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Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (National Book Award Winner) Hardcover – April 12, 2016

by Ibram X. Kendi (Author)

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The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society.

Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America--it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.

In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis.

As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation's racial inequities.

In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.

Praise for Stamped from the Beginning:

"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

"Ambitious, well-researched and worth the time of anyone who wants to understand racism." - Seattle Times

"A deep (and often disturbing) chronicling of how anti-black thinking has entrenched itself in the fabric of American society." - The Atlantic

- Winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction
- A New York Times Bestseller
- A Washington Post Bestseller
- Finalist for the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
- Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Boston Globe, - Washington Post, Chicago Review of Books, The Root, Buzzfeed, Bustle, and Entropy

Print length

592 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bold Type Books
Publication date

April 12, 2016
Dimensions

6.45 x 2.15 x 9.55 inches
ISBN-10

1568584636
ISBN-13

978-1568584638
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

Racial discriminationracist ideasignorance/hate: this is the causal relationship driving America’s history of race relations.
Highlighted by 6,676 Kindle readers
My definition of a racist idea is a simple one: it is any concept that regards one racial group as inferior or superior to another racial group in any way.
Highlighted by 6,563 Kindle readers
Hate and ignorance have not driven the history of racist ideas in America. Racist policies have driven the history of racist ideas in America.
Highlighted by 5,969 Kindle readers

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

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, contradictions and unintended consequences."
—The Washington Post

"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

Stamped from the Beginning is "ambitious, well-researched and worth the time of anyone who wants to understand racism."
—The Seattle Times

"Kendi admits that he is not writing to change the minds of those who produce and espouse racist ideas. Rather, in his honesty about how deeply he himself had held multiple racist ideas before embarking on the historical odyssey of this book, he gives the reader permission to accompany him on that eye-opening journey...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

“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

"To structure his book, which he spent three years writing, Kendi built it around five major American intellectual figures: Puritan leader Cotton Mather, founding father Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, African-American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and activist Angela Davis. While showing the reader each of them grappling with questions of race, Kendi places them in the wider context of history with graceful, engaging prose and deeply researched details. Stamped is a book that connects everything from Mather's 17th century theological theories about the souls of Africans to Bo Derek's cornrows in the movie 10, and much more."
—Tampa Bay Times

Stamped from the Beginning provides "ever-relevant context for the white supremacist moment."
—The Dallas Morning News

"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

"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

"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

"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 (starred review)

"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

"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

"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."
—Touré, MSNBC contributor and author of Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness

"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

"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

"Kendi upends many commonly held beliefs about how racism works, exploring the ideas and thinkers behind our most intractable social and cultural problem."
—The Boston Globe

“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

“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

“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

"Racial tensions have seemingly increased over the past year, making Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning essential reading. The book points to the roots of the problem, offering lessons on digging them up."
—Bustle

“By showing how deeply entrenched racist ideas have been — and still are — in America, and thus exposing clearly and discrediting these ideas, Kendi has created not only a great work of scholarship but a much-needed tool.”
—Buzzfeed

“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

“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"

Given our political moment and the work we need to do as individuals and as a country, this book should be on every young leader's bookshelf. It’s not pretty, but the truth often isn’t."
—Forbes

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bold Type Books; First Edition (April 12, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1568584636
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1568584638
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.91 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.45 x 2.15 x 9.55 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #67,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #78 in Black & African American History (Books)
- #198 in Discrimination & Racism
- #272 in Black & African American Biographies

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Ibram X. Kendi

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Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News racial justice contributor. Dr. Kendi is the author of many highly acclaimed books including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest-ever winner of that award. He has also produced five straight #1 New York Times bestsellers, including How to Be an Antiracist, Antiracist Baby, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored by Jason Reynolds. In 2020, Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.

His next two books, coming out in June, are How to Raise an Antiracist and the picture book, Goodnight Racism.

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Artemis825

A Revelation on Every Page

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2022

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I learned so much about history that was never taught in school. I can see why so many racists in 2022 are so foaming-at-the-mouth snarling about critical race theory. The last thing any of these folks want is critical anything. Personally, I’ve been sharing my observations as I read with my teens. This book is a wealth of insight and information…highly recommended!

