Roots - Softcover

Roots by Alex Haley has had a revolutionary impact on American History and on how the American people view themselves. Roots came out as a book in 1976 and then was broadcast as a 8-part TV series that was watched 130 million people. Practically the entire US population turned on their TVs to watch the Roots series every day. Roots has also had a long-lasting effect on the study of genealogy. Thousands of Americas including especially Black Americans have taken up genealogy in an attempt to do what Alex Haley says he did, which was trace back his ancestry to his first African ancestor who was brought from Africa to America on a slave ship. Since then, every flight from the USA to Africa has been filled with African-Americans seeking to repeat what Alex Haley did and find their roots. With the advent of DNA testing starting after 2000, it has become possible to build huge family trees based on a combination of the results of DNA testing and traditional family searching. Over a million Americans have had their DNA tested by at least one of the three primary DNA genealogy testing services. These three services are www.familytreedna.com , www.23andme.com and ancestry.com . Each of these tests are different and more importantly each testing service has a different database of customers. Thus, if a person wants to trace their roots and find their current relatives, they might consider using all three testing services. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States, and considered one of the most important U.S. works of the twentieth century. The novel spent months on The New York Times Best Seller List, including 22 weeks in that list's top spot. The last seven chapters of the novel were later adapted in the form of a second miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations (1979). It stimulated interest in genealogy and appreciation for African-American history.

Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley was born on August 11, 1921 in Ithaca, New York. Nowadays, it is not unusual for a person to be able to trace his ancestry ten generations back. Without DNA testing, Haley was able to trace his ancestry back six generations to a slave named Kunta Kinte who was abducted in Juffure, a village in Gambia, West Africa. Kunta Kinte was brought at the age of sixteen to America on a slave ship named Lord Ligonier. He was brought ashore on September 29, 1767 in Annapolis, Maryland and sold to a Virginia planter, who changed his name to Toby. Alex Haley died on February 10, 1992 in Seattle, Washington. The University of Tennessee Libraries, in Knoxville, Tennessee, maintains a collection of Alex Haley's personal works in its Special Collections Department. The works contain notes, outlines, bibliographies, research, and legal papers documenting Haley's Roots through 1977. Of particular interest are the items showing Harold Courlander's lawsuit against Haley, Doubleday & Company, and various affiliated groups. Haley received a Pulitzer Prize for his book, and the TV series won several major awards. Including weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, the book is considered a publishing and cultural sensation. The state of Tennessee put a historical marker by Haley's childhood home in Henning, noting the influence he had as an author because of Roots. He was buried in the front yard of his childhood home, where a memorial marks the gravesite.