It’s a cliché that history is written by the victors, but it also happens to be true. In the case of the history of the United States of America, the predominant narrative has been that of the European-Americans who seized and settled the land, rather than that of the indigenous population they displaced or the African-American population they imported as slaves. This introductory program is as an overview which will allow your students to compare and contrast the European-American and African-American narratives of what happened in the last four centuries. Engaging with both narratives will help them understand how and why history is written and why it matters today.

History of USA: Week

The history of the USA told from European-American and African-American perspectives

Further reading:

UK

Eric Williams, Capitalism And slavery (1944)

David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History Paperback (2017)

Miranda Kauffman, Black Tudors (2017)

Afua Hirsch Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging (2018)

 

USA

Vincent Harding, There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (1993)

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (2015)

Henry Louis Gates Jr, Stony the Road (2019)

Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020)

Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2021)

 

If there are other book recommendations you would like to suggest, please email suggestions to sarah@parallelhistories.org.uk

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