The 1619 Project
A New Origin Story
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The 1619 Project
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Narrated by:
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Nikole Hannah-Jones
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Full Cast
About this listen
Number One New York Times Best Seller
A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present.
Named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post • NPR • Marie Claire
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty people stolen from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.
The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together 18 essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself.
This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction - and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life.
Cover image: Lorna Simpson Beclouded, 2018 © Lorna Simpson. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Read by a full cast, including:
Nikole Hannah-Jones, January LaVoy, Claudia Rankine, Nikky Finney, Janina Edwards, Dorothy Roberts, Shayna Small, Terrance Hayes, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Yusef Komunyakaa, Eve L. Ewing, Karen Chilton, Aaron Goodson, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Erin Miles, Dominic Hoffman, Adenrele Ojo, Matthew Desmond, Tyehimba Jess, Tim Seibles, Jamelle Bouie, Cornelius Eady, Minka Wiltz, Martha S. Jones, Darryl Pinckney, ZZ Packer, Carol Anderson, Tracy K. Smith, Evie Shockley, Bryan Stevenson, William DeMeritt, Jasmine Mans, Trymaine Lee, A. Van Jordan, Yaa Gyasi, Linda Villarosa, Danez Smith, Terry McMillan, Anthea Butler, Rita Dove, Camille T. Dungy, Wesley Morris, Natasha Trethewey, Joshua Bennett, Chanté McCormick, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Ron Butler, Kevin M. Kruse, Bahni Turpin, Gregory Pardlo, Ibram X. Kendi, JD Jackson, Jason Reynolds, and Sonia Sanchez
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What the critics say
“Pleasingly symmetrical . . . [a] mosaic of a book, which achieves the impossible on so many levels—moving from argument to fiction to argument, from theme to theme, and backward and forward in time, so smoothly.”—Slate
“A wide-ranging, landmark summary of the Black experience in America: searing, rich in unfamiliar detail, exploring every aspect of slavery and its continuing legacy . . . Again and again, The 1619 Project brings the past to life in fresh ways. . . . Multifaceted and often brilliant.”—The New York Times Book Review
“The groundbreaking project from The New York Times, which created a new origin story for America based on the very beginnings of American slavery, is expanded into a very large, very powerful full-length book.”—Entertainment Weekly
What listeners say about The 1619 Project
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- D LY
- 2023-01-07
Great and powerful!
A must read in every book collection, great and powerful including lots of literary works by several authors.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2022-08-11
A must read, the true history of America
An in depth account that clarifies and teaches so much more than we were lead to believe..
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cherio
- 2022-01-19
Full of invaluable history
I wish every child in school was allowed to learn the historical information in this book. I learnt so much. Thank you for taking the time to make this info available.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marcello Simmons
- 2022-06-09
History Lesson
This project will connect the dots of some stories you may or may not have known about and give you a clear picture and better understanding how America has been and continues to be racist by design. It all makes sense now.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2022-05-24
Get the history right
For any citizens of the world, this is a true eye opener about how to create a world that’s safe for our children - ALL OUR CHILDREN. In an unjust society, everyone looses in the long term.
This is a much needed account of our shared history and what we must reconcile with and address to create a future and a world we all envision for our children.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lara
- 2022-08-09
An invaluable historical and cultural read
The essays and stories in this book are extremely important; they provide an all encompassing and honest story of the formation and reality of America.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Melanie Gaskin
- 2022-07-31
An America Saving Project
I really do have no words for how loving and enlightening this project is. I hope everyone reads/listens to it. Black and especially white ppl.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Pam Favron
- 2023-01-29
Amazing
Completely and devastatingly tells the story! It is an eye opener, for those that can read with an open mind!
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 2022-03-11
Facts Matter
In this text miss. Jones attempts to write a revisionist history which seeks to create a victim group who’s failings, shortcomings and faults can all be laid at the feet of another race of people. I remember reading a similar book from 1930s Germany. This book sought to lay all the problems which one race had at the feet of another race, the Jews. Both texts are false in their conclusions and filled with untruths both by commission and omission at best most of the assertions this text made can be classified as wildly exaggerated half truths. Since I could write my own book simply correcting the falsities of this narrative I’ll simply correct a few of the more glaring problems.
1) slavery was a cultural universal every race of people on earth enslaved and where enslaved. In fact more white people where sold in the slave markets of Africa and the Middle East than Africans brought to America. I’m sure these darker skinned Masters treated their white slaves with as much contempt and brutality as the whites treated the black people of America.
2) Who is more guilty in this process, The Africans who kidnapped, enslaved and sold the ancestors of African Americans to the White traders or the whites who bought them? It seems like there is more than enough blame on both sides of the ledger here.
3) The first slaves in America where Irish not African. The colonial laws in fact made no distinction between white and black servants. Between indentured servitude and the Irish many ancestors, the whites helped build America as well with their forced labor.
4) I would ask Miss. jones, you add many stories regarding the pre civil rights abuses against African American’s dating back to the founding and try to act as though they are depictions of a still existent racism in America. Like it or not lots has changed in the 60 years since the civil rights movement. It seems to me America provided you with an education, a lifestyle and opportunities and you made the most of them and now possesses a PHD and a position at a university. Obviously Racism has thwarted your dreams! (Sarcasm).
5) Modern stories of racism and police brutality have nearly all been debunked! Trevon Martin was on top of Zimmerman when he was shot, this was not an execution but self defence (see related ballistics report). George Floyd was a drug dealer who had held a gun to a pregnant woman’s stomach! Mr. Floyd was a piece of human garbage who died because he swallowed the fentanyl he was dealing instead of getting arrested with it, his death was caused by a self inflicted overdose! Not police brutality or racism! We can go through the litany of them, hand up don’t shoot didn’t happen! The famous noose at Daytona! Didn’t happen! Jesse Smollet? Yes that didn’t happen either.6
6) America is racist? Compared to where? China where they depict people of African decent as gorilla's. How about Saudi Arabia where black people are still referred to as slave! If you think America is racist then clearly you’ve never been outside your backyard. America is not racist (that doesn’t mean there aren’t racists but to suggest that it is a racist nation is patently false). If not then why are people of colour from all over the world in lineups to come to America? I’m Métis (Native American and European decent) would I want to go to America if I thought I was going to be treated like a second class citizen? Of course not, that would be foolish and I assume that other people of colour are capable of assessing that fact and they make a rational decision to emigrate to America.
There are so many issues with this book and I can’t deal with all of them but I will say to Dr. Jones and here contributors that the demonstrable falsehoods of her book demean her and every other African American. By committing the historians cardinal sin of interpreting history through the prism of her modern values, belief and culture she has warped and distorted this history so it may best described as a fiction loosely built on the facts. Dr. Jones I know you’re an intelligent person! Please do better!
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