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Roots is a novel by Alex Haley. It was published in 1976. Roots describes the life of a young man named Kunta Kinte who is sold into slavery in the United States, then goes on to tell the story of seven generations' worth of his descendants - the last of whom is supposed to be the novel's author. Although the book was a massive success, spending nearly a year on the New York Times bestseller list and spawning an enormously popular TV miniseries in 1977, Roots was the subject of intense controversy. Though originally packaged as non-fiction, it was later determined that Haley misrepresented or fabricated much of his research and that the story was at times directly contradicted by historical evidence. Haley was also accused of plagiarism by Harold Courlander, who claimed that passages in Roots were identical to his 1967 novel, The African. Haley settled the lawsuit for a substantial sum. Nevertheless, Roots still enjoys iconic status and was re-adapted for television in 2016.
