
Four Hundred Souls
A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.22
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
full cast
-
Written by:
-
Ibram X. Kendi - editor
-
Keisha N. Blain - editor
About this listen
A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present - edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.
The story begins in 1619 - a year before the Mayflower - when the White Lion disgorges “some 20-and-odd Negroes” onto the shores of Virginia, inaugurating the African presence in what would become the United States. It takes us to the present, when African Americans, descendants of those on the White Lion and a thousand other routes to this country, continue a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles, stunning achievements, and millions of ordinary lives passing through extraordinary history.
Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith - instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness.
This is a history that illuminates our past and gives us new ways of thinking about our future, written by the most vital and essential voices of our present.
Read by a full cast, including:
Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Amir Abdullah, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Kristen Ariza, Dashawn Barnes, Joshua Bennett, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Andre Blake, Torian Brackett, Donte Bonner, Mahogany L. Browne, Ron Butler, Kellie Carter-Jackson, Brianna Collette, Karen Chilton, Sean Crisden, Keith David, Angela Y. Davis, William DeMeritt, Leonard Dozier, Robin Eller, Kevin R. Free, James Fouhey, Alicia Garza, Dion Graham, Danai Gurira, Jerome Harmann-Hardeman, Jamal Henderson, Ethan Herisse, Susan Heyward, Cary Hite, Dominic Hoffman, Sherrilyn Ifill, James Monroe Iglehart, JD Jackson, Zainab Jah, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Sullivan Jones, Peter Francis James, Terrence Kidd, January LaVoy, Adam Lazarre-White, Keylor Leigh, Nicole Lewis, Dennis Logan, Chante McCormick, Desmond Manny, Jesus Martinez, Heather McGhee, Sheryl Mebane, Robin Miles, Karen Murray, Soneela Nankani, Leon Nixon, Soledad O’Brien, Leslie Odom, Jr., Adenrele Ojo, Genesis Oliver, Prentice Onayemi, Tovah Ott, Morgan Parker, Imani Parks, Lisa Renee Pitts, Imani Jade Powers, Rhett Samuel Price, Bill Quinn, Phylicia Rashad, David Sadzin, Joshua David Scarlett, Heather Alicia Simms, Shayna Small, Patricia Smith, Marisha Tapera, Tashi Thomas, Damian Thompson, TL Thompson, Ella Turenne, Bahni Turpin, Anita Welch, Jade Wheeler, Samira Wiley, Zenzi Williams, Mirron Willis, Andia Winslow, Kai Wright, and with co-editors Ibram X. Kendi, and Keisha N. Blain
©2021 Respective authors of all material within (P)2021 Random House AudioYou may also enjoy...
-
Together
- The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World
- Written by: Vivek H. Murthy
- Narrated by: Vivek H. Murthy
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humans are social creatures: In this simple and obvious fact lies both the problem and the solution to the current crisis of loneliness. In his groundbreaking audiobook, the 19th surgeon general of the United States Dr. Vivek Murthy makes a case for loneliness as a public health concern: a root cause and contributor to many of the epidemics sweeping the world today from alcohol and drug addiction to violence to depression and anxiety.
Written by: Vivek H. Murthy
-
Those Who Forget
- Written by: Geraldine Schwarz
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During World War II, Géraldine Schwarz’s German grandparents were neither heroes nor villains; they were merely Mitlaüfer - those who followed the current. Decades later, while delving through filing cabinets in the basement of their apartment building in Mannheim, Schwarz discovers that in 1938, her grandfather took advantage of Nazi policies to buy a business from a Jewish family for a low price. Weaving together the threads of three generations of her family story with Europe’s process of post-war reckoning, Schwarz explores how millions were seduced by ideology.
-
-
Feels like a very important read, especially now
- By Heather on 2021-01-13
Written by: Geraldine Schwarz
-
The Anatomy of Anxiety
- Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response
- Written by: Ellen Vora
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anxiety affects more than forty million Americans—a number that continues to climb in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While conventional medicine tends to view anxiety as a “neck-up” problem—that is, one of brain chemistry and psychology—the truth is that the origins of anxiety are rooted in the body. In The Anatomy of Anxiety, holistic psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora offers nothing less than a paradigm shift in our understanding of anxiety and mental health, suggesting that anxiety is not simply a brain disorder but a whole-body condition.
-
-
Very informative
- By sm on 2022-05-09
Written by: Ellen Vora
-
Never Enough
- The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction
- Written by: Judith Grisel
- Narrated by: Judith Grisel
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a renowned behavioral neuroscientist and recovering addict, a rare pause-resisting work of science that draws on personal insights to reveal how drugs work, the dangerous hold they can take on the brain, and the surprising way to combat today's epidemic of addiction. Judith Grisel was a daily drug user and college dropout when she began to consider that her addiction might have a cure, one that she herself could perhaps discover by studying the brain. Now, after 25 years as a neuroscientist, she shares what she and other scientists have learned about addiction.
