Building off of books like The 1619 Project and Four Hundred Souls, Black AF History works to add more detail into the history that US school children are taught in their social studies classes.

Michael Harriot writes his chapters in relatable prose full of jokes and humorous asides that makes learning history fun. He ends each chapter with unit reviews and activities like a textbook would have and has supplementary material for some topics. The aim is to center Black voices in moments of history that historically have only been told with white main characters. For example, in the chapter on the US Civil War, he writes about Harriet Tubman as a soldier in the Combahee Ferry Raid and he also talks about Robert Smalls, who freed himself by commandeering a Confederate ship and sailing out of Charleston and eventually became a Congressman, and Mary Louvestre, who delivered Confederate plans to overhaul a captured ship that led to the first ever ironclad battle.

This book was a delight to read despite the horrors and tragedies that it recounts. I think it slowed down a little when it hit the modern times. He writes about the advent of redlining and the evolution of slavery to Jim Crow to the for profit prison system; however, I would have preferred more on the time between 1970 and now. Although, the lesser focus on modern history does mimic what I remember of social studies classes in school.

Overall I highly recommend, and will be picking up a copy for myself to reference and to use the bibliography for further reading.

I can't begin to describe how excited I was for this book to come out. It was an honor to get to read an early copy. This is one of those books that need to be in every school, every library, everywhere. This isn't just for the culture, it's for us all.

The author did a tremendous amount of research to present history that has not so much been forgotten, but has been ignored or intentionally distorted. This is a comprehensive presentation of African American history. It discusses many familiar events and people, as well as the unfamiliar, and offers a new way of looking at them. The author also includes family anecdotes, most of them humorous. Each chapter ends with a few very wry and pointed “study questions”. If you think the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, or the civil rights protests in the 1960s were “unnecessary”, or the Confederate flag represents anything other than white supremacy you need to read this. But I doubt that will happen.

The audiobook was narrated by the author. It personalized the book, but he’s not a great narrator. I wish that authors would acknowledge that narration takes talent, skill and experience - and leave it to the pros.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

BLACK AF HISTORY by Michael Harriot, a political commentator, purports to provide "The Un-Whitewashed Story of America." BLACK AF HISTORY received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. But clearly, I missed something and, frankly would not recommend this text. Instead of providing information about lesser-known historical events like the Tulsa Massacre or Juneteenth, this text rambles in a disparaging tone. Perhaps the title should have been the first clue to the attitude which the author expresses. For example, when writing about Earth, Wind & Fire, he says, "THEY WORE JUMPSUITS. All great music acts must wear jumpsuits." What?! Definitely choose to read the excellent A Most Tolerant Little Town by Rachel Louise Martin instead.

This is a necessary AF book. Every US resident should know this information. Unfortunately too many will not.

Over the past years as I have read books by Isabel Wilkerson, Michelle Alexander, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, I have learned that the canon of American history that I received was inevitably skewed by the white authors of that history. I welcome this book by Harriot as a strong addition to what US history looks like from a contrasting perspective.

The author's occasional, acerbic sarcasm doesn't help his purpose of informing readers about accurate, well-supported and admirably-cited historical accounts through the black lens. But when I learn the info he shares in this volume, I completely understand the reason for the sarcasm: The alternative is to bemoan and wail (to no purpose) the evil humans have visited on other humans.

This enlightening, informative book is highly engaging and extremely readable. Harriot provides us with an excellent and foundation-shifting story driven by the other sources of historical information. I consider this ineluctable reading for those who want to be more truthfully educated.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Dey Street Books for the chance to read an advanced copy. Publication date Sept 19, 2023. Do not miss the chance to gain this information.

I liked this book and found that I learned a lot of new figures and stories from American history. It was a little more jokey than my personal taste, but Harriot is so smart that he sorta pulls it off. The book is sometimes redundant in parts and I wished it went more into modern history, but over all a very solid book.

