We Were Eight Years in Power. An American Tragedy

In this essential follow-up to Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehist Coates bears witness to the extraordinary eight-year period in American history which began with the unprecedented election of a black president, Barack Obama, and ended, following a vicious backlash, with the election of the man Coates argues is America's "first white president". We Were Eight Years in Power powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from an intimate and revealing perspective : the point of view of a young writer who begins his journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval office, interviewing a president.
The story of these eight years reaches far beyond presidential politics. It is the story of the new voices, ideas and movements that emerged over this period - and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of America's old and unreconciled history of slavery and white supremacy.

Seamlessly combining history, memoir, argument and reportage, We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital, eloquent and impassioned account of modern America from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment.