'We were eight years in power' was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America's 'first white president.' But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. The essays also examine the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period -- and the effects of the persistent shadow of our nation's old and unreconciled history. Coates relays the events of the Obama era from his intimate and revealing perspective: the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office, interviewing a president. Some of the pieces first published in The Atlantic, including 'Fear of a Black President,' 'The Case for Reparations,' and 'The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration.' Eight fresh essays revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates's own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by an assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era.