It’s Episode 1 and we are already making a detour from End of the Myth to look at historian Lerone Bennett Jr’s excellent 1970 essay “The Road Not Taken.” We discuss the central role of the slave system to America’s development and the role of contingency in history, of the road not taken.

Read Bennett’s original essay as it appeared in Ebony here or the slightly longer version from The Shaping of Black America here

Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings

Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor

Show art by Carl