3 people found this helpful

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M. E. Reeves

Good history, but not so good as political analysis, and not the "definitive history"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 20, 2017

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Stamped is a very good history, but a very poor piece of political science or political philosophy. Kendi gives us a wealth of detail on important elements in the tortured history of American race relations. But he insists on stuffing all that into poorly conceived categories which confuse more than enlighten. Many historians will see this as a history contaminated by diatribe. As a political scientist, I don’t object to a diatribe. And I agree with most of his complaints about the hypocrisy and inconsistencies of American racism. Nor do I mind, in the least, his tearing apart of myths about American icons such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. That is where he is as his best, in my opinion, and he is accomplishing a bit of “historical revisionism” which is needed in American history. Myself, I get irritated whenever I read something mentioning Jefferson and Sally Hemings which calls her his “mistress” or refers to their relationship as an “affair.” No, damn it, she was his captive, and being a captive that was not an “affair.” That was “rape.”

So I’m with Kendi on that. And I’m with him in all the other places where he points out the incredible hypocrisies of American politics, in which, so often, the victims are blamed for the crimes of slavery and discrimination. But I wish he had also spent a little more time revealing the racism in popular figures like Andrew Jackson and the founders of Texas, and explaining the larger connections in American political culture such as Puritanism, Exceptionalism, “Manifest Destiny,” genocide of Native Americans, and American racism. There are a lot of larger themes that he neglected. That may be an unfair criticism of a historian, because historians tend to favor individual details over general themes, and they value focus on particulars. But I don’t think it’s really an unfair criticism of a work which advertised itself as a “Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.” That’s a big claim. Sadly, this historical study does not live up to the billing.

More to the point, it is a “definitive history” of a sort, but not in a good way. That is to say, it is a work which makes many arguments by definition ~ and unworkable, unjustified, definitions at that. This is where it becomes a work of political science or political philosophy, but a very poorly conceived work in that realm. That begins on page 4, where he gives us the three categories of racial ideology which he applies throughout the work, but without defining them in any detail or justifying his use of them as exclusive categories: segregation, assimilation, and anti-racism. Aside from the fact that these categories, more applicable to modern post-slavery American politics, are anachronistic when pushed backwards in time to the period of slavery, they simply do not work as exclusive categories. The question of “assimilation” is always dilemma for any minority ~ it is a huge issue in Jewish history ~ and it does not properly reduce to simplistic “racist” versus “anti-racist” positions. For example, by insisting on condemning assimilation as inherently racist, and by condemning a particular manifestation of it which he calls “uplift suasion,” Kendi ends up being forced to condemn figures such as Sidney Poitier and Barack Obama as, implicitly, “traitors to their race,” in much in the same way as fanatical Hasidic Jews condemn all liberal and secular Jews. In more general philosophical terms, that categorization can only be justified by extreme, absolute, cultural relativism ~ which Kendi never discuses honestly, but which he seems to acknowledge implicitly at page 353, where he condemns Ashley Montague for departing from absolute “cultural relativity.” Kendi leaves himself with few political or philosophical allies when he condemns so many liberals, black and white, for their deviancy from his absolute vision of “anti-racism.” It reminds me of the worst of Jacobin or Bolshevist ideologues, always defining any divergence from an absolute vision as counter-revolutionary betrayal of the cause, and eventually defining itself into oblivion. I’m really not sure that anyone, black or white in America, or Kendi himself, can met his absolutist standard for being an “anti-racist.” After all, is not he himself guilty of “acting white,” like Poitier and Obama, or “selling out to the man,” as Angela Davis might have put it, by accepting positions as an academic historian and writing a book in Standard English?

