Cultural Literature

"Cooper paints a meticulous and absorbing portrait of McKay's restless artistic, intellectual, and political odyssey... The definitive biography on McKay."--Choice Although recognized today as one of the genuine pioneers of black literature in this...

The legendary Jim Santella takes you on a wild, decades-long radio rollercoaster ride. From rock 'n roll to R&B, from country to the blues, Santella played it all. Get behind the mic to meet the man, and head backstage with him to meet many of the greats...

Reclaiming their time. Sharing their lives. Speaking their truth.Millennials, the young people who entered adulthood during the first 18 years of the 21st century, have come of age during one of the most dramatic periods in modern human history. The...

Vivian Carroll Jones is an Arkansas native born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to Cortez and Victoria Carroll, the seventh of ten children. She grew up in the south when people of color were treated as second-class citizens. At a very early age Ms. Jones and...

Since its very beginnings, St. Louis has been at the forefront of America's struggle for equality. Many people have contributed to the fight for justice both in and outside of the courtroom by challenging the country to live up to the ideals outlined in...

In the early 1960s, as members of Milwaukee's growing African American population looked beyond their segregated community for better jobs and housing, they faced bitter opposition from the real estate industry and union leadership. In an era marked by...

Students will learn that small actions can make a big difference! This nonfiction book explains why civic duties are important and how to fulfill them. The book includes a glossary and a short fiction piece related to the topic. With examples of heroes...

A sweeping history of American cities and towns, and the utopian aspirations that shaped them, by one of America's leading urban planners and scholars. The first European settlers saw America as a paradise regained. The continent seemed to offer a...

Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Named a Best of Book of the Year by The Economist and Foreign AffairsLos Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist The Dadaab refugee camp is many things: to the charity workers, it's a humanitarian crisis; to the...

A majestic one-hundred-year study of segregation in Los AngelesCity of Segregation documents one hundred years of struggle against the enforced separation of racial groups through property markets, constructions of community, and the growth of...

This new edition of the visionary social history of Los Angeles is "as central to the L.A. canon as anything that . . . Joan Didion wrote in the seventies" (New Yorker) No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los...

An engaging account of the uniquely creative spirit and bustling cultural ecology of contemporary Los Angeles How did Los Angeles start the 20th century as a dusty frontier town and end up a century later as one of the globe's supercities - with...

Forty-two chapters comprise Hillman's writings on the psychology of public affairs: urbanism, environmental aesthetics, citizenship, and politics.

A dramatic narrative account of the life of William Juneboy Outlaw III, whose journey from housing-project youth to ruthless gangland kingpin to change-making community advocate represents a vital next chapter in the ongoing conversation about race and...

Why are cities centers of power? A sociological analysis of urban politics In this brilliant, very original survey of the politics and meanings of urban landscapes, leading sociologist Göran Therborn offers a tour of the world's major capital cities,...