Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Published by Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group

A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present—edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.

The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion disgorges “some 20-and-odd Negroes” onto the shores of Virginia, inaugurating the African presence in what would become the United States. It takes us to the present, when African Americans, descendants of those on the White Lion and a thousand other routes to this country, continue a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles, stunning achievements, and millions of ordinary lives passing through extraordinary history. 

Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith—instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness. 

This is a history that illuminates our past and gives us new ways of thinking about our future, written by the most vital and essential voices of our present. 

Read by a full cast, including:
Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Amir Abdullah, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Kristen Ariza, Dashawn Barnes, Joshua Bennett, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Andre Blake, Torian Brackett, Donte Bonner, Mahogany L. Browne, Ron Butler, Kellie Carter-Jackson, Brianna Collette, Karen Chilton, Sean Crisden, Keith David, Angela Y. Davis, William DeMeritt, Leonard Dozier, Robin Eller, Kevin R. Free, James Fouhey, Alicia Garza, Dion Graham, Danai Gurira, Jerome Harmann-Hardeman, Jamal Henderson, Ethan Herisse, Susan Heyward, Cary Hite, Dominic Hoffman, Sherrilyn Ifill, James Monroe Iglehart, JD Jackson, Zainab Jah, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Sullivan Jones, Peter Francis James, Terrence Kidd, January LaVoy, Adam Lazarre-White, Keylor Leigh, Nicole Lewis, Dennis Logan, Chante McCormick, Desmond Manny, Jesus Martinez, Heather McGhee, Sheryl Mebane, Robin Miles, Karen Murray, Soneela Nankani, Leon Nixon, Soledad O’Brien, Leslie Odom, Jr., Adenrele Ojo, Genesis Oliver, Prentice Onayemi, Tovah Ott, Morgan Parker, Imani Parks, Lisa Renee Pitts, Imani Jade Powers, Rhett Samuel Price, Bill Quinn, Phylicia Rashad, David Sadzin, Joshua David Scarlett, Heather Alicia Simms, Shayna Small, Patricia Smith, Marisha Tapera, Tashi Thomas, Damian Thompson, TL Thompson, Ella Turenne, Bahni Turpin, Anita Welch, Jade Wheeler, Samira Wiley, Zenzi Williams, Mirron Willis, Andia Winslow, Kai Wright, and with co-editors Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9780593343210

Reviews for Four Hundred Souls

[larryerick · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There will be people who are going to be disappointed in how low I rate this book. Perhaps it is justified. This collection of essays and poems has a lot going for it: it covers a lot of ground historically in the black experience in America (400 years), the prose is uniformly well done (I'm not qualified to rate the limited amount of poetry), and it has a variety of approaches to the topic at hand. On the other hand, it is not always faithful to the 5 year chunks of American history that each essay represents, and the depth of focus in each essay is quite variable. Some authors clearly tried to draw out historical context for their assigned time period. Others barely wrote about persons or events for the assigned periods, but waxed philosophically about wide concepts that could have applied to much wider issues and time periods. Ultimately, it reminded me of going to a conference on a particular topic: medical, technological, educational, artistic, etc., where the conference attendees get to choose from a variety of speakers, many of whose lectures or panels do not relate to each other than in the broadest scope of the conference theme. I have read dozens of books now on the black experience in America, and this is like cocktail party hors d'oeuvres. It is not a comprehensive, consistent coverage of 400 years in Black America. Ibram X. Kendi's own book, Stamped From the Beginning, would be a better choice, but even that impressive work really only covers a certain aspect of what Black America has experienced. Will this book provide a starting point to introduce the less informed to an important subject? I think that depends on the person. For every person who finds the kindling in this book to build a fire to read much more extensively, I'm afraid there will be an equal number who will conclude they have read quite enough on the subject and never read much more. To me that would be a pity. There are several important, impressive, worthwhile works out there.

[poprockz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting and informative.

[jmchshannon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Baine is one of those books that is so difficult to describe. On the surface, it is nothing more than a collection of short stories and poems that tell the tale of Black Americans since the first enslaved African was brought to our shores. However, there is nothing superficial about this collection. Some essays provide new-to-me information about certain points in history, but all provide history from a very different point of view than the one commonly taught in history classes. Haunting and yet utterly fascinating, the pain of the last four hundred years permeates every essay and poem. Yet, all of them include a fierce pride at everything they have collectively overcome as well as an unbreakable will that shows how Blacks continue to thrive no matter what white people do to them.

[librolindsay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved the scope of this and how it builds upon itself to bring the reader to the present. One book will never be sufficient to tell such a broad history, but this volume does an admirable job telling significant parts of it. I was particularly excited to listen to the audio for the dozens of people selected to read. The only drawback was inherent to its format--being that it had so many authors, I was drawn to some essays more than others, and in that it felt a little uneven. But overall, it really is a tremendous read and provides fodder for further exploration.

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

At first glance, it's a bit overwhelming. But it is fairly approachable once you start. The "community-written" history covering 400 years of African-American history is a collection of short (3-5 pages) chronological essays describing key events and people well-known and not so much. Not a comprehensive history but it does what I believe it sets out to do: share less-known stories and history and the humanity behind them.

[hccpsk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

With Four Hundred Souls, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain have set the standard for a historical survey of Blacks in America. They have taken the 400 years from 1619 to 2019 and separated them into five-year spans, then bestowed each segment to a writer to do as they please in two to five pages. There are personal essays, biographies, fiction, as well as straight historical writings. Offerings come from Black elites including Nikole Hannah-Jones, Clint Smith, Donna Brazile, Isabel Wilkerson, Angela Davis and so many more. If that’s not enough to entice readers, every 40-year segment is capped with a poem by other renowned writers like Ishamel Reed and Mahogany L. Brown. This is a book to devour or to savor in small doses over and over again--to refer back to throughout a lifetime. I cannot imagine a US History teacher who would not want this on a syllabus as not only a record of history but as a collection of incredible mentor texts for students to see the various ways to examine the past. Not only a must-read but a must-own for everyone.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC of this book.