How the Word Is Passed Audiobook By Clint Smith cover art

How the Word Is Passed

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

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How the Word Is Passed

By: Clint Smith
Narrated by: Clint Smith
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About this listen

This compelling #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America—and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives.

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the listener on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.

It 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.

A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's 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 neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.

Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith's debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction

Winner of the Stowe Prize

Winner of 2022 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism

PEN America 2022 John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist

A New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021

A Time 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021

Named a Best Book of 2021 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Economist, Smithsonian, Esquire, Entropy, The Christian Science Monitor, WBEZ's Nerdette Podcast, TeenVogue, GoodReads, SheReads, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Fathom Magazine, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library

One of GQ’s 50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century

Longlisted for the National Book Award Los Angeles Times, Best Nonfiction Gift

One of President Obama's Favorite Books of 2021

©2021 Clint Smith (P)2021 Little, Brown & Company
African American Studies Black & African American Racism & Discrimination United States Thought-Provoking Inspiring Funny Witty
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Critic reviews

"Raises questions that we must all address, without recourse to wishful thinking or the collective ignorance and willful denial that fuels white supremacy.” —Martha Anne Toll, The Washington Post

"The detail and depth of the storytelling is vivid and visceral, making history present and real. Equally commendable is the care and compassion shown to those Smith interviews — whether tour guides or fellow visitors in these many spaces. Due to his care as an interviewer, the responses Smith elicits are resonant and powerful. . . . Smith deftly connects the past, hiding in plain sight, with today's lingering effects.”—Hope Wabuke, NPR

"What [Smith] does, quite successfully, is show that we whitewash our history at our own risk. That history is literally still here, taking up acres of space, memorializing the past, and teaching us how we got to be where we are, and the way we are. Bury it now and it will only come calling later." —USA Today

What listeners say about How the Word Is Passed

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Masterpiece

This book is masterfully written and narrated. Clint Smith touches a part of history that most all of us are connected to but have little to no knowledge of.

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Amazing History

So glad I listened to this book. Clint is a wonderful writer and his use of the written word is like an artist with a paintbrush. I highly recommend anyone who cares about our country’s history with systemic racism and it’s origins to read or listen. Absolutely amazing.

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Brilliant Study

Truly a masterpiece documenting several critical locations in the history of slavery. His personal approach to the study keeps the listener riveted to the horrors that existed.

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“All Slaves Are Free.”

Professor Smith pulls no punches. His grandfather’s grandfather was born into slavery. Slavery, the word is blasphemous!

Professor Clint Smith (Harvard PhD) delivers a fair, tireless, and exhaustive compilation in his research to floodlight the inequities besieged on African Americans.

Mr. Smith’s painstaking account of the vivid truth behind the atrocities born by those whose skin color was nonwhite, who were ransacked and pillaged of their basic necessities: freedom, safety, dignity, sanity, and purpose to live is gut wrenching.

New York and Charleston were two of the most entrenched perpetrator cities to proliferate the absolute subjugation of enslaved human beings, black African Americans. Both Northerners and Southerners
are complicit in the darkness that is called American history.

Professor Smith reveals to readers that the real truth of American history - full of hatred and slavery - has been concealed, contorted, and contrived.

It was Professor Smith’s work that clearly explains the magnitude of the importance of Juneteenth. June 19th, 1865, is the true Independence Day for black families enslaved by white oppressors, “All Slaves Are Free.” The factual details presented by Clint Smith are excruciatingly revealing.

How can mankind be so ruthless, heartless, and without conscious? It’s nauseating to think of the accepted selfishness and in-humane scourge that society wielded on its own sisters and brothers.

Professor Smith articulates injustices brought about against minorities that have marginalized their economic mobility in many ways beyond their control. There has been a public outcry for reparations to be made to those whose lives were stolen and destroyed by a people, a country, that shamelessly and wittingly spilled innocent black blood and profited off their enslavement. There is much owed and to be accountable for.

The shackles are still holding those trying to move forward - back. Now, unfortunately, the new oppressive regime appears to be veiled by academic supremacy, public mandates, big business, and regulatory impassable moats. Tests, exams, licensing requirements that are “all or none specific” continue to roadblock willing workers because of the difficulty in studying and passing comprehensive examinations.

Our way of life has/is changing. Technology is doing much of the analytical work and heavy lifting that enables advisors, technicians, entry-level hires and the like, to make better more informed decisions. Yet, the examinations to get licensing are unabridged and written for lawyer types and academics, thus limiting new entrants who are less paper test oriented from being able to make the grade to enter their preferred work choice. These extra requirements arise after students gave finished high school and/or college. Why aren’t the certifications/licenses issued in the University setting? These tests have become harder and less passable. This all or none approach to taking 10 hour tests must change. Licensing should be incremental. Separating the exams into smaller quaint sections enables mastery, then as workers learn they can take on to the next area of interest adding to their basic licensing or certification. Each employ should only be required to pass one section at a time, not all at once.

Tomorrow’s message of hope and promise must be championed by leadership that embodies inclusion, and opens the doors to all workers by making vocational licensing a probability for “B and C” students, as well.

When I am asked as CEO, what is the most important attribute I look for in hiring someone, my answer is character. A person of morale rectitude can learn on the job. But first, the system needs to allow them to pass the licensing requirement.

Thank you, Dr. Smith for your unparalleled tome.

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Wow

This should be required reading for everyone. The grace Dr. Smith shows toward people he doesn't have to is astounding.
I learned so much.

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This is important

Clint Smith wonderfully illustrates a lived history and puts slavery and continued racism into a personal context.

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Compelling, Enlightening and beautifully written

The Book was amazing and so educational. Essential to understanding American history. Compelling thoughtful masterpiece

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awesome.....

grateful for new knowledge ...appreciate the personal story at the end. Great reading too!

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Thanks to Mr. Smith

Great book. I didn’t know what to expect but after seeing Mr. Smith on CNN I looked him up and download the book. Being a white 63 year old man raised in Ohio I never really felt I was racist but learned so much from listening to this. Should be mandatory in schools thank you Clint Smith

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Reality is Difficult for Everyone

Clint Smith brilliantly uses a handful of contemporary visits to historic sites to tell the. story of slavery. Not chronologically and not in detail but still thoroughly and painfully. This should be required reading for all young adults as they grow to.live in an America so rife with the lingering aftereffects of the institution of slavery. Smith isn't pessimistic but neither is he star gazing. He begins to touch the difficult question of how to be responsible without having been involved.
I will buy a copy for all of my children and adult grandchildren.

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