Written by: Judith Grisel
-
Space Oddities
- The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe
- Written by: Harry Cliff
- Narrated by: Harry Cliff
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Something strange is going on in the cosmos. Scientists are uncovering a catalogue of weird phenomena that simply can’t be explained by our long-established theories of the universe. After decades of fruitless searching, could we finally be catching glimpses of a profound new view of our physical world? Or are we being fooled by cruel tricks of the data? In Space Oddities, Harry Cliff, a physicist who does cutting-edge work on the Large Hadron Collider, provides a riveting look at the universe’s most confounding puzzles.
-
-
This was great!!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 2025-01-26
Written by: Harry Cliff
-
Widen the Window
- Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma
- Written by: Elizabeth A. Stanley PhD, Bessel van der Kolk M.D. - foreword
- Narrated by: Elizabeth A. Stanley PhD, Fred Sanders
- Length: 19 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stress is our internal response to an experience that our brain perceives as threatening or challenging. Trauma is our response to an experience in which we feel powerless or lacking agency. Until now, researchers have treated these conditions as different, but they actually lie along a continuum. Dr. Elizabeth Stanley explains the significance of this continuum, how it affects our resilience in the face of challenge, and why an event that's stressful for one person can be traumatizing for another.
-
-
Mind blowing!!!
- By Ryan McKenna on 2023-01-16
Written by: Elizabeth A. Stanley PhD, and others
-
Together
- The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World
- Written by: Vivek H. Murthy
- Narrated by: Vivek H. Murthy
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humans are social creatures: In this simple and obvious fact lies both the problem and the solution to the current crisis of loneliness. In his groundbreaking audiobook, the 19th surgeon general of the United States Dr. Vivek Murthy makes a case for loneliness as a public health concern: a root cause and contributor to many of the epidemics sweeping the world today from alcohol and drug addiction to violence to depression and anxiety.
Written by: Vivek H. Murthy
-
Those Who Forget
- Written by: Geraldine Schwarz
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During World War II, Géraldine Schwarz’s German grandparents were neither heroes nor villains; they were merely Mitlaüfer - those who followed the current. Decades later, while delving through filing cabinets in the basement of their apartment building in Mannheim, Schwarz discovers that in 1938, her grandfather took advantage of Nazi policies to buy a business from a Jewish family for a low price. Weaving together the threads of three generations of her family story with Europe’s process of post-war reckoning, Schwarz explores how millions were seduced by ideology.
-
-
Feels like a very important read, especially now
- By Heather on 2021-01-13
Written by: Geraldine Schwarz
-
The Anatomy of Anxiety
- Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response
- Written by: Ellen Vora
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anxiety affects more than forty million Americans—a number that continues to climb in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While conventional medicine tends to view anxiety as a “neck-up” problem—that is, one of brain chemistry and psychology—the truth is that the origins of anxiety are rooted in the body. In The Anatomy of Anxiety, holistic psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora offers nothing less than a paradigm shift in our understanding of anxiety and mental health, suggesting that anxiety is not simply a brain disorder but a whole-body condition.
-
-
Very informative
- By sm on 2022-05-09
Written by: Ellen Vora
-
Never Enough
- The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction
- Written by: Judith Grisel
- Narrated by: Judith Grisel
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a renowned behavioral neuroscientist and recovering addict, a rare pause-resisting work of science that draws on personal insights to reveal how drugs work, the dangerous hold they can take on the brain, and the surprising way to combat today's epidemic of addiction. Judith Grisel was a daily drug user and college dropout when she began to consider that her addiction might have a cure, one that she herself could perhaps discover by studying the brain. Now, after 25 years as a neuroscientist, she shares what she and other scientists have learned about addiction.
Written by: Judith Grisel
-
Space Oddities
- The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe
- Written by: Harry Cliff
- Narrated by: Harry Cliff
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Something strange is going on in the cosmos. Scientists are uncovering a catalogue of weird phenomena that simply can’t be explained by our long-established theories of the universe. After decades of fruitless searching, could we finally be catching glimpses of a profound new view of our physical world? Or are we being fooled by cruel tricks of the data? In Space Oddities, Harry Cliff, a physicist who does cutting-edge work on the Large Hadron Collider, provides a riveting look at the universe’s most confounding puzzles.
