologetics of the past and those of the
present. The process makes for a compelling, thoroughly
enlightening, unsettling, and necessary read."--Vox
"Kendi upends many commonly held beliefs about how racism works,
exploring the ideas and thinkers behind our most intractable social
and cultural problem."--Boston Globe
"Kendi's provocative egalitarian argument combines prodigious
reading and research with keen insights into the manipulative power
of racist ideologies that suppress the recognition of diversity.
This is a must for serious readers of American history, politics,
or social thought."--Library Journal
"Kendi's unusually original and groundbreaking analysis is the
product of an almost clinical modus operandi. First, he formulates
a clear and simple definition of what constitutes a racist idea
("any concept that regards one racial group as inferior or superior
to another racial group in any way"). He then unflinchingly applies
that definition to the work of individual historical figures and to
the ideas on race, slavery, segregation and integration that
prevailed at various stages in US history. Like a laboratory
scientist, he then interprets the results."--The Guardian
"One thing is sure. Stamped from the Beginning will be read by
future generations. It has the potential to become a classic,
must-read chronicle in the vast historiography on antiblack racist
thought in the United States."--Public Books
"Perhaps the most significant book of 2016, this National Book
Award winner is a lucid, highly readable look at the origins of
racist ideas in the United States."
--The Daily Kos
"Richly sourced and engaging, Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped from the
Beginning is a highly accessible yet provocative study that seeks
to complicate our understanding of racist ideas and the forces that
produce them."--Yohuru Williams, Professor of History and Dean of
the College of Arts and Sciences, Fairfield University
"Self-proclaimed as a definitive history of racist ideas in the US,
this exhaustive, encyclopedic opus lives up to that claim. Kendi's
mighty tome is breathtaking in its scope.... Both worthwhile and
extraordinary.... Essential."--CHOICE
"The National Book Awards show the way toward the America we want,
not the one we're getting."--New York Magazine
"This book should be on every young leader's bookshelf. It's not
pretty, but the truth often isn't."--Forbes Online
"This heavily researched yet easily readable volume explores the
roots and the effects of racism in America. The narrative smoothly
weaves throughout history, culminating in the declaration that as
much as we'd like it to be, America today is nowhere near the
'postracial' country that the media declared following the election
of Barack Obama in 2008. The hope here is that by studying and
remembering the lessons of history, we may be able to move forward
to an equitable society."--Booklist
"We often describe a wonderful book as 'mind-blowing' or
'life-changing' but I've found this rarely to actually be the case.
I found both descriptions accurate for Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped
from the Beginning... I will never look at racial discrimination
again after reading this marvellous, ambitious, and clear-sighted
book."
--George Saunders, Financial Times, Best Books of 2017
Ask a Question About this Product More... |