We Were Eight Years in Power

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Narrated by: Beresford Bennett

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, read by Beresford Bennett.

From 2008-2016, the leader of the free world was a black man. Obama's presidency reshaped America and transformed the international conversation around politics, race, equality. But it attracted criticism and bred discontent as much as it inspired hope - so much so, that the world now faces an uncertain future under a very different kind of US President.

In this essential new book, peerless journalist and thinker Ta-Nehisi Coates takes stock of the Obama era, speaking authoritatively from political, ideological and cultural perspectives, and drawing a sophisticated and penetrating portrait of America today.

Critic reviews

I've been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates

America's latest literary wunderkind... A prodigious talent

We are witnessing greatness. The man and his writing will be studied and revered for generations

[Coates is] the pre-eminent black public intellectual of his generation

We Were Eight Years in Power is an essential text to understand America today

Ta-Nehisi Coates is probably the only magazine writer in the world whose articles are heralded with the same fervor as the release of the latest Beyonce album

A wake up call... More compelling than almost any other public voice about the state we're in. He eloquently conflates the personal, political and existential, while telling it like it is

Coates eloquently unfurls blunt truths... To have such a voice, in such a moment, is a ray of light

Coates succeeds twice over, in justifying not only his account of one election, but the importance of his entire body of work

Brilliant and troubling... Required reading

Disturbingly informative.

Very interesting read. Informative. Coates makes links from historical reference points and follows up with more recent ones to shoe how cyclic the nature of racism is and has been.