American history retold with Black Americans at the center, and told like a stand-up set: angry, funny and full of stories school skipped.
Funny, furious and packed with stories you've probably never heard. It's a polemic that paints with a broad brush, and the sourcing is light in places. Four out of five.
Every guide comes as a video and a full written article. Pick the one you need: the review is spoiler-free, the ending explained is not.
A summary of Black AF History by Michael Harriot: Jamestown's real story, how slavery was built, the Africans who were here before 1619, constant resistance, Reconstruction, Black women in the civil rights movement, and the present day.
Is Black AF History worth reading? My honest review of Michael Harriot's funny, furious retelling of American history: the stories, the voice, the family chapters, what doesn't work, and my score.
I fact checked eight of the wildest stories in Michael Harriot's Black AF History: Jamestown cannibalism, the White Lion, Juan Garrido and Esteban, Onesimus and smallpox, Jenny Slew, Haiti's debt, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Charlie Case.
Loved Black AF History by Michael Harriot? Here are six history books to read next, from Stamped from the Beginning to How the Word Is Passed, and how to choose between them.
Is Black AF History by Michael Harriot worth reading? A one-minute, spoiler-free review: the setup, the catch, and my score.
Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America (2023) by Michael Harriot retells American history from the first Africans in the Americas to the present day, mixing family stories, jokes and history, with a mock quiz after every chapter.
Below you’ll find a full summary, an honest review, a fact check of eight of the book’s most surprising stories, and six history books to read next.
Black AF History retells American history from the first Africans in the Americas to the present day, with Black people at the center. It runs sixteen chapters, plus short supplements, food stops with recipes, and a mock quiz after every chapter called Three Little Questions.
Harriot frames it with his own family. His grandparents' middle room full of books, his uncle Junior the human fact checker, and his uncle Rob, who takes over whole chapters to explain things his way.
Today I'm summarizing one of the most talked about history books of the last few years: Black AF History, by Michael Harriot, from twenty twenty three.
Black AF History retells American history from the first Africans in the Americas to the present day, with Black people at the center. It runs sixteen chapters, plus short supplements, food stops with recipes, and a mock quiz after every chapter called Three Little Questions.
Funny, furious and packed with stories you've probably never heard. It's a polemic that paints with a broad brush, and the sourcing is light in places. Four out of five. Read it if: your school history left big gaps; you like kendi or clint smith but want something lighter; you enjoy history told with jokes. Skip it if: you want a neutral textbook; sarcasm about serious subjects isn't for you. Review: Black AF History →
A summary of Black AF History by Michael Harriot: Jamestown's real story, how slavery was built, the Africans who were here before 1619, constant resistance, Reconstruction, Black women in the civil rights movement, and the present day. Summary: Black AF History →
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi, How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith, Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen, The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. Books like it: Black AF History →
Mostly. We checked eight of its most surprising stories: five hold up, one is mostly true, and two are exaggerated or debated. Where Harriot stretches, it's usually words like first or invented, not the facts themselves.
A columnist at TheGrio, known before that for his writing at The Root. He grew up in Hartsville, South Carolina, and his family's stories frame the whole book.
Michael Harriot narrates it himself. It suits the book, because so much of it reads like a stand-up performance.
Sixteen chapters, plus short supplements, food stops with recipes, and a mock quiz after every chapter called Three Little Questions.
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