{"title":"Books by Clint Smith","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780349701196","title":"How the Word Is Passed","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A beautifully readable reminder of how much of our urgent, collective history resounds in places all around us that have been hidden in plain sight.' Afua Hirsch, author of \u003ci\u003eBrit(ish)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks - those that are honest about the past and those that are not - which offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping a nation's collective history, and our own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation-turned-maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, \u003ci\u003eHow the Word Is Passed\u003c\/i\u003e illustrates how some of our most essential stories are hidden in plain view - whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth or entire neighbourhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women and children has been deeply imprinted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow the Word is Passed\u003c\/i\u003e is a landmark book that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of the United States. Chosen as a book of the year by President Barack Obama, \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eEconomist\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e, the\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e and more, fans of \u003ci\u003eBrit(ish) \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eNatives\u003c\/i\u003e will be utterly captivated.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat readers are saying about \u003ci\u003eHow the Word is Passed\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003ci\u003eHow the Word Is Passed\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e frees history, frees humanity to reckon\u003c\/b\u003e honestly with the legacy of slavery. \u003cb\u003eWe need this book\u003c\/b\u003e.' Ibram X. Kendi, Number One \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'An \u003cb\u003eextraordinary contribution\u003c\/b\u003e to the way we understand ourselves.' Julian Lucas, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The detail and depth of the storytelling is \u003cb\u003evivid and visceral\u003c\/b\u003e, making history \u003cb\u003epresent and real\u003c\/b\u003e.' Hope Wabuke, \u003ci\u003eNPR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'This isn't just a work of history, it's an \u003cb\u003eintimate, active exploration\u003c\/b\u003e of how we're still constructing and distorting our history.\" Ron Charles, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'In re-examining neighbourhoods, holidays and quotidian sites, \u003cb\u003eSmith forces us to reconsider what we think we know about American history\u003c\/b\u003e.' \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A history of slavery in this country \u003cb\u003eunlike anything you've read before\u003c\/b\u003e.' \u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A \u003cb\u003ebeautifully written, evocative\u003c\/b\u003e, and timely meditation on the way slavery is commemorated in the United States.' Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43206051365042,"sku":"9780349701196","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349701196_34ad9734-69c4-4a1d-876d-c70d65ea9d32.jpg?v=1786014230"},{"product_id":"above-ground","title":"Above Ground","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling poetry collection from Clint Smith, author of #1 bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner \u003ci\u003eHow the Word Is Passed\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A joyful embrace and legacy of bright language and poignant questions.\" —Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of \u003ci\u003eWorld of Wonders\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Clint Smith’s vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world. There are poems that interrogate the ways our lives are shaped by both personal lineages and historical institutions. There are poems that revel in the wonder of discovering the world anew through the eyes of your children, as they discover it for the first time. There are poems that meditate on what it means to raise a family in a world filled with constant social and political tumult. Above Ground wrestles with how we hold wonder and despair in the same hands, how we carry intimate moments of joy and a collective sense of mourning in the same body. Smith’s lyrical, narrative poems bring the reader on a journey not only through the early years of his children’s lives, but through the changing world in which they are growing up—through the changing world of which we are all a part.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAbove Ground\u003c\/i\u003e is a breathtaking collection that follows Smith's first award-winning book of poetry, Counting Descent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A Best Book of the Year 2023: \u003ci\u003eTIME\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR\u003c\/i\u003e’s Best Books\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNew York Public Library\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eElectric Lit\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Root\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNBC Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMother Jones\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466565198197,"sku":"9780316543033","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780316543033.jpg?v=1785654623"},{"product_id":"just-beneath-the-soil","title":"Just Beneath the Soil","description":"The last voices of World War II reveal buried histories - and the myths that sustain victory.   His great-uncle Lawrence's story lit the taper in Clint Smith's mind - one of many Black Americans who fought valiantly in the war in Europe while being denied the freedoms that they fought to defend. What other stories have been obscured to sustain the mythology of 'the good war'? And at what price?Following his curiosity across continents, to Europe, Asia and Latin America, Smith seeks out the last witnesses of World War II. Sitting with one of the last surviving Navajo code talkers. Bearing witness to the horrors of Nagasaki. Uncovering a complex web of remembrance in Berlin. Hearing the story of Korea's so-called 'comfort women'. As he receives their intimate, profoundly moving testimony, he builds - with great care - a nuanced, delicately formed picture of communities metabolising the crimes committed by or against them, in a war that has shaped us in ways that have been too often and wilfully overlooked.   A vital objective of remembrance, Smith's lyrical, often tender, account also serves as an act of prevention, passing the baton of knowledge and wisdom to future generations.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57499201601909,"sku":"9780349704487","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-clint-smith.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}