Name: Doug Belshaw's review of Roots by Alex Haley
Item: Roots
Rating: 5
Author: Doug Belshaw

Alex Haley

Roots

Doug Belshaw

Absolutely incredible, I'd give it 10 stars if I could. Several things about it made it so stellar:

Utterly engrossing. It's completely changed the way I think about American history and society.

Absolutely incredible, I'd give it 10 stars if I could. Several things about it made it so stellar:

The descriptions of places that are so other to my own experience. The crossing that Kunta Kinte endures made me squirm. It was visceral.

The way that the book is written. It covers the period of around a century so moves at pace. One of the days it does that is to talk about what happens, rather than getting inside characters heads.

The ending where Alex Haley brings everything together and relates it to his own experience. The version I read also reprinted an article where Haley explained how it was written.

Utterly engrossing. It's completely changed the way I think about American history and society.

Cheri Fuller

Just fantastic. Incredibly researched and so well written.

haifa

I remember being unable to put down this book from the moment I checked it out from the college library. I tore through its nearly 700 pages in a week. I sneaked it into lectures, read it under the desk, took it to the canteen and left my tea cold, completely ignored the world outside. I don’t think I’ve ever been as affected by a book than this one at the time. The power of the book is not just in the extraordinary stories of the characters, also in the breathtaking writing. 12 years of Haley's genealogical research truly reflects in his storytelling. Be prepared to see the heartwrenching images Kunta Kinte and the generations after him as you read this book.

The Hissing Saint

This one was a gut wrenching yet fascinating journey! One of those books that will haunt you for a long time after you finish reading it!

Jaymie Lemke

I read this when I was 14. What an amazing book. This should be in every school curriculum.

Astha Prakash

One of the most touching and haunting books I've read.

Santosh Singh

Kunta Kinte will remain forever in your memory after you are finished with this book. Undoubtedly one of the most memorable tales of indomitable spirit. Brilliantly written.

A new eight-hour event series based on Roots will be simulcast on the History Channel, Lifetime, and A&E over four consecutive nights beginning Memorial Day, May 30, 2016 "Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of The Gambia, West Africa, a man-child was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte." So begins Roots, one of the most extraordinary and influential books of our time. Through the story of one family—his family—Alex Haley unforgettably brings to life the monumental two-century drama of Kunta Kinte and the six generations who came after him: slaves and freedmen, farmers and blacksmiths, lumber mill workmen and Pullman porters, lawyers and architects...and one author. A national and international phenomenon at the time of its original publication, Roots continues to enthrall readers with its masterful narrative drive and exceptional emotional power, speaking to us all with an undiminished resonance and relevance. "In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage.... Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning no matter what our attainments in life."—Alex Haley With an introduction by Michael Eric Dyson RootsTheBook.com

The Saga of an American Family

Stephanie Midolo

Karin Volarić

Roots by Alex Haley has had a revolutionary impact on American History and on how the American people view themselves. Roots came out as a book in 1976 and then was broadcast as a 8-part TV series that was watched 130 million people. Practically the entire US population turned on their TVs to watch the Roots series every day. Roots has also had a long-lasting effect on the study of genealogy. Thousands of Americas including especially Black Americans have taken up genealogy in an attempt to do what Alex Haley says he did, which was trace back his ancestry to his first African ancestor who was brought from Africa to America on a slave ship. Since then, every flight from the USA to Africa has been filled with African-Americans seeking to repeat what Alex Haley did and find their roots. With the advent of DNA testing starting after 2000, it has become possible to build huge family trees based on a combination of the results of DNA testing and traditional family searching. Over a million Americans have had their DNA tested by at least one of the three primary DNA genealogy testing services. These three services are www.familytreedna.com, www.23andme.com and ancestry.com . Each of these tests are different and more importantly each testing service has a different database of customers. Thus, if a person wants to trace their roots and find their current relatives, they might consider using all three testing services. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States, and considered one of the most important U.S. works of the twentieth century. The novel spent months on The New York Times Best Seller List, including 22 weeks in that list's top spot. The last seven chapters of the novel were later adapted in the form of a second miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations (1979). It stimulated interest in genealogy and appreciation for African-American history.

Doug Belshaw &
Roots by Alex Haley

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