Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us

Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us by Anna Malaika Tubbs 

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Three Mothers comes a groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that exposes how American patriarchy has systematically erased the women of color who helped shape our nation.

In Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us, scholar and activist Anna Malaika Tubbs offers a sweeping, urgent reexamination of U.S. history—one that centers the lives, labor, and legacies of women of color who have been sidelined or completely erased from mainstream narratives. Part cultural reckoning, part historical reclamation, Erased is a powerful answer to the question readers kept asking Tubbs during her Three Mothers book tour: Why don’t we know these stories already?

Drawing on rich archival research, contemporary scholarship, and the intellectual lineage of Black feminist and Indigenous thought leaders like Angela Davis, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Audre Lorde, Tubbs reveals how the dominant forces of white supremacy and patriarchy have intentionally suppressed the foundational contributions of women of color—from politics and science to activism and culture.

Through vivid storytelling and accessible analysis, Tubbs doesn’t just restore the names and narratives of these women—she reframes American history itself. With echoes of Caste, Stamped from the Beginning, and How We Get Free, this book delivers a forceful, story-driven challenge to who gets remembered and why.

Erased is both a critique and a call to action: a clarion reminder that to build a more truthful, inclusive future, we must first correct the record of our past. Tubbs’s work is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how historical erasure shapes our present—and how reclaiming those erased voices can redefine the nation’s future.