Cultural relativism just doesn’t work. With condemnatory slurs like “uplift suasion,” Kendi implies that he would forever ghettoize African Americans. One can recognize value in distinctive elements of African American culture such as jazz and soul food without excluding African Americans from playing classical music or trying to get their kids to eat healthier food, as Michelle Obama was trying to do. Sorry, but both “soul food” and its close cousin, “Southern cuisine,” are too damn fatty and salty, alike those German hamburgers and those “French fries” that both black and white Americans stuff their faces with. At some point, culture clashes with science, and science is not the property of any culture, black or white, Asian or Western, or any other category. We are all Humans, with those closely shared genes, and secular humanism is, ultimately, the only real form of “culture” which is really non-racist. But at the same time, everyone has a right to pick and choose which pieces of the common heritage of the species they want to identify with without being condemned for being assimilationists by purists. Melissa Harris-Perry is entitled to wear her hair in a “black” style on TV while she “talks white,” in her academic manner, but uses her platform to confront the ongoing racism in American politics. But if some white women want to try corn rows, while other black women want to straighten their hair, that’s their business, and their freedom to pick and choose is what we call “freedom” in a liberal society. Kendi is completely justified in condemning the hypocrisy and the insidious, ongoing, pervasive racism in American culture. But as a white liberal who is also outraged by the legalized killing of black men by cops and the inherent racism in many rightwing policies, I sure wish he would pick his friends and enemies with more care.

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Sabre3031

What an interesting book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 24, 2022

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Very informative historical treatment of race issues in US. Highly recommended to anyone

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A. H. Wagner

A very painful but highly illuminating must-read on how racism took root and persists in the US

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 26, 2017

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About halfway through reading this book, I realized I was highlighting almost every single page and had to start color-coding my highlights so as to make a little more sense of why certain passages struck me—a visual testimony of how illuminating Stamped from the Beginning is. With a primary focus on racism toward African-Americans and people identified as Black, this book is a thoroughly researched, sweepingly comprehensive survey of racism from its first traceable roots in ancient Greece when Aristotle said Africans had “burnt faces” to the start of the African slave trade in 15th century Europe, to the first recorded slave ship arriving in colonial America in 1619, all the way through the Civil War, the Jim Crow laws, the 1960s Civil Rights movement, and up to the present day. In order to help readers navigate this extensive timeline, author Ibram X. Kendi divides the book into five parts, featuring one historical figure as a sort of tour guide or anchor for each part.

Very few individuals or institutions mentioned in this book come off as completely free of racist thinking; even many abolitionists and civil rights activists are revealed to have held racist ideas that contradicted their cause. This made me realize the extent to which racism has ensnared the United States in its pernicious roots. In Stamped from the Beginning, Kendi presents two main ideas about racism that helped me understand its influence and progress over the centuries. First, he explains that “Hate and ignorance have not driven the history of racist ideas in America. Racist policies have driven the history of racist ideas in America.” The author admits, “I was taught the popular folktale of racism: that ignorant and hateful people had produced racist ideas, and that these racist people had instituted racist policies. But when I learned the motives behind the production of many of America’s most influentially racist ideas, it became quite obvious that this folktale, though sensible, was not based on a firm footing of historical evidence.” As Kendi explains further, “Racially discriminatory policies have usually sprung from economic, political, and cultural self-interests, self-interests that are constantly changing.” Now that I understand self-interest—not hate or ignorance—has been the driving factor behind racist policies, I can better understand why racism hasn’t died out with the Emancipation Proclamation or desegregation or any of the Civil Rights Acts passed in this country. Tragically, racism persists and continues to evolve according to the current self-interests of people and institutions in power. It’s why, after slavery was abolished, segregation and the Jim Crow laws rushed in to replace it, and long after segregation has been outlawed, African-Americans continue to be oppressed by disproportionate mass incarceration as well as disadvantaged by fewer, inferior housing and employment opportunities.

Second, Kendi points out that racism is not simply a debate between those who support racist ideas and those who oppose racist ideas. Throughout history, three–not two–viewpoints on racism have persisted: “A group we can call segregationists has blamed Black people themselves for the racial disparities. A group we can call antiracists has pointed to racial discrimination. A group we can call assimilationists has tried to argue for both, saying that Black people and racial discrimination were to blame for racial disparities.” As much as I would like to believe I am firmly in the antiracist camp, reading this book made me realize I have held a lot of racist ideas from an assimilationist viewpoint that I need to correct. Kendi gives many examples of well-meaning civil rights activists, including some African-Americans, who upheld assimilationist ideas. Some persisted with these ideas their entire lives, others realized their error and later self-corrected to an antiracist viewpoint, and still others upheld both antiracist and assimilationist ideas, often not realizing the contradiction. Thus, a tragic pattern that has repeated itself throughout American history is the persistence of many assimilationists in seeking to abolish racist policies and ideas with the same flawed strategies that never work.

