9780062189578
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American Tapestry audiobook

  • By: Rachel L. Swarns
  • Narrator: Claudia Alick
  • Length: 11 hours 59 minutes
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Publish date: June 19, 2012
  • Language: English
  • (235 ratings)
(235 ratings)
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American Tapestry Audiobook Summary

A remarkable history of First Lady Michelle Obama’s mixed ancestry, American Tapestry by Rachel L. Swarns is nothing less than a breathtaking and expansive portrait of America itself. In this extraordinary feat of genealogical research–in the tradition of The Hemmingses of Monticello and Slaves in the Family–author Swarns, a respected Washington-based reporter for the New York Times, tells the fascinating and hitherto untold story of Ms. Obama’s black, white, and multiracial ancestors; a history that the First Lady herself did not know. At once epic, provocative, and inspiring, American Tapestry is more than a true family saga; it is an illuminating mirror in which we may all see ourselves.

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American Tapestry Audiobook Narrator

Claudia Alick is the narrator of American Tapestry audiobook that was written by Rachel L. Swarns

Rachel L. Swarns has been a reporter for the New York Times since 1995, reporting on domestic policy, the presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2008, the First Lady, and the modern American family. She has also worked for the New York Times in Russia, Cuba, and South Africa, where she served as the Johannesburg bureau chief. She lives in Washington, D.C.

About the Author(s) of American Tapestry

Rachel L. Swarns is the author of American Tapestry

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  • Author : Rachel L. Swarns
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American Tapestry Full Details

Narrator Claudia Alick
Length 11 hours 59 minutes
Author Rachel L. Swarns
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date June 19, 2012
ISBN 9780062189578

Additional info

The publisher of the American Tapestry is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062189578.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Leslie

July 21, 2012

Local interest: Michelle Obama's great-great grandfather was biracial, the result of a white father and black slave mother. He settled in Birmingham, Alabama, and helped found two churches. His business in downtown Birmingham was one of the few that had both black and white customers.

Jenny

August 17, 2012

This book humanizes the otherwise often off-putting subject of Black History by bringing alife the life stories of the many otherwise ordinary people who were Michelle Obama's ancestors. I loved the way the author used Mrs. Obama's celebrity and popularity to attract the attention of readers who might otherwise never read a book like this. (For example, Me.) And I was very glad that I had read it because I learned much about life in various different black communities through the past 150 years that I didn't know--even though I earned a grad degree in American History. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the way the author often repeated herself but this is more a problem of poor editing than of bad writing. This book takes on the issue of the Elephant in the Room that is racial mixing and goes deeply into why it is such an undiscussed issue. I'm not black, but I'm a Jewish person with blond hair, and reading this book I was forced to confront the silence in my own family about my Grandfather's blond hair and blue eyes, which given that he was both an orthodox rabbi AND an orphan born in the year after a vicious antisemitic riot in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s probably hid a story very similar to that of Dolphus Shields and other mixed race people discussed in these pages. I'm grateful that we have come to a point where society can finally look honestly at these kinds of painful historical truths.

Charlene

February 16, 2014

According to GoodReads rating, 5 stars stands for amazing, not for perfect, and that is what I give this book that I had a hard time putting down. It is a fascinating story -- lots of research, lots of thinking went into it. It is a popular history by a NY Times reporter who researched the many family lines of Michelle Obama, who met in Chicago in the very early years of the 20th century. I can quibble that I wish the author had told the story of each family, instead of trying to parse them out and confusingly intermingle them but maybe she was trying to save the answer to the most suspenseful questions until the end of the book or the author. And there are no definite answers to many mysteries in this book. I was interested in St. Louis and Chicago, back in the late 1800s, when one of Mrs. Obama's family tried settling in those cities. Her families converged on Chicago from all over the south -- from the rice plantation areas of coastal South Carolina, from the poor farms of north Georgia, one family by the early 1800s in southwestern Virginia, Missouri, and Birmingham. The author tells the stories of the white ancestors, when known, as well as the black ones. Author does make some assumptions based on flimsy records but she qualifies them as "possibilities" or "I believe", they aren't presented as fact. The whole story of what records are available is fascinating in itself. Recommend this book to folks who are interested in history or in stories of ordinary people living through difficult times.

