Journalist, Author
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American journalist and author who served as a national correspondent for The Atlantic. His book Between the World and Me, written as a letter to his son, won the National Book Award and became a landmark work on race in America.
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Written as a letter to his teenage son, Coates argues that American history is built on the plunder of Black bodies and that the Dream of white American innocence depends on that plunder remaining invisible. He urges his son to live inside the struggle for freedom while rejecting the consolations of redemption narratives.
The books Ta-Nehisi Coates references, cites, and recommends most frequently.
by Will Durant
The Durants compress five thousand years of civilisation into sharp observations on recurring patterns in politics, morality, and economics. Human nature ensures history rhymes.
by Ernest Becker
Becker argues that the terror of death drives much of human behaviour, from heroism to war. Culture, religion, and self-esteem are elaborate defences against the awareness of our mortality.
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre's landmark lecture argues existence precedes essence - we are condemned to be free, with no fixed human nature to fall back on. A concise entry point to existentialism.
Who Ta-Nehisi draws from, and who draws from Ta-Nehisi — aggregated across every book in this collection. Counts show the number of citation links, not the depth of each one.