Share <Embed>

Buy New

$10.88

List Price: $26.00
Save: $15.12 (58%)

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

This item ships to France. Want it Tuesday, May 21? Order within and choose AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping at checkout. Learn more

Deliver to France

Buy Used

$10.00

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Deliver to France

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by The Energetic Exchange

Fulfilled by Amazon

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Author

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Between the World and Me Hardcover – July 14, 2015

by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Author)

4,116 customer reviews

See all 9 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$7.25

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$10.88

$6.95

$3.76

Paperback

"Please retry"

$12.49

$9.13

$8.99

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$15.76

$11.73

$10.76

Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States” (The New York Observer)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER | NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER | PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST | NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST | NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Praise for Between the World and Me

“Powerful . . . a searing meditation on what it means to be black in America today.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Eloquent . . . in the tradition of James Baldwin with echoes of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man . . . an autobiography of the black body in America.”—The Boston Globe

“Brilliant . . . [Coates] is firing on all cylinders.”—The Washington Post

“Urgent, lyrical, and devastating . . . a new classic of our time.”—Vogue

“A crucial book during this moment of generational awakening.”—The New Yorker

“Titanic and timely . . . essential reading.”—Entertainment Weekly

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

James Baldwin

217

Paperback
$11.18

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

James Baldwin

217

Paperback
$11.18

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of July 2015: Readers of his work in The Atlantic and elsewhere know Ta-Nehisi Coates for his thoughtful and influential writing on race in America. Written as a series of letters to his teenaged son, his new memoir, Between the World and Me, walks us through the course of his life, from the tough neighborhoods of Baltimore in his youth, to Howard University—which Coates dubs “The Mecca” for its revelatory community of black students and teachers—to the broader Meccas of New York and Paris. Coates describes his observations and the evolution of his thinking on race, from Malcolm X to his conclusion that race itself is a fabrication, elemental to the concept of American (white) exceptionalism. Ferguson, Trayvon Martin, and South Carolina are not bumps on the road of progress and harmony, but the results of a systemized, ubiquitous threat to “black bodies” in the form of slavery, police brutality, and mass incarceration. Coates is direct and, as usual, uncommonly insightful and original. There are no wasted words. This is a powerful and exceptional book.--Jon Foro

From School Library Journal

In a series of essays, written as a letter to his son, Coates confronts the notion of race in America and how it has shaped American history, many times at the cost of black bodies and lives. Thoughtfully exploring personal and historical events, from his time at Howard University to the Civil War, the author poignantly asks and attempts to answer difficult questions that plague modern society. In this short memoir, the Atlantic writer explains that the tragic examples of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and those killed in South Carolina are the results of a systematically constructed and maintained assault to black people—a structure that includes slavery, mass incarceration, and police brutality as part of its foundation. From his passionate and deliberate breakdown of the concept of race itself to the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, Coates powerfully sums up the terrible history of the subjugation of black people in the United States. A timely work, this title will resonate with all teens—those who have experienced racism as well as those who have followed the recent news coverage on violence against people of color. Pair with Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely's All American Boys (S. & S., 2015) for a lively discussion on racism in America. VERDICT This stunning, National Book Award-winning memoir should be required reading for high school students and adults alike.—Shelley Diaz, School Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Series: Between the World and Me
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; 1 edition (July 14, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0812993543
ISBN-13: 978-0812993547
Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.8 x 7.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4,116 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in Discrimination & Racism (Books)
- #7 in Law Enforcement Biographies
- #9 in African-American & Black Biographies

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

Important information

Ingredients

Example Ingredients

Directions

Example Directions

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

See Kindle Edition

4,116 customer reviews

Review this product

Write a customer review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Paul R.

