We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The results are in! The winner of our poll - and the book we will discuss on February 4, 2026 - is We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. We used STAR Voting again this month, and fourteen members voted in the poll. Of our four book choices, Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America and We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy received the most stars in the scoring round and advanced to the runoff round. In the runoff round, two people ranked the finalists equally, Black AF History received four votes, and We Were Eight Years in Power received eight votes. Thank you to everyone who voted!

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, AND THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE

Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times • USA Today • Time • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Essence • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Week • Kirkus Reviews

“We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”

But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period—and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history. Coates powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his intimate and revealing perspective—the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office, interviewing a president.

We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates’s own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment.

— description from the publisher Random House

“Biting cultural and political analysis from the award-winning journalist . . . [Ta-Nehisi Coates] reflects on race, Barack Obama’s presidency and its jarring aftermath, and his own evolution as a writer in eight stunningly incisive essays. . . . He contextualizes each piece with candid personal revelations, making the volume a melding of memoir and critique. . . . Emotionally charged, deftly crafted, and urgently relevant.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Though the essays are about a particular period, Coates’s themes reflect broader social and political phenomena. It’s this timeless timeliness—reminiscent of the work of George Orwell and James Baldwin—that makes Coates worth reading again and again.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A master class . . . Anyone who wants to know who we are—and where we are now—must sit with [Ta-Nehisi Coates] for a good while. . . . It should inspire us as writers, and as Americans, that he urges us . . . to become better—or at least clearer on why we’re not.”—Kevin Young, The New York Times Book Review

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Available in local libraries:

• Mercer County Library System
• Princeton Library
• Somerset County Library System
• STELLA

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