We Were Eight Years in Power

We Were Eight Years in Power

Author	Ta-Nehisi Coates
Subject	Race in the United States
Publisher	One World
Publication date	October 3, 2017
Pages	416
ISBN	978-0-399-59056-6

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy is a 2017 collection of essays by Ta-Nehisi Coates originally published in The Atlantic magazine between 2008 and 2016 over the course of the American Barack Obama administration. It includes the titles that launched his career: "The Case for Reparations" and "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration". Each of the essays is introduced with the author's reflections.

Time magazine listed We Were Eight Years in Power as one of its top ten non-fiction books of 2017.

Essays

1. "'This Is How We Lost to the White Man'"
2. "American Girl"
3. "Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?"
4. "The Legacy of Malcolm X"
5. "Fear of a Black President"
6. "The Case for Reparations"
7. "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration"
8. "My President Was Black"

Further reading

• Senior, Jennifer (October 1, 2017). "Through the Lens of the Obama Years, Ta-Nehisi Coates Reckons With Race, Identity and Trump". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
• León, Concepción De (September 29, 2017). "Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Making of a Public Intellectual". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
• Muyumba, Walton (September 29, 2017). "Ta-Nehisi Coates blazes a singular intellectual path in 'We Were Eight Years in Power'". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035.
• Lozada, Carlos (September 27, 2017). "Ta-Nehisi Coates and the fear of a black writer". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
• Green, Lloyd (September 27, 2017). "Ta-Nehisi Coates' new book a bitter lament that deserves to be heard". Fox News. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
• Nelson, Sean (September 7, 2017). "Ta-Nehisi Coates's 'The First White President' Is Required Reading, No Matter How Sick You Are of DFT". The Stranger. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
• "'We Were 8 Years in Power': Ta-Nehisi Coates on Obama, Trump & White Fear of 'Good Negro Government'". Democracy Now!. August 15, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
• Gettell, Oliver (June 12, 2017). "Ta-Nehisi Coates Unveils Cover for Obama-Era Book 'We Were Eight Years in Power'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
• Hassler, Chelsea (October 1, 2017). "We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy". Popsugar. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
• Young, Kevin (November 3, 2017). "Between the Presidency and Him". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.

External links

• Official website
• Presentation by Coates on We Were Eight Years in Power, October 9, 2017, C-SPAN