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.[1]
Time magazine listed We Were Eight Years in Power as one of its top ten non-fiction books of 2017.[2]
Essays- "'This Is How We Lost to the White Man'"
- "American Girl"
- "Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?"
- "The Legacy of Malcolm X"
- "Fear of a Black President"
- "The Case for Reparations"
- "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration"
- "My President Was Black"
- ^ a b "Rev. of We Were Eight Years in Power". Publishers Weekly. August 14, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
- ^ Howorth, Claire (November 21, 2017). "The Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2017". Time. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
- 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.
- Official website
- Presentation by Coates on We Were Eight Years in Power, October 9, 2017, C-SPAN