Cultural Literature

NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICESAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE RECOMMENDED BOOKWINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE From the acclaimed author of Fordlandia, the story of a remarkable slave rebellion that illuminates America's struggle with slavery and freedom during the...

It is sometimes said that death is the last taboo, but it was not always so. For centuries, religious establishments constructed decorated ossuaries and charnel houses that stand as masterpieces of art created from human bone. These unique structures...

An outbreak of a disease known as the black vomit prevents the English from strengthening their hold in The New World in the eighteenth century, with huge repercussions; the untimely death of an emperor prevents Chinese and Portuguese explorers from...

This book is a culmination of life, in prose, in America as a professional black woman. Unabridged in its recounts of racism, culture, and bigotry in education, society and opportunity. It is a timely reminder of what happens when race relations go...

Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period...

The Emancipation Proclamation is the most important document of arguably the greatest president in U.S. history. Now, Edna Greene Medford, Frank J. Williams, and Harold Holzer -- eminent experts in their fields -- remember, analyze, and interpret the...

The America of the 1980s is often caricatured as a time of yuppie greed and self-absorption. But what was driving that decades rampant pursuit of individual pleasure? What were the cultural forces behind Madonna's "Material Girl" and Oliver Stone's Wall...

A strong, uncompromising voice that dreams of a better America, Judge Bailey has experienced the ugliness of both racism and fear. Yet he has not stepped back. What a wonderful life to share. -- Nikki Giovanni, from her ForewordWhen four black college...

The Edge of Oblivion: The Looming Threat of Socialism in the United StatesBy: Charles K. KellyIn The Edge of Oblivion, author Charles K. Kelly demonstrates the growing threat of socialism in modern America. He provides in-depth details of American...

In The Durhams of Fairfield: An African American Genealogy, Robert L. Uzzel traced his wife Debra's roots to the slaves of the family of Robert Winfield Durham. Evidence indicates that Gobi, the patriarch of the Durham family, along with his wife Mary...

BlurbThe title Drumbeat is rooted in the African culture of using the drum as a voice and a means of communication. Drums are among the most important percussion instruments in African culture, and the sound of the drum, the time it is played, and the...

When my family moved out from Burlington, Vermont, to a dirt road in rural Essex Center, our life immediately began to suffer the series of challenges and small disasters that quickly sort out the clueless city guy from the true Vermonter. This...

There is hope to heal the racial divide. Is the dream of equality Dr. King envisioned still alive today? Can our historic national hurts still be healed? How can we rise above the racial tension threatening the nation? The Dream King is the astonishing...

Art Forum's Best of the Year List A panoramic look at art in America in the second half of the twentieth century, through the eyes of the visionary curator who helped shape it. An innovative, iconoclastic curator of contemporary art, Walter Hopps founded...

FINALIST FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY An engrossing memoir of escaping the First Liberian Civil War and building a life in the United StatesWhen Wayétu Moore turns five years old, her father and grandmother throw her...