17 must-read nonfiction books like The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Cover of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

By: Nikole Hannah-Jones

4.62

Format: 590 pages, Hardcover

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a revealing vision of the American past and present. …

If you liked the nonfiction plot in The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones , here is a list of 17 books like this:

Cover of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

1. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

By: Richard Rothstein

2.89

Format: None pages, Hardcover

In this groundbreaking history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein, a leading auth… read more

Similar categories in Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • nonfiction
  • race
  • history
  • social justice
Cover of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History, #3) by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

2. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History, #3)

By: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

4.37

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples Today in… read more

Similar categories in Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History, #3) book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • audiobook
"Of a thousand Red Stick and allied insurgents, eight hundred were killed. [Andrew] Jackson lost forty-nine men."

-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History, #3)

"Once elected president, Jackson lost no time in initiating the removal of all Indigenous farmers and the destruction of all their towns in the South."

-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History, #3)

"[Theodore] Roosevelt referred to [Emilio] Aguinaldo as a "renegade Pawnee" and observed that Filipinos did not have the right to govern their country just because they happened to occupy it."

-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History, #3)

"The global Indigenous cause reached a major milestone in 2007 when the UN General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Only four members of the assembly voted in oppos…"

-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History, #3)

3. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

By: Michelle Alexander

3.77

Format: None pages, Hardcover

"As the United States celebrates the nation's 'triumph over race' with the election of Barack Obama… read more

Similar categories in Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Cover of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

4. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

By: Ibram X. Kendi

4.54

Format: 592 pages, Hardcover

In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Blac… read more

Similar categories in Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow

5. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism

By: Rachel Maddow

4.45

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful … read more

Similar categories in Rachel Maddow's Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
"One big appeal of fascism, if nothing else, was its unapologetic embrace of cruelty. Cruelty towards others, coupled with hypersensitivity towards any slight to oneself."

-Rachel Maddow, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism

Cover of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry

6. South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

By: Imani Perry

3.97

Format: 410 pages, Hardcover

An essential, surprising journey through the history, rituals, and landscapes of the American South… read more

Similar categories in Imani Perry's South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
"So I went deeper into an archive of historical memory, hoping to sort it out"

-Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

"Acting like you know everything and acting like you don't know how to be respectful will keep you ignorant. Be humble."

-Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

"And yes, slavery was abolished, Jim Crow is over, but the prisons, the persistence of poverty, are constant reminders of how the past made the present."

-Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

"What, by analogy, happens to the family of the university, or the town, or the state, or the Old Dominion, or the nation itself, given what has been built into its creation?"

-Imani Perry, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

Cover of A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

7. A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

By: Timothy Egan

4.38

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the rivetin… read more

Similar categories in Timothy Egan's A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • audiobook
"When hate was on the ballot, especially in the guise of virtue, a majority of voters knew exactly what to do."

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

"Stephenson had succeeded with an unusual formula for a mass movement: men were the muscle, women spread the poison, and ministers sanctified it all."

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

"The governor of Georgia, Clifford Walker, told a Klan rally in 1924 that the United States should 'build a wall of steel, a wall as high as heaven' against immigrants."

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

"There are millions who have never joined, but who think and feel and, when called on, will fight with us," Evans wrote. "This is our real strength, and no one who ignores it can hope to understand Am…"

-Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

Cover of James by Percival Everett

8. James

By: Percival Everett

4.54

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • historical
  • race
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

9. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

By: Isabel Wilkerson

4.53

Format: 544 pages, Hardcover

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken ca… read more

Similar categories in Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
"The price of privilege is the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly. And the least that a person in the dominant caste can do is not make the pain any worse."

-Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

"A caste system is an artificial construction, a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups."

-Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

"[Scapegoating] blames societal ills on the groups with the least power and the least say in how the country operates while allowing the larger framework and those who control and reap the dividends o…"

-Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

"To dehumanize another human being is not merely to declare that someone is not human, and it does not happen by accident. It is a process, a programming. It takes energy and reinforcement to deny wha…"

-Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Cover of Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi

10. Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

By: Ibram X. Kendi

4.57

Format: 504 pages, Hardcover

An epoch-defining history of African America, the first to appear in a generation, Four Hundred Sou… read more

Similar categories in Ibram X. Kendi's Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • race
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • essays
  • african american
  • audiobook
"Black people will always find each other in the passage between death and America"

-Ibram X. Kendi, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

"And again we confront the problem of history: it's usually the powerful who get to write it."

-Ibram X. Kendi, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

"Z is for zealotry: national pride like an infinite zipline, hyperdrive, the fastest way down."

-Ibram X. Kendi, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

"There's dust, a scratch in a groove, and here we are repeating the same two seconds of "Strange Fruit."

