A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America

by Sofia Ali-Khan

A leading advocate for social justice excavates the history of forced migration in the twelve American towns she’s called home, revealing how White supremacy has fundamentally shaped the nation.

“At a time when many would rather ban or bury the truth, Ali-Khan bravely faces it in this bracing and necessary book.”—Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Homeland Elegies

Sofia Ali-Khan’s parents emigrated from Pakistan to America, believing it would be a good country. With a nerdy interest in American folk history and a devotion to the rule of law, Ali-Khan would pursue a career in social justice, serving some of America’s most vulnerable communities. By the time she had children of her own—having lived, worked, and worshipped in twelve different towns across the nation—Ali-Khan felt deeply American, maybe even a little extra American for having seen so much of the country.

But in the wake of 9/11, and on the cusp of the 2016 election, Ali-Khan’s dream of a good life felt under constant threat. As the vitriolic attacks on Islam and Muslims intensified, she wondered if the American dream had ever applied to families like her own, and if she had gravely misunderstood her home.

In A Good Country, Ali-Khan revisits the color lines in each of her twelve towns, unearthing the half-buried histories of forced migration that still shape every state, town, and reservation in America today. From the surprising origins of America’s Chinatowns, the expulsion of Maroon and Seminole people during the conquest of Florida, to Virginia’s stake in breeding humans for sale, Ali-Khan reveals how America’s settler colonial origins have defined the law and landscape to maintain a white America. She braids this historical exploration with her own story, providing an intimate perspective on the modern racialization of American Muslims and why she chose to leave the United States.

Equal parts memoir, history, and current events, A Good Country presents a vital portrait of our nation, its people, and the pathway to a better future.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Race, Social Justice, American History, American

432 pages, Hardcover

First published July 5, 2022

Reviews

[Sarah Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 4th of July weekend, where “independence” feels at best questionable, I treated myself to finishing the inimitable Sofia Ali-Khan’s new book (releasing tomorrow 7/5!), A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America. The books weaves together a highly personal narrative with deep dives into the colonialist and white supremacist history of our nation. Sofia deftly demonstrates how the USA’s history and culture of genocide, racism, patriarchy and xenophobia are deeply woven into our society. Although much of the history is not new to me, Sofia’s use of her own personal journey is call for reflection for each of us on how we interface with the deeply flawed realities of our nation. Sofia’s voice arrives at exactly the right time, and serves as a call to action in these deeply troubled times. By far the best book I have read in a long time!

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I met Sofia Ali-Khan online, in a space devoted to Muslim-Jewish cooperation, long before I read this book. For me, part of what's important about reading it is getting to know her better as a person.

Sofia has done something truly admirable in this book, and up to this point in her life. As the light-skinned child of immigrants who wanted to fit into the U.S., she could have spent all her time and strength trying to make herself acceptable to the majority white population. Instead, in twelve places she lived and at least one other she visited, she asked uncomfortable questions. What's the history of this place? Who used to live here: Native Americans, Black people, Asian Americans? Why is it so white now, or so segregated that you can see the color line running down the middle of a single street?

From Pennsylvania (where we both grew up hearing lovely stories about William Penn and practically nothing about the Native Americans who lived there except the names of their nations--certainly not how Penn and his descendants dispossessed them), to Levittown (where the power of federal, state, and local governments combined with real estate developers' racism and white residents' violence), to Boston (where federally funded highways and "urban renewal" projects put a vise around Chinatown and squeezed it), to Philadelphia (where even a Black mayor participated in the legacy of racist policing that led to the military destruction of the MOVE compound and the intentional slaughter of its residents), and many other geographies besides, Sofia has taken us from the conditions she encountered there back to the history that produced them.

She skillfully links the events of her own life to the places and histories whose stories she tells. Both stories are painful. Sofia shows the confusion, the bewilderment, and the alienation that comes with being treated as an other in the U.S., with different turmoil if you are passing for white or if you cannot, or will not. It was hard for me to read through the book. It took a while. At the same time, the writing is skillful and at some points beautiful.

