So nice be with you today to talk about this Exciting Book whose and why a hidden chapter from the 18th century invention race. This came out with harvard in 2022 and i love to get started by asking you about the genesis of this project. How how did this project come about. Well thanks its kind of a long story and a story involves the most important kind of person in the project. And thats Henry Louis Gates jr. Apparently, he reading an earlier book that i wrote called the anatomy of blackness that mentioned this debate or this contest which took place at the Bordeaux Academy of sciences. And ill get back to that second and at the same time, he was already thinking about doing a project this, and he just gave me a phone call out of the blue is an amazing day where he said, listen, im going to do a book and im going to call whos black and why about this contest . That took place at the Bordeaux Academy of sciences in 1741, and we worked on it very closely for two years, and it just came
Talk about this Exciting Book whose and why a hien chapter from the 18th century invention race. This came out with harvard in 2022 and i love to get started by asking you about the genesis of this project. How how did this project come about. Well thanks its kind of a long story and a story involves the most important kind of person in the project. And thats Henry Louis Gates jr. Apparently, he reading an earlier book that i wrote called the anatomy of blackness that mentioned this debate or this contest which took place at the Bordeaux Academy of sciences. And ill get back to that second and at the same time, he was already thinking about doing a project this, and he just gave me a phone call out of the blue is an amazing day where he said, listen, im going to do a book and im going to call whos black and why about this contest . That took place at the Bordeaux Academy of sciences in 1741, and we worked on it very closely for two years, and it just came out in paperback, by the way.