What Early Readers are Saying about The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy
Discover more from White Too Long by Robert P. Jones
What Early Readers are Saying about The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy
Today is one month from publication day (September 5th), reserve your copy now.
Dear #WhiteTooLong Readers,
Today is August 5th—one month exactly from the publication of my new book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future. To the those of you who already pre-ordered your copy (and to many of you who ordered multiple copies for friends, family, and fall book clubs), thank you!
As you may be aware, pre-orders strongly influence the early trajectory of new books, so I’m grateful not only for your interest in reading but for your willingness to reserve your copy now. You can pre-order Hidden Roots using the buttons below. (*Two Notes: 1) if you order from the Bookshop button, a portion of the proceeds go to support this newsletter; 2) See bottom of the newsletter for a special newsletter subscription discount when you pre-order the book prior to 09/05.)
I’m also grateful for a dozen readers—all authors and thought leaders I admire—who read an early version of the book and shared their endorsement. So, one month before publication date, I’m sharing those perspectives with #WhiteTooLong readers. I would also appreciate it if you’d be willing to share this update with friends in your networks.
And stay tuned. Next week I’ll post my fall book tour schedule. I already know I’ll be in Harrisburg (PA), Jackson/Oxford/Hattiesburg (MS), Minneapolis (MN), Tulsa (OK), Madison (WI), Nashville (TN), San Antonio (TX), and Syracuse (NY). And we’re lining up more each week. If you’d like to inquire about setting up an event near you, drop me a note at robertpjones.substack@gmail.com.
Advance Praise for Hidden Roots
Jones exposes the role of 15th century Vatican documents called the Doctrine of Discovery that justify slavery and land theft—the hidden roots of white supremacy. His message is deep and profound. If a multi-religious, ethnic, and racial democracy is to be realized, a combined healing needs to address the foundations of the problem.
-Philip P. Arnold, associate professor of religion, Syracuse University; president of the Indigenous Values Initiative; author of The Urgency of Indigenous Values
Robert P. Jones has devoted his work to deepening our understanding how Americans think about religion, justice, and oppression. He has unearthed the roots of white supremacy, bringing to life a history that has been conveniently forgotten. And he urges “creative action” on behalf of the “unrealized possibilities for our nation.” This eloquent and hopeful volume, by turns personal and analytical, calls us to face up to the past to build a more just and democratic future.
-E. J. Dionne Jr., senior fellow, the Brookings Institution; author of Our Divided Political Heart and co-author of 100% Democracy
The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy is timely, if not timeless. Robert P. Jones invites us to journey with him to Mississippi, Minnesota, and Oklahoma, daring to listen, learn, and be transformed by the communities he encounters. Hidden Roots is about the hidden stories of Black and Indigenous peoples who, in navigating the violent legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, have charted a course toward a more just future. In this book we discover that the very stories we hide from are the ones that can bring America closer to becoming the democracy it claims to be.
-The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary; author of Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter
In this elegantly crafted book, Robert P. Jones unearths harrowing and long forgotten stories of the racial violence inscribed on our nation’s past. Yet it is not a book without hope, for only by confronting our collective history can we begin to heal our nation’s wounds. Timely and convicting, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy is an essential read for all Americans invested in forging a more perfect union.
-Kristin Kobes Du Mez, professor of history and gender studies, Calvin University; author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Robert P Jones’s The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future is a blistering, bracing and brave story of how deeply entrenched and widespread white supremacy is in the history and architecture of American society. From its roots to its fruits, he grapples with what this pernicious idea and its perilous practices have meant to our democracy, and what we must do to identify, uproot, and destroy its influence. This book couldn’t be more timely in the courageous effort to close the gap between what we as nation say we are and what we truly have been.
-Michael Eric Dyson, author Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
Robert P. Jones is an extraordinary moral force in this country. The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy is his latest effort to help the nation imagine itself apart from the distorting effects of racism and the violent genocide of Indigenous people at its root. This book is the latest in his own personal journey as a white southerner from Mississippi, and I am thankful that he has shared it with all of us.
-Eddie S. Glaude Jr., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor, Princeton University; author of Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
An essential journey into the origins of America's current identity crisis, told through the voices of people working across lines of race to create a truer vision of our shared history, and our future.
-Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
No white author seems to understand how America got itself into its racial mess more than Robert P. Jones. This breathtakingly broad and painfully specific retelling of the American story is filled with hope. It’s the vision of an America I want to live in and bequeath to my grandchildren. I cannot imagine a more timely or helpful contribution to the project of our common future.
-Gene Robinson, Bishop in The Episcopal Church
In The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy, Robert P. Jones weaves together the unsettling stories of early Americans that are often missing from our national storytelling: indigenous, Black, and colonizer. In doing so, Jones explains who we are and how we came to be, truths that help illuminate where we might go from here.
-Simran Jeet Singh, Director of the Religion and Society Program, The Aspen Institute; author of The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life
Finally, a book that addresses White supremacy as more than a Black/White binary. Jones artfully moves from the colonial devastation, murder, and displacement of American Indians to the degradation and murder of African bodies in America after emancipation. And he demonstrates that this sentiment continues in the subliminal thinking and acting of Americans today.
–Tink Tinker (wazhazhe/Osage Nation), professor emeritus of American Indian cultures and religious traditions, Iliff School of Theology; author of American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty
The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy will be nothing less than transformative in the thoughts, attitudes, and hopefully, actions of many people. It's an essential read in this time of historical re-evaluation. With detailed historical and statistical research, Robert P. Jones relates narratives of the harm caused by white supremacy, but he also reveals how communities are trying to repair the damage through truth-telling. If, as the saying goes, we are the stories we tell ourselves, then this book reminds us of two equally salient truths: stories can misshape us, but better stories can also heal us.
-Jemar Tisby, PhD, Professor of History, Simmons College of Kentucky; author of The Color of Compromise and How to Fight Racism
With brilliant research, rediscovery, and writing, Robert P. Jones once again demonstrates that it is time for "white" Americans to uncover the history we have for so long purposefully and shamefully hidden. As Jesus said, and Jones shows, only truth telling can set us free. The work to which Jones calls us—a struggle for the very soul of the nation—will test our commitments to democracy and our faith.
-Rev. Jim Wallis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice, Georgetown University; author of America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to America
Early External Reviews
Through its linking of narratives typically considered separately, the book provides a revelatory view of U.S. history and its guiding assumptions. A searing, stirring outline of the historical and contemporary significance of white Christian nationalism.
-Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Arresting and deeply researched, this unique account brings to the fore the deep-rooted sense of ‘divine entitlement, of European chosenness’ that has shaped so much of American history. A rigorous and forceful feat of scholarship.
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
LIMITED TIME OFFER: Pre-Order Hidden Roots before 9/5 and Get a Discounted or Free Paid Subscription to #WhiteTooLong
ICYMI, last week I announced a special, limited-time offer to get a discounted or free paid annual subscription to my newsletter before some content goes paid and rates go up on 9/1. Here’s the deal.
PRE-ORDER BOOK OFFER. If you pre-order my new book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future, prior to it’s September 5th publication date, you can get 50% off an annual subscription.
PRE-ORDER 2+ BOOKS OFFER. If you pre-order two or more copies of my book for you plus friends or family members, you’ll get 100% off an annual subscription.
We’ll do this on the honor system. Just send me an email at robertpjones.substack@gmail.com confirming you’ve pre-ordered the book (hardcover, audiobook, or ebook), and I’ll send you a link to receive the discounted subscription.
