How the Word Is Passed

Summary: Reckoning with history through its landmarks and locations.

It is no surprise to anyone that I like to read history. History gives us insight into our current realities by exposing the forces that shaped our reality. But history is also narrative, the stories that we tell ourselves about how the world came to be. Many historians are incredible writers. Clint Smith's background as a poet is evident. His language is personal, evocative, and at times searing. I am not brand new to Clint Smith; he hosts the YouTube CrashCourse series on Black American History. During a road trip to visit my parents, my wife and I listened to podcasts and a 90-minute discussion between Clint Smith and Brené Brown. When the podcast was over, I immediately purchased the audiobook of How the World is Passed, and we only listened to this audiobook for the rest of the trip.

About 15 years ago, I listened to the audiobook of Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation. With her trademark voice and humor, Vowell traveled through the country to visit sites of political violence. If you have read that book, How The Word is Passed is a more serious similar idea. Clint Smith starts in his hometown of New Orleans and explores monuments' role in understanding the history of slavery. Then he visits Monticello and the Whitney Plantations and explores how plantations handle the story of slavery and the mythology of the plantation. That history of plantations naturally leads to Angola Prison, one of the country's largest and most infamous prisons built on a plantation.

Blandford Cemetery has been a cemetery since 1702 but was significantly expanded after the Civil War battle of Petersburg and is now mostly a Confederate Cemetery. I will expand on this description a bit more because this chapter is a perfect illustration of what Clint Smith is attempting to do with the book. He initially goes on a tour of the cemetery and the church that was on site. Then, referencing the earlier discussions of how plantations told their story, he details the discussion with the tour guide and the cemetery director. During the discussion, he discovers a Confederate Memorial Day commemoration at the cemetery that the Sons of Confederate Veterans put on. Along with the narrative of the visit, Smith recounts the history of the Lost Cause, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans and their roles in shaping education, the memory of the Civil War, and southern identity. Finally, during the discussion of the program and recounting of interviews with participants in the program and attendees, Smith discusses how various forms of white nationalism and confederacy remembrance are often interlinked. All of this gives context and depth but feels natural; a visit leads to another visit, and talking to one person leads to an exploration of the person's ideas.

Most importantly to the impact of the book, Smith is always a character in the story. He talks about how being a Black man on a tour of a Confederate cemetery feels. He talks about the tension between himself and the cemetery director when he sees the Confederate Memorial Day commemoration. She attempted to hide the brochure before he can see it. He talks about bringing a White friend to the Memorial Day program because he assumes that he will be the only Black man there. He talks about the singing of the Dixie and the rhetoric of both sides of the Civil War being honored as heroic impacts him. The tours of plantations or prisons or cemeteries, or later New York slave auction and Gorée Island in Africa, are real things that he participated in. The reader could also attend if we chose. That personal, emotional account, along with (on the audiobook) Smith's melodic resonate narration, draws the reader/listener into the book as more than just dry history.

If you are an audiobook person, this is a book that I would listen to as audio because the poetry of his writing stands out, and the emotion of his voice draws you in. There is a reason that Clint Smith seems to be everywhere right now. This is a book that should be read. But also, this is the type of book that can help change the narrative and seeks to do so.