'America U.S.A': Eddie Glaude Jr. on how race shadow’s the nation’s anniversaries

Here & Now co-host Scott Tong moderates a conversation with educator, author and political commentator Eddie Glaude, Jr., about his new book, “America, U.S.A.: How Race Overshadows the Nation's Anniversaries.” The book examines how racial injustices overshadow all of the nation’s milestones and the whitewashing that occurs repeatedly to bury these truths. Using lessons and accounts from W.E.B. DuBois, John Dos Passos, Herman Melville, Martin Luther King, Jr. and more, Glaude presents examples of our tangled, complicated past and ever more tenuous future.

Copies of the book will be available to purchase from our bookstore partner Brookline Brooksmith. Glaude will sign copies following the conversation.

CitySpace Tickets
Premier: $30.00 (includes reserved seating in the front of the theater)
General: $20.00
BU Faculty/Staff: $15.00 (must present a valid BU ID upon arrival)
Student: $10.00 (must present a valid student ID upon arrival)

Ways To Save
WBUR’s Legacy Circle, Murrow Society, Sustainers and Members save $5.00 on tickets to this event. To apply the discount to your ticket purchase online, you’ll need to enter a promo code. You can get your code by emailing membership@wbur.org.

Registrants may be contacted by CitySpace about this or future events.

About “America U.S.A.”
The New York Times bestselling author of “Begin Again” confronts America’s unfinished story in this blistering reassessment of race, freedom and the myths that bind us.

Celebrated public intellectual Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. presents a groundbreaking analysis of the vicious cycles of American history and the country’s enduring refusal to face its true nature — especially at the moments when national anniversaries steer us back toward the mythology meant to disguise the truth.

“America, U.S.A.,” deliberately formulated and beautifully written, details a heart-wrenching exploration of America’s legacy. It is a magnificently complex combination of lessons and voices — from W.E.B. DuBois and John Dos Passos to Herman Melville and Martin Luther King, Jr. — that, together, paint a sprawling and honest tableau of the United States, its complicated past and ever more tenuous future. Glaude’s is a powerful voice of conscience in our tumultuous world. He pulls no punches, calling on us to interrogate our conceptions of innocence and freedom and the stories we tell ourselves about our past and present.

Centered around the major celebrations of America’s milestone birthdays across 250 years of history, the book offers a riveting look at the battles over who has a stake in writing the American story. Devastatingly candid, profoundly moving, and deeply reflective, “America, U.S.A.” is a shining meditation on how we must reckon with a grim past in order to strive for the better angels of our future.