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Even though the Adam Hochschild published the review in the New York Times Book Review, I strongly recommend reading his review.

I read most of this in the NY Times magazine format when it first came out. This books expands on that and addresses some of the legit criticisms from the first publication.

Honesty, you should read this. The book is not a straight forward history, more of an argument for rethinking how we look at history and frame the US origin myth. Considering how much some, if not most, US schools leave out, this is an important bit.

Those who take issue with the history presented in this book either are not widely read on American history and/or have not taken an American history class outside of high school. The history here is widely available in other sources, some of which are footnoted/cited. As such, this book is more of an introduction or a push to get more people to think beyond the traditional myth. You may argue with the 1619 date (you could ask, for instance, why not a date from when the Europeans stole the land?) but you cannot deny the outsized impact that Virigina had on the development of the country in the beginning. Just like it should be impossible for the average person to not acknowledge the impact that slavery had and still has on this country.

Look, huge parts of this country have had American history taught to them via text books that were approved by the Daughters of the Confederacy. Think about that before you call this collection of essays propaganda. The history here isn't "new" the point- that it should be more widely known, that the origin frame story should be change is the new bit. And it is about time, really.

Towards the end of the book, in her closing essay, Nikole Hannah-Jones writes, "we must do what is just: we must finally live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded". That's the point. Being willfully blind to the history that includes slavery and racism, doesn't do this. This book provides a framework to dismantle that willful blindness and learn more.