"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. What were they afraid of? In Tremble for My Country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments...

Son of Vietnam vet and black awareness advocate Paul Coates--a poor man who set out to publish lost classics of black history--Ta- Nehisi drifts toward salvation at Howard University, while his ominous brother Big Bill finds his own rhythm hustling.