Eugene Robinson’s powerful American history is the story of his family and our nation.

On this episode of Fully Booked, Eugene Robinson joins us to discuss Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America (Simon & Schuster, Feb. 3). Robinson chronicles the triumphs and tribulations of six generations of his American family. As Kirkus writes in a starred review of Freedom Lost, Freedom Won, the author skillfully illuminates a “central truth of African American history: that for every advance toward being seen as truly American, ‘in short order, that full citizenship would be revoked.’”

Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize–winning former columnist and associate editor of the Washington Post, MSNBC political analyst, and author. His prior positions included foreign editor, London correspondent, and South American correspondent. Born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, he graduated from the University of Michigan and worked at the San Francisco Chronicle before joining the Post.

Here’s a bit more from our starred review of Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: “Robinson finds documentation about the lives of his enslaved ancestors, one of whom, though he was ‘sold like a piece of livestock in 1829 and then sold again in 1848,’ managed to buy his freedom before the Civil War. His son, Robinson’s great-grandfather, became a lawyer prominent in the Reconstruction-era Republican Party, only to be sidelined by Jim Crow laws.…Robinson’s own experiences in journalism, dating to the 1960s, are similarly instructive in showing that, as he notes repeatedly, Black people so often need to be twice as good to approach parity with whites. For all that, Robinson writes, his family’s history proves that whiteness does not equate to accomplishment: As he says of those marginalized peoples, ‘Just to make it through the day and face another tomorrow, we have always had to be the most radical and resilient optimists on earth.’”

Robinson and I discuss his motivation and methods for researching and writing the book. We talk about the slow, complex nature of progress, the importance of self-determination, the power of public speaking, and much more.

Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, John McMurtrie, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

The Fall of Iris Henley by Jennifer Graham (Feiwel & Friends)

Houdini’s Library: How Books Created the World’s Greatest Magician by Barb Rosenstock, illus. by Mar Delmar (Knopf)

American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union by Jon Meacham (Random House)

The Shape of Dreams by April Reynolds (Knopf)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

They Could Be Saviors by Diana Colleen

The Privilege of Aging by Kamla K. Kapur

The Prophecy by Kim Sakwa

The Holy Nail by Michael J. Serby

Murder on the Interstellar Express by Gregory D. Little

Fully Booked is produced by Jessica Lockhart and Megan Labrise.