Between the World and Me

Biography and memoir

Print length: 186 pagesReclam, 2017

Description

In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates addresses his teenage son in a letter about the realities of being Black in the United States. He places racist violence within the country’s history and culture, connecting a national argument to memories of his own youth in Baltimore. Those experiences show how schools, police, and street life can endanger and constrain Black people. Across this personal address, Coates presents white supremacy as a persistent force against which Black Americans must continually struggle, joining a father’s testimony to a broader examination of race, vulnerability, and survival.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Dense · Essayistic · Lyrical · Poetic

Pace

Measured

Tone

Bleak · Earnest · Intimate · Reflective

Structure

Argumentative

Focus

Argument · Ideas · Voice

Emotional intensity

5 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 4 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

IdentityOppressionParenthoodRace and racismSurvivalTrauma

About Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American writer and journalist whose work moves among memoir, political argument, cultural criticism, and historical fiction. He developed a wide readership as a national correspondent for The Atlantic, writing chiefly about Black life, white supremacy, and the stories the United States tells about itself. His characteristic method joins personal witness to historical analysis, bringing national structures into intimate view. The Beautiful Struggle roots that approach in his Baltimore adolescence and family life, while Between the World and Me turns an address to his son into an inquiry into the physical and institutional force of racism. In We Were Eight Years in Power, Coates revisits essays from the Obama presidency through later reflection, joining political diagnosis to an account of his own changing assumptions. His range also includes the historical fiction of Water Dancer and The Message, which combines memoir, travel, criticism, and reflections on craft. Across these forms, Coates repeatedly examines how inherited narratives govern what societies remember, excuse, and permit themselves to see.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Reclam
Language: English
ISBN: 9783150199305

Keep your books and notes in Collected for iPhone.

Apple Books is a service mark of Apple Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.