The title of the book reflects that tension between optimism and a painful reality.

Our country, my home, is exceptionally good--at so radically misrepresenting its own story that it can avoid making amends, doing what's right, and striving for better. It is exceptionally good at manufacturing euphemisms like "manifest destiny," "free enterprise," and "urban renewal" to make some of our greatest failings seem like victories. It is exceptionally good at segregating its people, adjudicating each new group as either civilized or savage, to maintain a White and a Christian national identity. American wastes its great potential in these central pursuits.

Do you hear the love and hope in that last sentence? I do. The book ends with Sofia's recent experience living in Canada, and with what she has learned about how that country and New Zealand have started to face their settler-colonial history and its continuing effects. I hope she will write more about that in her next book.

For now, I recommend this book to everyone, but especially as a companion volume to books like:
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Yes, I'm Hot in This: The Hilarious Truth about Life in a Hijab
Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution
This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving
How the Irish Became White

[Jifu · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

Sofia Ali-Khan’s A Good Country is not only a searing indictment on America’s still unreconciled foundations as a settler-colonial state, but an extremely effective one as well. Using just the twelve specific locations that she personally lived in across the United States, the author is able to very easily tie each and every one into a unique historical case of either systematic destruction, exploitation, or marginalization of a nonwhite segment of the population.

It’s with great skill that Ali-Khan blends together stories of her own life with a diverse collection of injustices, ranging from the near annihilation of any traces of the native Lenape peoples from the Delaware River valley to the purposeful segregation of post-WWII Levittowns. I personally preferred the historical parts of the book much more than the segments detailing her personal past, as she was able to make me newly aware of several horrors that my school education had failed to mention to me, and also provide much deeper background few items that I thought I already knew about, but apparently only understood at the most basic level.

However, whether one is more into memoir or history, there is a great deal to learn and experience from A Good Country. With these current times sharply in mind, this is as strong a recommendation as I can give.

[Janelle C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a cis gender white female. Growing up white, in the white lens, in white america we do not know that we are rarely, if ever, in touch with our actual cultures. Our white American identity becomes our culture. It was not until I opened myself up to hearing Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and POC experiences in this country that I began to understand that we are removed from our own cultures and expect that others remove themselves from theirs to belong. The authors recounting of that struggle for her and her parents, was heartbreaking. This book and the historical lessons and context provided should be mandatory reading. In a time when white america is trying to erase the uncomfortable savagery of our collective history, this book gives you facts and a personal relationship with the author. I appreciate the author being so candid and honest. Reading this book reminds me that shame and guilt are normal feelings when you begin to truly absorb the truth of our country. But that you can not sit in that shame if we are to ever move towards a collective liberation. This books provided you with the reason to fight for that liberation. It is only until we understand the past that we can influence our futures.

[Ellison Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to read an early version of this book and it blew me away. This is an intricate weaving together of personal story and history to create a moving, unflinching look at America.

[Mits · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a bleak book, but one that clearly answers the question “Why do we experience discrimination and racism today?” with “The systems that exist now were founded with displacement, segregation, removal, and extermination of black and brown pro role at their core.” I found Ali-Khan’s arguments compelling and her writing kept me reading, which is unusual for nonfiction for me. Sometimes I felt like her personal narrative, while certainly interesting, didn’t always have a clear parallel to the history she was recounting. This didn’t detract too much, and I liked how it broke up the narrative. I really learned a lot here and particularly appreciated her focus on how people have been displaced in the US.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. I picked up the book because one of the places she covers is where I now live. This book is a great way of looking at white supremacy as a fundamental part of our society. She focuses on 12 places she lived and brings in her personal experience along with the historical perspective.it’s a hard read in the sense it is always hard to read about the terrible things done to people of color in this country. But it is well written and the division by places she lived makes each lesson a manageable amount.