-
-
This was great!!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 2025-01-26
Written by: Harry Cliff
-
Widen the Window
- Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma
- Written by: Elizabeth A. Stanley PhD, Bessel van der Kolk M.D. - foreword
- Narrated by: Elizabeth A. Stanley PhD, Fred Sanders
- Length: 19 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stress is our internal response to an experience that our brain perceives as threatening or challenging. Trauma is our response to an experience in which we feel powerless or lacking agency. Until now, researchers have treated these conditions as different, but they actually lie along a continuum. Dr. Elizabeth Stanley explains the significance of this continuum, how it affects our resilience in the face of challenge, and why an event that's stressful for one person can be traumatizing for another.
-
-
Mind blowing!!!
- By Ryan McKenna on 2023-01-16
Written by: Elizabeth A. Stanley PhD, and others
-
The Autistic Brain
- Thinking Across the Spectrum
- Written by: Temple Grandin, Richard Panek
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Temple Grandin was born in 1947, autism had only just been named. Today it is more prevalent than ever, with one in 88 children diagnosed on the spectrum. And our thinking about it has undergone a transformation in her lifetime: Autism studies have moved from the realm of psychology to neurology and genetics, and there is far more hope today than ever before thanks to groundbreaking new research into causes and treatments. Now Grandin reports from the forefront of autism science, bringing her singular perspective to a thrilling journey into the heart of the autism revolution.
Written by: Temple Grandin, and others
-
The Stress Prescription
- Seven Days to More Joy and Ease
- Written by: Elissa Epel PhD
- Narrated by: Elissa Epel PhD
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether we’re facing deadlines, difficulties with family or friends, personal crises, or just the uncertainty of the world—stress is the ocean we swim in. Even our negative thoughts can trigger our body’s stress response so we rarely experience periods of ease and deep restoration. In The Stress Prescription, Dr. Epel distills decades of research, infused with wisdom, into a practical yet transformative seven-day plan of science-based techniques that can help you harness stress through more positive challenge and purpose.
Written by: Elissa Epel PhD
-
Labyrinths
- Selected Stories & Other Writings
- Written by: Jorge Luis Borges
- Narrated by: Dominic Keating
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The groundbreaking trans-genre work of Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) has been insinuating itself into the structure, stance, and very breath of world literature for well over half a century. Multi-layered, self-referential, elusive, and allusive writing is now frequently labelled Borgesian.
Written by: Jorge Luis Borges
-
The House of Gucci
- A True Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed
- Written by: Sara Gay Forden
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Sara Gay Forden
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the morning of March 27, 1995, four quick shots cracked through Milan’s elegant streets. Maurizio Gucci, heir to the fabulous fashion dynasty, had been ambushed, slain on the steps to his office by an unknown gunman. Two years later, Milan’s chief of police entered the sumptuous palazzo of Maurizio’s ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani - nicknamed “the Black Widow” by the press - and arrested her for the murder. Did Patrizia kill her ex-husband because his spending was wildly out of control? Or is it possible Patrizia didn’t do it at all?
-
-
History of Gucci, loved it! "The House of Gucci."
- By Diana on 2021-12-12
Written by: Sara Gay Forden
-
Hardcore Self Help: F**k Depression
- Written by: Robert Duff
- Narrated by: Robert Duff
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hardcore Self Help: F**k Depression is the follow-up to the best-selling F**K Anxiety. In this book I take the information, tips, and insights that I have gained as a psychologist and translate them into language that doesn't suck. This is the self-help book for people who don't usually like self-help books. In Hardcore Self Help: F**K Depression, I talk to you like a friend. That means I speak directly to you, without psychobabble. Instead I tell you why your brain is such a troll.
-
-
Awesome book
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-11-07
Written by: Robert Duff
-
Across a Hundred Mountains
- A Novel
- Written by: Reyna Grande
- Narrated by: Marisa Blake, Cynthia Farrell
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a tragedy separates her from her mother, Juana García leaves in search of her father, who left them two years earlier. Out of money and in need of someone to help her across the border, Juana meets Adelina Vasquez, a young woman who left her family in California to follow her lover to Mexico. Finding themselves - in a Tijuana jail - in desperate circumstances, they offer each other much needed material and spiritual support and ultimately become linked forever in the most unexpected of ways.
-
-
A touching story
- By Seemz on 2025-02-04
Written by: Reyna Grande
-
Unsettling Canada
- A National Wake-Up Call
- Written by: Arthur Manuel, Grand Chief Ronald M. Derrickson, Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unsettling Canada, a Canadian best seller, is built on a unique collaboration between two First Nations leaders, Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ron Derrickson.Both men have served as chiefs of their bands in the B.C. interior and both have gone on to establish important national and international reputations. But the differences between them are in many ways even more interesting. Arthur Manuel is one of the most forceful advocates for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada and comes from the activist wing of the movement.
