Match BookThe Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Richard Rothstein
2017 · 368 pages · Narrative nonfiction
How it reads
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America is narrative nonfiction (social history, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in the historical past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are class and society, justice and power and politics. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 368 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something dark
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy, heartwarming or funny
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- narrative nonfiction
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- historical
- Mood / feeling
- dark
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- class and society, justice, power and politics
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black PowerDanielle L. McGuireShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of AmericaSarah KendziorShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for MenCaroline Criado PérezShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Burn It Down!: Feminist Manifestos for the RevolutionBreanne FahsShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing WomenZoe VenditozziShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for BoysErin KimmerleShares: narrative nonfiction, dark mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
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