new book, speaker news, book release
September 24, 2024

“Maybe the most important history book I’ve ever read”: Brené Brown on Sarah Lewis’s new book

Art and visuals have concealed the truth about race. They can help us uncover it again. In her new book, The Unseen Truth, Harvard prof Sarah Lewis shows us what we need to do to see one another more clearly. An Amazon bestseller, her book is already making waves across the media—Sarah was on Brené Brown’s hit podcast just yesterday. Brené says The Unseen Truth left her speechless, calling it “a brilliant piece of scholarship. Maybe the most important history book I’ve ever read.”

“The Unseen Truth isn’t just a groundbreaking work of visionary scholarship. It’s an earthquake.”
— Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard professor

Her new book, The Unseen Truth (out now!), is a masterpiece of detective work that unveils the hidden history of one of the greatest fictions that we’ve been told about race. It’s been called “an indispensable resource to better see ourselves” (Clint Smith, New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed), and Harvard professor Imani Perry says that Sarah “illuminates what it means to both ‘see’ and create race, deepening our ability to pursue justice.”

In riveting, eye-opening talks, Sarah tells the story of the Caucasian war—the fight for independence in the Caucasus that coincided with the end of the U.S. Civil War—and how it showed that the place from which we derive “Caucasian” for whiteness actually wasn’t white at all. She shows what it will take for us to see through these fictions and rebuild together.

“You’re conditioned to see things that are not true as true because of the organizing force of race,” Sarah tells #1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown on her award-winning podcast Unlocking Us. “We must address this fiction if we’re really to see each other clearly.”

"The Unseen Truth isn’t just a groundbreaking work of visionary scholarship. It’s an earthquake." — Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard professor

Award-winning art historian Sarah Lewis is the bestselling author of The Rise and founder of Vision & Justice, a powerful initiative that reveals the key role visual culture plays in pursuing equity. Her new book, The Unseen Truth (out now!), is a masterpiece of detective work that unveils the hidden history of one of the greatest fictions that we've been told about race. It's been called "an indispensable resource to better see ourselves" (Clint Smith, New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed), and Harvard professor Imani Perry says that Sarah "illuminates what it means to both ‘see’ and create race, deepening our ability to pursue justice." In riveting, eye-opening talks, Sarah tells the story of the Caucasian war—the fight for independence in the Caucasus that coincided with the end of the U.S. Civil War—and how it showed that the place from which we derive “Caucasian” for whiteness actually wasn’t white at all. She shows what it will take for us to see through these fictions and rebuild together. "You're conditioned to see things that are not true as true because of the organizing force of race," Sarah tells #1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown on her award-winning podcast Unlocking Us. "We must address this fiction if we're really to see each other clearly."