[Staci Greason · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this brilliant memoir, writer and activist Sofia Ali-Khan deftly extends a warm hand of friendship to the reader while also delivering a true history lesson. She tells us what it was like for her, living as a first-generation American Muslim woman in America, and how the white supremacist foundation of each city in which she lived made it impossible to call America her home. It's Howard Zinn made personal and it's good.

Ali-Khan leads us through a happy childhood and into college with her thirst for knowledge to make the world better, a youthful marriage and the sorrow of divorce, wrestling with the painful growing awareness of racism, deepening of her faith, her work as an advocate in underserved communities, until she falls in love again, marries, and has two children. In an effort to understand her experiences in context, Ali-Kahn uncovers the root cause of suffering - America's white supremacist foundation. Finally, she realizes that they cannot live in a country that will not allow her children to live fully as themselves, even if it is their home.

Developing a relationship with the reader while removing the gauzy film of white supremacist revisionist U.S. history from our eyes is a masterful and powerful way to deliver the truth. This interweaving of the microcosm within the macrocosm is crafted storytelling at its finest.

Unless we see what ails us, Ali-Khan wisely counsels, we can never hope to heal and become a good country.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was depressing. What a book to be reading during the 2024 Presidential election. While I was already aware of most of the broader outlines of the discrimination Ali-Khan outlines, I learned more detail, especially about the early government's treatment of Native Americans. I also liked the way she wove her personal narrative in with lessons in history, focusing on a different aspect of America's racism for each place she lived. I will say that I was irritated by her repetitive use of emotional, accusatory language in the history sections: vitriol rarely strengthens an argument but also the facts she was reporting had enough strength on their own. As a half-Canadian, I found it interesting that Canada has treated her so much better. Sometimes I think Canada is too close to really be all that different, but she finds less baked-in racism--plus better healthcare, which was gratifying to hear after years of defending it from anecdotal attacks about wait times from people who have neglected to research whether outcomes are worse (they aren't).

[Trevor Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the introduction to her book, Sofia Ali-Khan says that “this book is my effort to tear the false narrative open, to tell you the story of how American Muslims have become, collectively, America’s most recently racialized out-group, and to explain why my family had to leave.” The thread of this narrative is woven throughout the book, and yet the book also reads as much more than this, both a personal memoir and a historical study of the many times and places where white power structures in America have displaced, marginalized and brutalized minority groups for centuries. And there is a LOT of history to learn here…even if you think you are familiar with with the history of racism and white supremacy in American culture and politics, you will almost certainly still find new information here which will give you much to think about (for example, my conception of William Penn is changed forever!)
But as a personal memoir the book is also very powerful; well-written, at times painfully honest, but universal enough to leave with you much to reflect in terms of how identity is related to, and can be supported or suppressed by, culture and history. This is an IMPORTANT book, which should be read by anyone wanting to understand a little bit more about the wrongs in our society, and what it means to live with and through them.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars. I saw Sofia Ali-Khan at the Burlington ON library two years ago and was so impressed with her talk that I bought the hard copy of 'A Good Country'. It's probably not a bad thing that I've waited that two years to read it, especially given what is now occurring in 'white America'. She melds her experiences of living in 12 towns in the USA (where she was born) providing historical context of how racism has flourished for all times. While many people may be left scratching their heads with how many Americans can present, this book puts any doubts to rest. As a muslim who could 'pass' for white, her reckoning came post 9-11.

Well researched, Sofia puts forward many thoughtful truths to ponder: pg 264 she quotes Desmond Tutu "When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land." How profound is that?

In 1776, when Jefferson was only 33, he drafted the Declaration of Independence, with its iconic prose: " ... all men are created equal ... with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It appears that Jefferson meant white men only as he was personally engaged in the brutalities of slavery. (pgs 258/259)

Pg 230 'Where education is the doorway to achievement, the powerful have insisted that it is theirs, and have worked to keep it exclusively for themselves, spending decades and untold resources to make it traumatic and unpalatable for others to get in and to stay in'

I could site many examples that I highlighted throughout the book. Sofia has since moved to Canada and I believe actually lives in my hometown of Burlington. I for one am happy to have her and her family here. While Canada certainly has its own history and prejudices to deal with, we do consider people as individuals and tend to consider people for who they are, not what they are.