Most challenging book I've ever read

September 29, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I'm white, male, and have very little understanding or appreciation for black culture. My parents and siblings all watched Roots when I was about 8 years old. I encountered some black sailors when I was in the U.S. Navy - in fact, I had a roommate for six months or so that was a black male, but we maybe spoke a hundred words during that time. This book came recommended by a quasi-stranger, not for it's content but for its structure: letters from a father to a son. I'd mentioned that I was interested in writing that sort of book, and this was a resulting recommendation. I read a few reviews before buying it. Not the sort of book I'd otherwise pick up. After ordering it, I heard the author on NPR - without knowing it was the author of the book, mind you - and I thought "wow, this guy is really interesting, provocative, well-spoken, intellectually sound, and speaks from a world that I can only see from afar." So when the show host said his name, I knew I had to pick up the book and read it soon. I had that opportunity within days, on a flight to Atlanta, my first visit there in maybe fifteen years. I got through about 110 pages on the flight and it was perfect timing. Atlanta is a sea of black compared to most everywhere I've lived. Instantly, I could try and appreciate my surroundings in way that I'd never been able to before. Did I feel "white guilt"? Sure. I do. I've seen racism my whole life, especially toward black. This book, however, did much more than rekindle strong feelings of being a winner of Powerball proportions in the life lottery. It challenged me so fundamentally and starkly in a way that I have never been challenged, reading a book, in my life. At times I felt compelled to put the book down, that it was just conjuring up too much weight of history that I wanted to put back out of sight. But I kept going. Finishing it, I felt, like apparently many others do, that this should be required reading for every American. Even those outside of the USA will benefit from it, as it will certainly illuminate the tension and schizophrenia and contradictions and rewritten history of our country. I hope Mr. Coates continues writing until he draws his final breath.

1,295 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Clifton

An Offering of Understanding

August 14, 2015

Format: Hardcover

Like many of the one- and two- star reviewers of this book, I bristled at certain passages in Between the World and Me. I felt attacked and blamed at times, because I, in Ta-Nehisi Coates' words, "believe that I am white." So I understand the scorn directed at this book by many who dismiss it as divisive and simplistic in its assessment of the black experience in America.

But here's the thing: this book isn't about me. It's not trying to tell me what I should do to be a better person or make me feel guilty about things I don't even understand, much less control. It's not trying to fix anything. And if you're reading it that way, I think you're missing a profound experience.

I've never been shown and made to understood the experience of a life so unlike my own as I have with this book. I felt the frustration and fear that Mr. Coates felt growing up black in America. I felt the anger he feels at people who believe that they are white dismissing that experience as so many sour grapes. I felt the hypocrisy of being told not to wear hoodies or play loud music for fear of someone breaking your body.

That's why this book matters. It's not a solution to our race problems or an accurate assessment of the progress of America as a nation. It is not a book about white people and how we should change. It is simply a powerful testament of one man's experience, and an offering of understanding.

I grew up rich, white and privileged in suburban Virginia. I never had to think about my safety, my future or my pride through the lens of my race. I couldn't even begin to conceive of that experience. Ta-Nehisi Coates is the first person to break through that reality of my upbringing and allow me to step into another experience for a little while.

It was life-changing and important.

3,582 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Dani Lacey

I do not think I could easily describe exactly what it is

September 30, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I read this book today in one sitting. I do not think I could easily describe exactly what it is, but I'll try. This is a book black people need to read. This is a book white people need to read. This is a book that anyone who calls themselves "American" needs to read. This is a book that writers need to read. This is a book that describes the history of our nation and -- in a way -- the history of the world. This is a book that tells one man's story of how he achieved his social consciousness the impact that had on how he viewed himself.

Coates uses his youth, his journey into manhood, his personal tragedies and his struggle to find his voice as a writer as a vehicle to reflect on what it means to be a black male in America. The book is crafted as a letter to his son, making it a more intimate and personal journey. That intimacy and humanization extends beyond Coates to the victims and survivors of racism. Coates forces to you reflect on the individuality, potential and preciousness of every life impacted by the Middle Passage, Bloody Sunday or killer cops.

He is not optimistic, but he's not a cynic, either. I was worried that this book would leave me feeling sad, angry, hurt. Instead, I feel strangely proud. He sees where we fail as a nation, but points out how black people have and will continue to survive as a people. And he calls on those who have benefited from America's systemic racism to do better or face their own future downfall.

To sum it up, Toni Morrison describes this book best: "This is required reading."

62 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: Between the World and Me

Set up a giveaway

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: history textbooks, public relation, toni morrison, law and society books, Best holders for photos, Brand Books

Buy New

$10.88

Buy Used

$10.00

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Between the World and Me Hardcover – July 14, 2015

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From School Library Journal

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Important information

Ingredients

Directions

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

4,116 customer reviews

Review this product

Customer images

Read reviews that mention

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Buy New $10.88

Buy Used $10.00

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Between the World and Me Hardcover – July 14, 2015

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From School Library Journal

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Important information

Ingredients

Directions

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

4,116 customer reviews

Review this product

Customer images

Read reviews that mention

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Buy New

$10.88

Buy Used

$10.00