Steven

July 14, 2012

I gave this book four stars for the genealogy content not for how it was presented. The author did a great job pulling together current research on the ancestry of Michelle Obama as well as making her own contribution through interviews and DNA testing. I would have enjoyed the book more if it would have placed more emphasis on facts instead of speculation on why certain events happened. Also, there was a lot of repetition in the book and sometimes it seemed like a series of articles instead of a sequence of chapters. In retrospect, I would have read the chapters in a different order. I would have preferred a chronological order instead of starting with recent generations and then going into the past in later chapters. The first part of the book was very engaging with a lot of facts about the family while the second half became a historical look at slavery with fewer facts about the family. I would have given the book five stars if it would have taken a chapter or two to present the known facts about the family up to the end of the Civil War and then followed each branch down to the present time in the following chapters. Steven

Annika

February 06, 2019

The author uses the stories of Michelle Obama's ancestors to tell the story of the African-American experience in the South and Midwest over the past ~150 years. What I liked about this book was a) the impressive research the author did into Michelle Obama's roots, and b) how she uses that research to provide personal windows into significant epochs of American history. I learned a lot, and it personalized a lot of the hardships African-Americans have faced in a way that is hard to do in a format other than memoir. However, this book is not great literature. I found the text to be fairly dry in a lot of places, and I did not like the non-chronological and non-lineage-specific organization of the book. There is a lot of jumping around, and a lot of unnecessary repetition because of it. And it makes it hard to keep track of the many members of Obama's large extended family. These detracted from what is really a unique and interesting set of stories.

Shelly

February 27, 2017

Truly fascinatingWhat a truly fascinating book. Even if your not a fan of the Obama's, this book tells the story of a family that goes back thru history into the slaves of the south to the First Lady of the United States of America. Anybody who is into family genealogy will love this book. It resonates with every person looking into their past to find out who they are and where they came from. What a wonderfully written book about a 2 families that their stories have been able to be told. It is heartbreaking at times, because of the stigma of slavery is still painful even after all these years. But reading of these people gives love, joy, heartache, sorrow, disbelief and hope for the families that can survive adversity's deal of cards. What a wonderful story. A winner!

Barbara

August 13, 2016

I listened to the audio version of American Tapestry and really enjoyed it. It explored Michelle Obama's genealogical history, which I found fascinating. Some reviewers have mentioned that it was hard to follow at times, but I didn't find that to be true at all. Perhaps it was because I was listening to the audio version. In any event, I found the book both interesting and inspirational. After discovering Family Finder through this book, I decided to have my own DNA tested. I'm hoping to find answers to questions that no one in the family has been able to answer. Like Michelle Obama, I'm prepared for whatever the testing reveals. Definitely a good listen!

Nandi

July 28, 2012

OH! what a book!! To know that a legacy that started due to an act between a white man and his slave woman could produce the FLOTUS!! talk about blown! not to say that this is the only and ultimate story but I can now understand how something that might be bad can turn into something very good.

Amanda

March 13, 2017

The book was phenomenal. It was very informative and profound. It was nice to see the former First Lady's familial roots explored. Swarns did an effective job of exploring history from a universal perspective in terms of significant social events while maintaining personal anecdotes from the family members.

Ginny

November 02, 2012

I thought this was a well-written book and gave me more understanding of the plight and disturbing lives of African-Americans in our country. Of course, I knew that before I started the book, but this did show it more clearly to me. The fact that the people were ancestors of First Lady Michelle Obama made it seem much more personal.

Maggie

June 05, 2013

This was a very enlightening book about the history of Michelle Obama's family. It made her history easy to read and understand, and my heart broke for some of her past family members and their struggles. I wish that Mrs. Obama could have allowed herself to be interviewed for this book, but I can understand why she didn't.

Erin

October 29, 2013

If not for how this book jumped around between time periods and sides of the family I might have given it 5 stars. Other than that I enjoyed learning about Michelle Obama's family history. Her ancestors endured much but she is the shinning example of things they could not have even dreamed were possible.

Bebe (Sarah)

August 26, 2012

Genealogical study of Michelle Obama's family. Fascinating and very detailed. The FIrst Lady did not know much of her family line until it was revealed by genealogists in 2009-2010. Amazing stories. Highly recommended.

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