-
-
A Canadian reading Requirment!
- By Nancy wishart on 2022-09-30
Written by: Arthur Manuel, and others
-
The History of Philosophy
- Written by: A. C. Grayling
- Narrated by: Neil Gardner
- Length: 28 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of philosophy is an epic tale, spanning civilizations and continents. It explores some of the most creative minds in history. But not since the long-popular classic by Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, published in 1945, has there been a comprehensive and entertaining single-volume history of this great, intellectual, world-shaping journey.
-
-
Even-handed Treatment of the History of Philosophy
- By MEM on 2021-06-12
Written by: A. C. Grayling
-
The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her - but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North.
-
-
Fabulous Story
- By poppies4me on 2019-10-12
Written by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Call of the Wild
- How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use It for Good
- Written by: Kimberly Ann Johnson
- Narrated by: Kimberly Ann Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From trauma educator and somatic guide Kimberly Ann Johnson comes a cutting-edge guide for tapping into the wisdom and resilience of the body to rewire the nervous system, heal from trauma, and live fully.
-
-
Revolutionary For Women’s Health!
- By Elly Hamilton on 2021-04-28
Written by: Kimberly Ann Johnson
-
Life in the City of Dirty Water
- A Memoir of Healing
- Written by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
- Narrated by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There have been many Clayton Thomas-Mullers: The child who played with toy planes as an escape from domestic and sexual abuse, enduring the intergenerational trauma of Canada's residential school system; the angry youngster who defended himself with fists and sharp wit against racism and violence, at school and on the streets of Winnipeg and small-town British Columbia; the tough teenager who, at 17, managed a drug house run by members of his family, and slipped in and out of juvie, operating in a world of violence and pain.
-
-
Both insightful snd hopeful
- By Debra Ransom on 2024-10-09
Written by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
-
Undisputed
- A Champion's Life
- Written by: Donovan Bailey
- Narrated by: Donovan Bailey
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the lush fields of his boyhood in Jamaica, to the basketball courts of Oakville, where he came of age in one of Canada’s most thriving cultural mosaics, to his sprint toward double Olympic gold for Canada in Atlanta in 1996, Donovan Bailey got a long way on natural talent. But he also learned that in the bureaucratic world of Canadian sports, an athlete who didn't come up in the system needed to take charge of his fate if he was going to become the world’s best.
-
-
Authenticity
- By Kareem Morant on 2023-12-23
Written by: Donovan Bailey
What the critics say
“The authors, each in their individual voice, raise a Black chorus, demystify racial assumptions, connect the dots of law and jurisprudence, lay the unspoken cultural truths bare, look at the engineering of the foundational aspects of institutional racism and show an America ashamed of its history. . . . Feel the endurance and resilience of how Blacks resisted, revolted, organized, demanded, protested and rebelled. Feel the joy in the absurdity of remaining American in the face of such obstacles.” (George McCalman, San Francisco Chronicle)
“This collection teaches us that nothing about the latest crisis is new - that for four hundred years, Americans have whistled a ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ tune of national self-congratulation while reliving repeating cycles of racial violence and hypocrisy. . . . This project is a vital addition to that curriculum on race in America and should serve as a gateway to the solo works of all the voices in Kendi and Blain’s impressive choir.” (The Washington Post)
“Two leading scholars of Black culture gather writers from across genres in this provocative, stirring anthology on the traumas and triumphs of African Americans across four centuries. From journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones on Jamestown’s first slaves to historian Annette Gordon-Reed’s portrait of Sally Hemings to the seductive cadences of poets Jericho Brown and Patricia Smith, Four Hundred Souls weaves a tapestry of unspeakable suffering and unexpected transcendence.” (O: The Oprah Magazine, “20 of the Best Books of February 2021 to Fall in Love With”)
What listeners say about Four Hundred Souls
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2021-12-26
Stunning; epic; necessary
White people like me can and should pitch the useless hairshirt that Robin DiAngelo says we need to don by reading White Fragility. What we need to read- listen to- and read again is this freight train of truth, survival, terror, resilience, brilliance, and beauty. I will be listening to this again and again and will never see my birth country the same way. It is far better, and far worse, than teachers told us it was. Open your ears, hearts, and minds and this book will change how you see the world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andrew Rice
- 2021-04-10
Must read
Soul wrenching, eye opening experience. Beautifully done. It is a hard read for a white person because it shows the truth of what white people did in the past and present.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2021-05-08
Amazing profound History we Globally need to know!
Loved all this Book .I learned so much History that should & needs to be heard by all peoples around the Globe 🌎
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!