Cultural Literature

A powerful argument for adopting a model of restorative justice as part of the Innocence Movement--so exonerees, crime victims, and their communities can come together to heal In Rectify, a former Innocence Project director and journalist Lara Bazelon...

Together these two essays mark the philosophic cornerstone of democratic morality and represent a thought-provoking search for the true balance between the rights of the individual and the power of the state. Thoroughly schooled in the principles of the...

A powerful challenge to the way we understand the politics of race and the history of anti-racist struggleWhether class or race is the more important factor in modern politics is a question right at the heart of recent history's most contentious debates...

In her classic memoir, distinguished author, television executive, and activist Marita Golden beautifully recounts an astounding journey to Africa and back. Marita Golden was raised in Washington, D.C., by a mother who was a cleaning woman and a father...

There is no one quite like her. Michelle Obama. This is the first book to tell the astonishing story of a woman whose intellect, verbal flair, and poise are certain to make her one of the most influential First Ladies in history. A woman whose remark,...

On the streets of Brooklyn in the 1970s, Veronica Chambers mastered the whirling helixes of a double-dutch jump rope with the same finesse she brought to her schoolwork, her often troubled family life, and the demands of being overachieving and...

Anyone who wants to understand the United States' racial divisions will learn a lot from reading Kaplan's richly researched account of one of the worst periods in American history and its chilling effects today in our cities, legislative bodies, schools,...

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Jet lag is a momentary condition resulting from the human body and its inner clock being pitched against the time-leaping effects of modern...

WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZEA New York Times Book Review and Atlantic Monthly Editors' ChoiceThomas Jefferson denied that whites and freed blacks could live together in harmony. His cousin, Richard Randolph, not only disagreed, but made it possible for...

Revealing never-before-told stories with the incisive thought and emotion of one who was there. The author does not pull any punches...his story, is one of great bravery, of going to hell and making it back. --Indianapolis StarHis battered face appeared...

From award-winning investigative journalist Kyle Swenson, Good Kids, Bad City is the true story of the longest wrongful imprisonment in the United States to end in exoneration, and a critical social and political history of Cleveland, the city that...

Georgian Portraits chronicles everyday life in the Republic of Georgia in the decade that followed the Rose Revolution of 2003. Recent anthropological developments argue for the use of "afterlives" as an analytical notion through which to understand...

Debating the development of civilization in Egypt and Greece, this collection of essays explores European misconceptions of African history. Featuring contributions from some of the top scholars in African American studies, this book analyzes the...

Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington and his music have been an integral part of the American scene for most of the 20th Century. This interpretive biography offers insights into Ellington's enduring appeal, not only as a composer and piano-playing leader of a...

A revealing and dramatic chronicle of the twelve months leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Martin Luther King, Jr. died in one of the most shocking assassinations the world has known, but little is remembered about the life he...

In 1999, after almost twenty years of symptoms, Montel Williams, a decorated naval officer and Emmy Award-winning talk show host, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He was struck with denial, fear, depression, and anger, and now he's battling back...