Indeed, the African-American author admits, “Even though I am an African studies historian and have been tutored all my life in egalitarian spaces, I held racist notions of Black inferiority before researching and writing this book.” I think it’s crucially important that Kendi tells readers about his mistaken notions of race—not to make readers feel better about their own ignorance, but to demonstrate how deeply racist ideas have taken root in American culture. Hopefully this admission on the author’s part will ease readers out of their defensive mode and open their minds to the disturbing truth that racism is a lot more pervasive among us Americans than we would like to believe.

If you want to understand exactly how racism took root in the United States and why it has persisted through the present day, if you are prepared for a very sobering, very painful, and often highly disturbing look at the many flaws, hypocrisies, and atrocities in the American notions of democracy, exceptionalism, and “liberty and justice for all,” then Stamped from the Beginning is a must-read. Ultimately, what the author conveys with copious examples is that “Black Americans’ history of oppression has made Black opportunities—not Black people—inferior.” An absolutely necessary emendation to the traditionally accepted canon of American history.

441 people found this helpful

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Sheri

Good but long

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 6, 2022

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I didn't know it was going to be a Harry Potter size book when I purchased it. I am a slow reader so it took me a very long time. I thought it was very informative and the author did immense research and stated tons of facts throughout.

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The Reader

A bit academic but worth the buy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 11, 2018

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It is not quite a focus on the characters in the book. It is more a vast history of racist and anti-racist ideas in America. The headline characters are more tools to navigate the history rather than a focus of the book. The book can be a bit academic at times with not much of a narrative flow but it does give some good insights and ideas into racism in America.

4 people found this helpful

Charlotte Elizabeth

Well Written & Eye Opening. ESSENTIAL READ!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 29, 2020

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I really recommend that everyone reads this book.

2 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Fab

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 29, 2018

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Great condition

2 people found this helpful

The Spyglass

For anyone interested in a deeper dive into race relations in America

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 3, 2018

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I bought this book for my father, as a Father’s Day gift. Although we are Canadian, my Dad is very interested in understanding the legacy of slavery in America and the indelible mark it has left.

The book was highly praised and recommended by people I trust. It did not disappoint. The book does a wonderful job of laying out the cyclical nature of civil rights progress and backlash. In many ways, what we are experiencing now, after 8 years of a black man in The White House, was inevitable. This author lays out the pattern that seems to be inescapable.

If you are interested in understanding more about why the pendulum seems to have swung so far the other way, I recommend this book.

8 people found this helpful

Serenus Zeitblom

Auf Englisch schon günstig als Taschenbuch erhältlich

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on July 5, 2018

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Viele Rezensionen hat Ibram X Kendi mit "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America" in den Medien erhalten, 2016 auch den Sachbuchpreis des National Book Award,
Der selbst afroamerikanische Hochschullehrer sieht die US-Geschichte einmal konsequent aus der Perspektive des Rassismus. Das ist nicht die gewohnte Betrachtungsweise - Schwarze, ihre Versklavung bzw. Diskrimierung werden meist sonst nur kurz angetippt - und dadurch aufschlussreich.

Mit dem Finger auf "die da" in den USA zu weisen, wäre aber falsch - "Stamped from the beginning" sensibilisiert eher für den täglichen abstempelnden Rassismus hier wie dort. Und gegen andere Diskriminierungen aufgrund von Geschlecht, Orientierung, Geld, Herkunft, ... Kendis aufmerksame Hinweise auf Rassismus damals wie heute lassen sich nämlich so übertragen.

Kendi verwehrt sich dabei gegen "Segregationismus" (getrennte Entwicklung), aber auch gegen einen Assimilations-Rassismus, dass Schwarze sich einfach nur angleichen müssten/sollten. Seine "antirassistischen" Vorbilder sind die aufbegehrenden Angela Davis und De Bois, und auch deren Irrwege stellt Kendi mit dar.
Gute viereinhalb Sterne.

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Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (National Book Award Winner) Hardcover – April 12, 2016

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Sold by: Amazon.com

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