An excellent read - not always easy yet important for these times.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cannot overstate the important of memoirs and history books documenting the Black / Brown / "Other" experience & history of the United States, and honestly of all colonizer states. I'm very happy that this book exists, and that it focuses on the aspect of Whiteness at its core. However, the book is bone dry and doesn't quite read as either a history of the United States or a memoir, and suffers because of that.

You don't need to be told that a lawyer, or someone whose primary writing experience, is a lawyer or an academic. 90% of the time, especially with Non-Fiction, you can tell within the first chapter. The detriment of that is that many times, law and academic papers are supposed to be flavorless, so that the text is objective in its arguments. That doesn't work for books.

While it it written very well, this book would have benefited greatly by being a collection of essays rather than one book confined to narrative. The essay format would have helped reign in some of the sections that felt repetitive or, frankly, too long without being central to what the book is hypothetically about - a memoir. There is no clear anchor for the reader can come back to, and because Ali-Khan is weaving a narrative into what could be a textbook, you have to get through everything just to return to the memoir.

The memoir parts start to really shine in the second half of the book, but a book finding its groove over halfway without overcoming the faults doesn't make for a good read.

[Eliot Abarbanel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading A Good Country by Sofia Ali-Khan. It was very well written, and, despite the difficult subject matter, quite riveting. The author gives a first-hand account of what it is like growing up and living in the U.S. as a Muslim American. This personal perspective is rare and very useful to those of us who have less familiarity with what it is like being a member of a minority group in this country. Needless to say, reading this book was not easy and unfortunately is a sad commentary on the state of justice and equality in the U.S. Ms. Ali-Khan describes many of the experiences of discrimination she and her family underwent and how that made her feel. She also skillfully weaves in the historical background of many of the experiences she relates in the book. It is obvious that a great deal of historical and sociological research went into the writing of this book. This is especially the case in regard to the history of slavery and of Native Americans. She makes clear that much of the narrative we are taught in our schools is not only inaccurate but also deliberately designed to justify and strengthen the position of white America at the expense of minorities and people of color.
This is an excellent and important book which deserves a place at the top of your reading list.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book initially because I'm in a book club with many of Ms. Ali-Khan's former CLS colleagues who admired her. This book is a memoir of her life juxtaposed on the sordid history of the twelve towns she has lived in in America. The history is focused on the non-white people who live there. The stories are devastating and put all together leave me with a great sadness and despair for the soul of America. It's worth a read if you can stand it - but we need to know about the torture of Black Americans, Native Americans, Chinese, Moslems etc etc done by Americans all over the country. About white towns, lynchings etc etc. Many of the stories are familiar but one after the other make for quite a flaming quilt. Ms. Ali-Khan's personal journey is also interesting from starting out as a non-religious college student to becoming more aware of her Moslem heritage and family. Read it and weep but it's an important book.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, a daughter of Pakistani immigrants, writes a memoir combined with history. Because of her upbringing, passion for social justice and education, she has lived in 12 different American communities, including Florida, Arkansas, Boston, Chicago and Arizona among others. For each community, she describes the history of the vulnerable and marginalized race specific to that area. She includes Native Americans, the Chinese population and Black and Brown communities. Whether through forced assimilation, annihilation, deportation or selective breeding, the author shows that not being White and Christian in America can be dangerous to and limits the opportunities and dignity afforded to these peoples. Using this knowledge, the author is a lawyer who now lives in her chosen city, Toronto, Canada with her family.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully written biography of growing up as a light skin-child of Asian immigrants in America. I really enjoyed the histories of the 12 places she has lived in America. I learned a great deal about the dislocation and bigotry toward indigenous people and immigrants. She makes valid and inciteful points about the "founding" of America and the colonial systems that were forced upon people and countries around the world. I'm torn between sad and sorry that she moved her family to Canada. I understand her reasons and concerns for her children, however, change in America is going to be very slow. Without her advocacy and enlightening writing, the pace of change will be much slower. I hope she keeps writing about this important subject.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sofia Ali-Khan has written a masterpiece. She weaves her experiences as a Pakistani Muslim through the places she has lived and chronicles so well her experiences in these backdrops. For those who want to learn about the legacy and impact of racism in the United States, this is your read/listen. The bonus is Ali-Khan's exceptional writing that tells these amazing stories where I feel like I am present in the scene and can really understand what is happening. A must read for everyone. I am hopeful that anyone who develops curriculum for teaching Critical Race Theory gets their hands on this book. Everyone needs to read this!