-Ibram X. Kendi, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Cover of King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

11. King: A Life

By: Jonathan Eig

4.67

Format: 688 pages, Hardcover

The first full biography in decades, King mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk a… read more

Similar categories in Jonathan Eig's King: A Life book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • audiobook
Cover of Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson

12. Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America

By: Heather Cox Richardson

4.42

Format: 286 pages, Hardcover

“Engaging and highly accessible.” —Boston Globe “A vibrant, and essential history of America's u… read more

Similar categories in Heather Cox Richardson's Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • essays
  • audiobook
Cover of Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

13. Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

By: Michael Harriot

4.59

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly… read more

Similar categories in Michael Harriot's Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James   McBride

14. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

4.00

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • historical
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

15. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

By: Nikole Hannah-Jones

4.62

Format: 590 pages, Hardcover

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a revealing vision of the American past and present. … read more

Similar categories in Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • historical
  • banned books
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • essays
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

16. Poverty, by America

By: Matthew Desmond

4.27

Format: 284 pages, Hardcover

Reimagining the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in Ameri… read more

Similar categories in Matthew Desmond's Poverty, by America book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • nonfiction
  • history
  • social justice
  • audiobook
"To live and strive in modern America is to participate in a series of morally fraught systems. If a family’s entire financial livelihood depends on the value of its home, it’s not hard to understand …"

-Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

"The rest of us, on the ·other hand-we members of the protected classes-have grown increasingly· dependent on our welfare programs. In 2020 the federal government spent more than $193 billion on homeo…"

-Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

"In her book The Government-Citizen Disconnect, the political scientist Suzanne Mettler reports that 96 percent of American adults have relied on a major government program at some point in their live…"

-Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America

Cover of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather  McGhee

17. The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

By: Heather McGhee

4.63

Format: 415 pages, Hardcover

Heather McGhee's specialty is the American economy--and the mystery of why it so often fails the Am… read more

Similar categories in Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
"They have to make Americans afraid of one another. They're exploiting fear in America to sell guns."

-Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

"Ultimately, an economy, the rules we abide by and set for what's fair and who merits what, is an expression of our moral understanding."

-Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

"Instead of being blind to race, color blindness makes people blind to racism, unwilling to acknowledge where its effects have shaped opportunity or to use race-conscious solutions to address it."

-Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

"It's often unconscious, but their perception of The Other as undeserving is so important to their perception of themselves as deserving that they'll tear apart the web that supports everyone, includi…"

-Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

Cover of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint   Smith

18. How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith

4.71

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Poet and contributor to The Atlantic Clint Smith’s revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a… read more

Similar categories in Clint Smith's How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • social justice
  • african american
  • audiobook
"How do you tell a story that has been told the wrong way for so long?"

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

"Just as he did during the Slavery at Monticello tour, David did not mince words. "There’s a chapter in Notes on the State of Virginia ,"

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

"Jefferson believed himself to be a benevolent slave owner, but his moral ideals came second to, and were always entangled with, his own economic interests and the interests of his family."

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

"But not enough people spoke about the reasons so many black children grow up communities saturated with poverty and violence. Not enough people spoke about how these realities were the result of deci…"

-Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Cover of Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

19. Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

By: Ilyon Woo

3.99

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

New York Times Bestseller | New York Times 10 Best Books of 2023 The remarkable true story of El… read more

Similar categories in Ilyon Woo's Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

20. Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

By: Zora Neale Hurston

4.04

Format: 193 pages, Paperback

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-… read more

Similar categories in Zora Neale Hurston's Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • american history
  • race
  • history
  • historical
  • nonfiction
  • african american
  • audiobook
"The present was too urgent to let the past intrude."

-Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

"You see de rattlesnake in de woods?' Dey say, 'Yeah.' I say 'If you bother wid him, he bite you. If you know de snake killee you, why you bother wid him?' (Oluale Kossula)"

-Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

"So den we gittee married by de license, but I doan love my wife no mo' wid de license than I love her befo' de license. She a good woman and I love her all de time. (Oluale Kossula)"

-Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

"Whole nations are transported, exterminated, their name to be forgotten, except in the annual festival of their conquerors, when sycophants call the names of the vanquished countries to the remembran…"

-Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

Cover of Career Confidence: No-BS Stories and Strategies for Finding Your Power by Robynn Storey

21. Career Confidence: No-BS Stories and Strategies for Finding Your Power

By: Robynn Storey

3.89

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

Learn how to bet on yourself and build the professional life you want as you grow in your career pa… read more

Similar categories in Robynn Storey's Career Confidence: No-BS Stories and Strategies for Finding Your Power book and Nikole Hannah-Jones's The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

18 best-selling audiobook books like The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Transform Your Habits

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History, #3)

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

4.37

Transform Your Habits

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Ibram X. Kendi

4.54

Transform Your Habits

Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism

Rachel Maddow

4.45

Transform Your Habits

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

Imani Perry

3.97

View all the books

17 Top audiobook books like Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi

Transform Your Habits

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Isabel Wilkerson

4.53

Transform Your Habits

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Ibram X. Kendi

4.57

Transform Your Habits

King: A Life

Jonathan Eig

4.67

Transform Your Habits

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

Michael Harriot

4.59

View all the books

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