A Guide to Ta-Nehisi Coates Books

Ta-Nehisi Coates initially aimed to write a book about writing, inspired by Orwell’s Politics and the English Language but ended up delving into how narratives shape and distort reality. In the first of three essays, he reflects on his trip to Africa, blending modern Dakar with mythic imagery. He then reports on his own book’s banning in Columbia, South Carolina, examining the backlash against historical reckoning and American mythology. Lastly, in Palestine, Coates reveals the dangers of nationalist narratives. This work emphasizes the need to confront the myths that shape our lives and embrace difficult truths.

In We Were Eight Years in Power, Ta-Nehisi Coates reflects on the Reconstruction-era lament of Black politicians as he examines the echoes of history in contemporary America. Following the election of a Black president, Coates discusses the backlash that led to what he calls America’s “first white president.” This collection includes both classic essays, like “Fear of a Black President,” and new pieces that analyze each year of the Obama administration, sharing his journey from an unemployment office in Harlem to interviewing the president in the Oval Office. Coates provides a vital account of modern America and its unresolved racial issues.

Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: A Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. He was also determined to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence — and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack — and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free. Among his seven kids, his main challenges were Ta-Nehisi, spacey and sensitive, and Big Bill, charismatic and ready to face the challenges of the streets. This memoir follows their divergent paths and their father’s steadfast efforts – with help from mothers, teachers, myths and history – to keep them whole in a world bent on their destruction.

Adapted for young adults from the adult memoir, Ta-Nehisi recounts the stories of his father, Paul Coates, a Vietnam vet who’d been part of the Black Panthers and was dedicated to reading and publishing the history of African civilization. When it came to his sons, he was committed to raising proud Black men equipped to deal with a racist society, during a turbulent period in the collapsing city of Baltimore where they lived. Coates details the challenges of dealing with his tough-love father, the influence of his mother, and the dynamics of his extended family, including his brother “Big Bill,” who was on a very different path than Ta-Nehisi. Coates also tells of his struggles at school and with girls making this a relevant story for young adults.

Young Hiram Walker is born into slavery and loses all memory of his mother when she is sold away, but he gains a mysterious power. After a near-drowning experience, Hiram resolves to escape his home in Virginia. His journey takes him through corrupt plantations, guerrilla warfare, and idealistic movements in the North. Amidst the underground struggle between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram remains determined to rescue his family. This dramatic story highlights the violent separations inflicted on generations and the enduring fight for love and connection.

A new era begins for the Black Panther under Ta-Nehisi Coates’s pen. T’Challa is faced with a dramatic upheaval in Wakanda when a superhuman terrorist group calling itself The People sparks a violent uprising. As suicide bombers terrorize the population, T’Challa struggles to unite his citizens, and a familiar villain steps out of the shadows. If Wakanda is to survive, it must adapt – but can its monarch, one in a long line of Black Panthers, survive the necessary change?