"Written as a letter to the author's teenage son, this is 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? Coates shares with his son - and reader - 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. His 2014 Atlantic cover essay "The Case for Reparations," explored the U.S. history of housing discrimination. Ta-Nehisi Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and is the author of a 2009 memoir, "The Beautiful Struggle," in which tells the story of his childhood in West Baltimore and his relationship with his father, a librarian and ex-Black Panther"--Provided by publisher.

Prologue : the talk -- Part 1. Between the world and me. The changes -- The second change : Malcolm and the body -- The third change : Mecca and the death of mythology -- Part 2. The Sooty Details Of The Scene. The fourth change : New York and the death of mercy -- The fifth change : Gettysburg and the long war -- The sixth change : Chicago and the streets -- Part 3. A Grassy Clearing. The seventh change : eyes open to the world -- The eighth change : the blast -- Epilogue : into the world.