Cultural Literature

"[A] winningly obsessive history of our relationship with underground places" (The Guardian), from sacred caves and derelict subway stations to nuclear bunkers and ancient underground cities--an exploration of the history, science, architecture, and...

Under Pressure is about instigation and design in urban housing. Urban housing is a bellwether for economic, social, and political change. It varies widely in quality, typology, and audience and lies between the formal systems of urban infrastructure and...

Under Five Flags is the true account of Hackchan Rhee's experiences under a variety of governments and political circumstances. Through it all, he's seen that people share not only the finer characteristics of humanity, but the dark undercurrents as well...

In Under Fire, Stephen Bourne tells the whole story of Britain's black community during World War II. On the home front, civilians came under fire from the Blitz in cities such as Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, London, and Manchester. Meanwhile, black...

Why did Greeks in the late 1800s cross a sea, an ocean and a continent, to start new lives in the United States? Why did they eventually migrate to a small dusty town in the desert Southwest? How did Albuquerque become a center of Greek-America in the...

By broadening the racial dialogue, Blackwell, founder of PolicyLink; Kwoh, president of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center; and Pastor, professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC, bring new perspective to this essential American issue.

How can the people of God develop churches in ways that help and don't hurt poor neighborhoods? In urban ministry, Christians too often treat the poor as goodwill projects instead of people. Because of this mindset, many remain unchurched. Healthy,...

Josiah Henson was born into slavery in La Plata, Maryland, and auctioned off as a child to pay his owner's debt. After numerous trials and abuse, he earned the trust of his slaveholder by exhibiting intelligence and skill.Daringly, he

On the ninetieth anniversary of Booker T. Washington's death comes a passionate, provocative dialogue on his complicated legacy, including the complete text of his classic autobiography, Up from Slavery. Booker T. Washington was born a slave in 1858, yet...

In Uncle George and Me, author Bill Sizemore tells the story of his slave-owning Virginia ancestors, their slaves, and those slaves' descendants--a story that lay buried by a century of denial and historical amnesia. Its threads run through the Civil...

Geraldine was born in St. Louis, Missouri; lived briefly in Fayette, Mississippi after her unwed mother became ill; then returned to St. Louis to live with a great aunt and her abusive husband. At age ten, her mother returned and rescued her. Up until...

The edifice of feminist theory stands on the myth of patriarchal oppression. In dispensing with this myth, Stephen Jarosek shows that feminism is a bankrupt ideology that has never been substantiated. He factors in emerging developments in the life and...

When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed nine years ago, Denmark found itself at the center of a global battle about the freedom of speech. The paper's culture editor, Flemming Rose, defended the decision...

"Tyler" No Longer Undiscovered is a remarkable work of genealogical research tracing the Negro Tyler family ancestry back to England as indentured servants in the 1600s. Norman Randolph Ph.D. analyzes historical documents, ship manifests, and census...

2, 4, 6, 8, when you gonna integrate? is a cheer of Plains High School, a desegregated secondary school in a border state. In this fascinating study, a sociologist and a clinical psychologist explore the effects of that desegregation. Theorizing that...

Two-Turntables & a Mixer reunite the UGK posse, revealing untold moments of the platinum, hip-hop traiblazer's personal journey while detailing the history of UGK's beginnings. Daniel Grogan, a.k.a DJ Bird, a prolific sound maker, mixologist, and stage...