THE BROKEN HEART OF AMERICA St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States

This intense, detailed audiobook can be a difficult listen. It deals with one of the most pervasive and painful topics in U.S. history and culture--racism. With a measured and earnest delivery, narrator Jamie Renell leads listeners through 250 years of prejudiced and purposefully harmful national and local policy against Native Americans and African-Americans--all related to the city of St. Louis or its environs. The city was the jumping off point for innumerable Indian wars and ethnic cleansings. The 1853 Dred Scott decision that sent freed slaves back to their masters originated in St. Louis. Most recently, in 2014, Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson, illustrating how privilege, money, and violence continue to fuel racial inequality. Heartbreaking, urgent, essential listening. B.P. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2020]