Michael Harriet’s voice shines in this deeply personal history that attempts to shine a light on all the injustice Black America has faced.

Some of the slang terms used were slightly jarring within context. It would have a broader appeal if the writing carried more empathy for those who are now learning their ancestors were the bad guys. That said, I get it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dey Street Books for the ARC.

Scheduled for release on September 19, 2023, Dey Street Books provided an early galley for review.

I recall seven years of history classes from junior high and high school, spanning from the explorers through the then-recent history (early 1980's) of the US. A couple required history in college after that, and that was about it for my studies in that area. A colleague at the library brought this title to my attention. As soon as I read the description, I felt a very strong need to check this one out.

Harriot's writing and approach to the subject kept me very engaged. If his book had existed when I was doing my first run through of American history, I would have definitely enjoyed it more. It is very in-depth and informative. The Unit Review sections at the back of each chapter are also entertaining; it gives his book a very "textbook" aesthetic.

When Michael Harriot reframes American history, he doesn't pull any punches.

By turns entertaining and wrenching, Black AF History adds a much-needed perspective to our national story, one that rejects the easy answers and euphemisms that have long made mainstream American history feel both celebratory and comfortable. (Maybe I should pause here so that we can consider to whom mainstream history has catered...)

As for rejecting euphemisms, a few examples might help—The slave trade was human trafficking, so that's what Harriot calls it. Plantations were "forced labor enterprises," so he refers to them as such. And make no mistake: Jim Crow was apartheid.

At one point—in a single paragraph, seven terse sentences—Harriot describes the April 23, 1899 lynching of Sam Hose. And while his description is unflinching, my reading was not. I flinched. More than flinched, if I'm honest—I read the passage with wide eyes, a roiling stomach, and my hand over my mouth. Because it's one thing to acknowledge a campaign of mass lynchings or a historical period marked by such a campaign. It's quite another thing to describe in plain language the atrocities committed against a specific man—a man with a name, a family, and a story of his own—while a crowd of onlookers-cum-participants, who had "boarded trains to view the spectacle," cheered.

Time and time again, Harriot does this other thing.

There's so much more I could say about Black AF History, but I think what I most want to say is: Read this book.

And honestly? If you're white, read it twice. Once to allow yourself to huff in privileged outrage. (I expect quite a lot of, "Not all white people..." and, "But I'm not racist..." and "Why can't they just...") Then read it again and see it for what it is: a well-researched and bold portrayal of American history that absolutely should be read alongside those that we have long accepted as true—but that have never been complete.

Amazing. Every book should be thins good. Should be required reading. Thank god the author doesn't need my review. Plenty of other people will like this book .

I think we can all agree that American history as it's taught in schools is oversimplified: there's just no way to teach the historical events of the past 400-500 years in one school year and to treat any part of it with depth and nuance. What Michael Harriot points out in this book is that so much of what we've learned about the history of the United States is wrong, due to the erasure of Black (and Indigenous) people. And he's got the receipts.

While many of us will recognize the names of such Black notables as W.E.B. DuBois, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriot introduces the reader to a number of Black people who should be recognized for their achievements in exploration, politics, business, war, journalism, education, etc., etc., etc. -- but who are barely known to the general public. He also pulls details from historical sources to show how the white settlers who are often claimed to be the founding fathers could not have succeeded without the knowledge and labor of Black people who were brought to the continent against their will and dehumanized for their efforts. And he repeatedly demonstrates that racism and white supremacy were woven into the U.S. constitution, legal system, law enforcement, education system, society, and monuments FROM THE START. (I'm telling you, he's got RECEIPTS.)

Harriot liberally seasons his history lessons with humor and wit, but he does not hold back from calling out the flaws in a whitewashed history of a parcel of stolen land. Black history and the Black experience have been limited to one "Black History Month" for too long, and this book opens up a whole new look at the country we think we know. This is probably the best history book I've read in a long time. 5 stars.

Thank you, WilliamMorrow and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book, Opinions expressed here are solely my own.