In the Shadow of Statues

Mitch Landrieu, the New Orleans mayor who removed four Confederate monuments, among them a statue of Robert E. Lee, explains that choice and the history behind it. His May 2017 speech on the decision reached millions. He describes his own path on race and how he made up his mind, and he takes on the wider history of slavery, race and the institutional inequities that persist in America. He also traces his family's place in that history: his father, who served as mayor and in the state legislature, was a major force in integrating New Orleans in the 1960s. Even with a progressive education, Landrieu says, he had to relearn Southern history. The book mixes memoir, history and prescription.

Barack Obama included it in the best of 2018 list he shared on Facebook, and Walter Isaacson endorsed it as both political and personal, a book for everyone in America.