In Search of Our Roots

How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past

By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman

Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Most African Americans, in tracing their family’s past, encounter a series of daunting obstacles. Slavery was a brutally efficient nullifier of identity, willfully denying Black men and women even their names. Here, scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., backed by an elite team of geneticists and researchers, takes 19 extraordinary African Americans on a once unimaginable journey, tracing family sagas through US history and back to Africa.

Those whose recovered pasts collectively form an African American "people’s history" of the United States include celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Don Cheadle, Chris Tucker, Morgan Freeman, Tina Turner, and Quincy Jones; writers such as Maya Angelou and Bliss Broyard; leading thinkers such as Harvard divinity professor Peter Gomes, the Reverend T. D. Jakes, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot; and famous achievers such as Mae Jemison, Tom Joyner, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Linda Johnson Rice.

More than a work of history, In Search of Our Roots is a book of revelatory importance that, for the first time, brings to light the lives of ordinary men and women who, by courageous example, blazed a path for their famous descendants.

©2008 Henry Louis Gates (P)2008 Books on Tape

I recommend this book highly

I expect anyone interested in American history or genealogy would get a lot out of this book.

You need to know

This book filled some huge gaps in my knowledge of history - not that it was that strong to begin with in respect to slavery or African history. I just feel that this is another book where everyone needs to know its contents.

I didn't even know that it was illegal to bring slaves here after 1808 and that most of them arrived by then. I didn't know that some indian tribes bought slaves or that some slaves were indian or that many African Americans today think that they have indian ancestry when they don't. Normally I associate how long you've been in this country with status ie. "His ancestors can be tracked back to the Mayflower". But every family with a former slave ancestor has been in this country far longer than my ancestors. For some reason I don't think that most white people (like me), sometimes even the same ones that criticize immigration, realize that many African Americans are more American then they are.

On the criticism side - I think the book is sometimes misleading. because it makes it sometimes seem that haplotypes define tribe and African ancestry. Haplotypes describe 2 of the subjects' ancestors out of maybe 1000 that long ago. But its nice to have detailed information on 2.

There's a lot of history when it pops up in someone's genealogy but I feel that it would be useful to have a section on the history of the slave trade on its own.

It was also really interesting to know the personal histories of the people who's ancestries are being studied and it made me wonder what my people would say about me some day down the road.

Great for history buffs

A lot of history good and bad, great explanations behind things and events that are not well known today. I love Dr Gates’s compassion, he seems so down to earth and genuine

loved it

I have always loved African American history and have been tracing my family tree off and on for years. this was so amazing and inspiring

Amazing

This book was amazing! I’m usually a reader where I have to have the physical book. With my busy life I decided to use audible. The content was great! Even the narrator was really good at expressing the others words and feelings. I learned so much about those in the book. My biggest surprise was Blythe and her family!

Fascinating stories and lessons for genealogy research

Very interesting to learn about the stories of so many African Americans and their lineage. Helpful as well for learning how to trace African American genealogies.