Audio only
Length4h 16m
About this audiobook
The popular Washington Post contributing opinion columnist challenges readers to have uncomfortable conversations about race, drawing on the first-person perspectives of the author and Americans from diverse viewpoints and walks of life.
“The United States claims to be a nation founded on an idea,” writes Theodore R. Johnson, “but Americans—even though we nod our heads to that assertion—do not agree on what that idea is, what it should do, or who it is for.” The reality is that America is facing an existential quandary. Its citizens do not share a common vision for a democratic system in action, and even worse, do not share a common vision for what the country should be. We use the same words, but do not speak the same language.
If We Are Brave is a keen-eyed and sobering examination of this rift and how race exposes and challenges traditional conceptions of national identity, national mythology, and American democracy. It is both a cultural exploration and a consideration of the American experiment through the eyes and experiences of Americans of different generations that cuts across race, ethnicity, gender, region, religion, and class. Johnson reveals the subtle ways that racialized conceptions of the American identity and the imperfect culture of democracy have hindered our ability to connect with one another, carefully piecing together first-person accounts ranging from a Rust Belt diner to the back of a police car to a jail cell.
A beautiful but harsh indictment of a nation that aspires to be a more perfect union yet has consistently and painfully fallen short, If We Were Brave is a portrait of a nation at the precipice. It is an eye-opening, essential resource in a pivotal election year which will define America’s future, and a much-needed beacon of truth that sheds a bright light on who we are.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★★ 4.6 (19)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon
GenrePsychology, Biography and Memoir, Politics and Government
Length4 hrs 16 mins
Narrated byTheodore Johnson
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateOct 1, 2024
LanguageEnglish
What to Make of a LifeJim Collins13h 31m4.4 (794)$33 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m4.6 (3.3K)$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m4.6 (1.2K)$26 · $0.00
Saint Joan (Annotated)George Bernard Shaw6h 20m4.6 (1.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m4.6 (543)$29 · $0.00
Woman and the New Race (Annotated)Margaret Sanger6h 30m4.6 (1K)$1.99 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m4.5 (59.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Mis-Education of the NegroCarter Godwin Woodson5h 4m4.5 (29.4K)$1.20 · $0.00
Du Bois: EssaysW.E.B. Du Bois6h 22m4.6 (1.5K)$1 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge5h 59m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Valley of the BirdtailAndrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson10h 1m4.6 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
Lies My Therapist Told MeGreg E. Gifford9h 3m4.6 (503)$29 · $0.00
Disturbed in Their NestsAlephonsion Deng, Judy A. Bernstein11h 22m4.6 (595)$23 · $0.00
No Name in the StreetJames Baldwin5h4.5 (8.5K)$20 · $0.00
Narrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassFrederick Douglass4h 13m4.5 (309.9K)$1.20 · $0.00
Magic SeasonWade Rouse6h 41m4.6 (855)$24 · $0.00
Consent Laid BareChanel Contos7h 11m4.5 (1.7K)$24 · $0.00
The Big RevealSasha Velour6h 15m4.5 (2.1K)$24 · $0.00
EssaysGeorge Orwell26h 38m4.5 (8.4K)$4 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (385)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
Just as I AmCicely Tyson16h 8m4.6 (99K)$33 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
My Bondage and My Freedom (Annotated)Frederick Douglass15h 30m4.6 (2.4K)$2 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m4.6 (4.9K)$26 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
RiggedMollie Hemingway12h 48m4.6 (4.2K)$23 · $0.00
SledgehammerDavid Friedman8h 21m4.7 (589)$26 · $0.00
Citizenship in a Republic (Annotated)Theodore Roosevelt2h 44m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
UnthinkableJamie Raskin15h 8m4.5 (9.3K)$8 · $0.00
My Fourth Time, We DrownedSally Hayden13h 59m4.6 (2.9K)$23 · $0.00
A Revolution of Common SenseScott Jennings9h 29m4.6 (528)$29 · $0.00
Statement From the Dock at the Rivonia TrialNelson Mandela2h 18m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Lessons from the EdgeMarie Yovanovitch17h 11m4.5 (5.9K)$40 · $0.00
To Rescue the American SpiritBret Baier10h 12m4.5 (2.7K)$8 · $0.00
StonewalledSharyl Attkisson15h 19m4.5 (4.3K)$33 · $0.00
The World According to Orwell: 1984 & Animal FarmGeorge Orwell15h 42m4.6 (1.1K)$1 · $0.00
Basic EconomicsThomas Sowell18h 32m4.5 (29.3K)$28 · $0.00
To Rescue the RepublicBret Baier, Catherine Whitney11h 42m4.5 (8.6K)$29 · $0.00
Modern WarriorsPete Hegseth7h 10m4.5 (4.7K)$24 · $0.00
Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (Annotated)Marcus Mosiah Garvey4h 42m4.5 (1.7K)$1.99 · $0.00
A Plague Upon Our HouseScott W. Atlas MD10h 37m4.5 (3.4K)$20 · $0.00
One Bright MoonAndrew Kwong12h 21m4.5 (813)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
Girl Gurl GrrrlKenya Hunt5h 39m4.1 (1.8K)$24 · $0.00
Invisible LaborRachel Somerstein10h 34m4.2 (803)$29 · $0.00
The Subjection of WomenJohn Stuart Mill4h 44m4.2 (17.5K)$0.60 · $0.00
Screaming on the InsideJessica Grose6h 30m3.8 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
A Room of One's OwnVirginia Woolf5h 16m4.3 (335.6K)$2 · $0.00
The MomentBakari Sellers4h 33m4.3 (329)$20 · $0.00
Twenty-Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a FreemanAustin Steward8h 53m4.2 (255)$1 · $0.00
Not a Day CareEverett Piper5h 57m4.1 (788)$20
Your Art Will Save Your LifeBeth Pickens2h 23m4.3 (1.6K)$15 · $0.00
My Bondage and My Freedom (Autobiography)Frederick Douglass15h 46m4.5 (13.1K)$1.99 · $0.00
The Plot to Change AmericaMike Gonzalez9h 2m4.2 (283)$20
ThemNathan McCall11h 41m3.7 (1.4K)$21
There Is Nothing For You HereFiona Hill15h 35m4.3 (7.5K)$33 · $0.00
Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Annotated)Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli12h 50m4.0 (2.9K)$2 · $0.00
Policing the WombMichele Goodwin13h 15m4.5 (481)$23
The Mis-Education of the NegroCarter Godwin Woodson5h 4m4.5 (29.4K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Case for DemocracyNatan Sharansky8h 16m4.1 (7.3K)$17 · $0.00
Read DangerouslyAzar Nafisi8h 29m4.1 (2.8K)$26 · $0.00
The KnowingTanya Talaga15h 7m4.4 (1.5K)$33 · $0.00
American BreakdownJennifer Lunden12h 46m4.1 (284)$33 · $0.00