Alex Haley and the Book that Changed a Nation
(St. Martin’s Press, 2015)
Alex Haley and the Book that Changed a Nation
by
It is difficult to think of two twentieth century books by one author that have had as much influence on American culture when they were published as Alex Haley’s monumental bestsellers, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), and Roots (1976). They changed the way white and black America viewed each other and the country’s history. Alex Haley and the Book that Changed a Nation follows him from his childhood in relative privilege in deeply segregated small town Tennessee to fame and fortune in high powered New York City.
This deeply researched and compelling book by Robert J. Norrell offers the perfect opportunity to revisit Haley’s authorship, his career as one of the first African American star journalists, as well as an especially dramatic time of change in American history.