[Mark Hein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is medicine we desperately need.
But it isn't easy to swallow.
Ali-Khan is an American. A lawyer and artist, she was born in Florida to parents who'd emigrated from Pakistan as it collapsed into ethnic violence and military rule.
She's also a Muslim.
A GOOD COUNTRY chronicles her pilgrimage, first as a college student and then as a wife and mother, in search of a place in America she can safely call home.
Following schools and jobs, she and her family live in a dozen cities and towns all across the United States. Often, it seems they've found it.

young family's

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This book had an incredible amount of depth, and more history than I was expecting. History isn't my typical genre, but the author did an excellent job of weaving the United States' history with her own personal history living in cities across the country. She did an incredible job tying the horrors of the past with those of the present. This should be a must read for all Americans as we reckon with our history and ongoing colonialism. Per the author: "A culture premised on the eradication of its own story is not a culture at all."

[G Jamz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a deeply personal book written about first hand experiences and really deeply researched history. The best thing I can ever say about a book is that it taught me something that I had no clue about and the author absolutely achieved that goal in this book. I’m not sure I agree with her decision to leave America (coming from a similar background), but can completely empathize with her reasons.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The daughter of immigrants, Sofia Ali-Khan, shares her journey in a White-centric America through her experiences in 12 different locations where she resided for various periods of time. Along with her personal journey, she provides a history of each of these places in terms of migrations, both from and to the area. She shares with us the various nuances in the affects of White-supremacy. A great, insightful read.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was privileged to receive an advanced copy. This is a devastatingly beautiful book. Sofia Ali-Khan’s saga of life in 12 American towns perfectly captures the longing of one immigrant family to live in White America. The book is a rare combination of personal narrative tucked inside historical context. Her insights are especially timely today. Read this book! You won’t regret it.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sofia Ali-Khan blends memoir with history to reveal America’s long legacy of racism, color lines, and forced migration. White Americans like me need to learn and acknowledge this history and its ongoing ramifications, and BIPOC Americans will find their experiences contextualized and validated. This book is important, unique, compelling, and beautifully written.

[Hasan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. I loved Sonia Ali-Khan's biography, experience of growing up as a child of immigrants and her life evolving through college all the way to married life. I did not like her weaving through the various stories of American history based on where she was living at any time.

[Dawn Michelle]

With thanks to NetGalley, Sofia Ali-Khan, and Random House Publishing Group/Random House for providing this ARC, it is with deep regret that I will be unable to provide a review for this book at this time. Thank you.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but I think the format is a little weird. It was almost like the author wanted to write a history book but needed an organizing principle. The memoir parts of the book were edited to keep a lot of things vague.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be required reading for everyone in the US. Breaks open the myth of America and details the racist foundation upon which the country was built.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Packs a ton of info./history into the research of US racism and white supremacy in 12 US cities including Chicago, Philly, Boston and touching briefly on Charlottesville & Thomas Jefferson.

[Barbara Wellnitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Americans keep repeating the same behavior of forcing those unlike themselves to become someone else. This book makes you think about the behavior of whites toward people who don't look like them.

[Diane Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.