The 1619 Project
By Nikole Hannah-Jones
- Genre
- History, Society & Current Affairs
- Publisher
- One World (Penguin Random House)
- Publication year
- 2021
- ISBN
- 9780593230572
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story is an anthology created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine, published by One World in November 2021. Expanding a 2019 magazine issue, it centers slavery in American history. A #1 New York Times bestseller, it won a 2022 NAACP Image Award.
Few works of history have provoked as much argument as The 1619 Project, and few reward direct reading as much. Created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and expanded from a landmark New York Times Magazine issue, this anthology gathers essays, poems and fiction to argue that the arrival of enslaved Africans in 1619 belongs at the center of the American story. Contributors including Matthew Desmond, Bryan Stevenson and Jamelle Bouie trace the legacies of slavery through capitalism, medicine, democracy and music, while creative pieces give the history emotional weight. intendle recommends it as a provocative, ambitious reframing best encountered firsthand rather than through the controversy around it. A #1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the NAACP Image Award, later adapted into a documentary series, it is a genuine cultural landmark. Agree or disagree, it is a book that has changed the national conversation about how America tells its own origin story.