My Favorite Book of 2021: How the Word Was Passed

2021 Reading Journey

My favorite book of 2021 may be my favorite book. Period. Full Stop.

As of this writing, I’m just under my goal for the number of books I want to read this year. It’s 60, but I do include graphic novels and some more extended essays. 

History is my favorite subject, and this year the focus was on African American History. There were two reasons for this.

First, I want to learn more about the experience of people that don’t look like me, are the same gender as me, are attracted to the same type of people like me. In other words, I wanted to learn more about people other than white, cis, hetero males. Most history, until recently, was written by and marketed to people that look like me. 

The other reason is I am teaching an African American History class. The decision for our district came after I started my reading journey. I have never been so excited to teach, and more importantly, learn with my students a subject matter. They teach me as much, if not more, than I teach them.

To be successful in this class – as a middle-aged, white, cis, hetero male – I have to put in the work. I’m nowhere near as knowledgeable as I want to be, but I’m putting in the work.

My Favorite Book of 2021

The book is entitled How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. The book is many things: a history text, a travelogue, investigative journalism, and personal history. 

One resource we have used extensively is Crash Course Black American History Courses led by Clint Smith.

Clint Smith also wrote my favorite book of the year. Or maybe of the last decade, and it’s in the conversation of my favorite book ever. 

When people say history is boring, I want to give them this book. When people say why study history, I want to provide them with this book. When people say how history can influence and change the present and future, I want to give them this book. It is that good. 

One of the reasons for this is that Mr. Smith is not a historian by trade. He is a poet and a journalist with a Ph.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is also a staff writer at The Atlantic, and he grew up in New Orleans. 

In this book, Smith travels to eight places in the US (including local sites such as the Whitney Plantation – which works valiantly to get history right and Angola Prison – which…well.) and one place abroad.

How We Confront the Past: Thomas Jefferson and Monticello

He starts at Monticello, where he encounters people dealing with the duality of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson was a racist (read his Notes on Virginia — he makes it plain as day) and slaveholder. Of course, he was a man of his time, but so was Benjamin Lay. In other words, moral relativism doesn’t apply to Mr. Jefferson. Yet, Mr. Jefferson wrote THE words that are the entire point of America: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

These words are the true American dream, not the house and job. It’s why marginalized people in this country have never given up on this country. The man may not have been a very good person, but his words matter more than he does. 

In this arresting first chapter, Mr. Smith talks to guests coming to grips with what they want to believe about Mr. Jefferson and the actual man he was. Here is where Mr. Smith’s ability as a journalist shines. He gives people space to process their thoughts. 

This is even more evident in a later chapter at a Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting that he attends. He never judges anyone. He lets them speak their truths and asks clarifying questions to ensure he is not misrepresenting them. There would have been a snideness or smugness in a lesser author’s hands in their descriptions. But Mr. Smith is better than that. The author makes sure their humanity shines through everyone he encounters, even if it is someone he disagrees with for obvious reasons. 

Mr. Smith also interviews docents who have to present this information to the public. They have to overcome years of confusing nostalgia and history. We want our heroes, such as the founding fathers, to be gods and not very flawed humans. 

History Books Have a Purpose

I always chuckle when people say history books should be objective. They forget that when they wrote a term paper in school, they wrote a thesis statement. And of course, a thesis statement is an idea or theory put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved. In other words, the author is trying to prove a point of view. As historian David Blight said, never trust a history book that does NOT have a point of view. As Professor Kevin Gannon rights: objective history is impossible. Just picking a subject to write about has subjectiveness to it.

Mr. Smith’s argument here is that the past not only informs the present; it is the present. The legacy of slavery surrounds us. In the south, it is overt. I pass two plantations almost every day. In the north, the effects of the great migration, which resulted from the failure of reconstruction, which resulted from slavery, are omnipresent. 

Mr. Smith reminds us of the second part of the 13th amendment. Of course, this has been eloquently argued in books such as The New Jim Crow and documentaries such as the 13th. Yet, Mr. Smith slams the point across on a visit to Angola State Penitary.

I’ve visited Angola once. I’ve been to the rodeo, had the food, and bought items from the prisoners. However, I was blind to one fact while I was there: it’s on the site of a former plantation.

Angola is 

• a place that imprisoned men, women, and children. 
• a place that witnessed the beating of men, women, and children. 
• a place whose owners separated families by selling them, especially children, committed human trafficking of the worst kind.
• a site that contains graves without headstones or any other marker of their memory. 

Mr. Smith points out that if the world found out that a prison, such as Angola does with African-Americans, imprisoned a disproportionately amount of jews and was built on the site of a place like Auschwitz, we would have it shut down in a minute. But in America, you can attend a rodeo and take a tour that includes a visit to death row and a gift shop. 

The Audiobook is the Audiobook of the Year, Too

I listened to the audiobook version (I have a physical copy, as well). I listened to on trips from PCB to home after Hurricane Ida. Mr. Smith reads it himself. Being a poet, Mr. Smith understands words and the spaces between words. The rhythm of speech allows the words to float around you and give you the freedom to think. 

In most book reviews, here is where I would write a criticism. I wish the book could be longer. Maybe a sequel looking at post-reconstruction south? In other words, I want more. 

In other words, if anyone ever asks me to recommend them a book, it will be How the Word is Passed. Because in this case, it truly needs to be.  

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