African American Studies

In this controversial essay collection, award-winning writer Shelby Stelle illuminates the origins of the current conflict in race relations--the increase in anger, mistrust, and even violence between black and whites. With candor and persuasive...

The Greatest Generation meets Bloods in this revealing oral history of the unrecognized contributions of African American veterans.Award-winning journalist Yvonne Latty never bothered to find out the extent of her father's service until it was almost too...

This is the extraordinary first-person account of a young woman's coming of age in Somalia and her struggles against the obligations and strictures of family and society. By the time she is nine, Aman has undergone a ritual circumcision ceremony; at...

"Superb."--Oliver Burkeman A challenge to the tyranny of work and a call to reclaim our lives from its clutches. From the moment we ask children what they want to "be" when they grow up, we exalt the dream job as if it were life's ultimate objective...

An absorbing exploration of Soviet-era family photographs that demonstrates the singular power of the photographic image to command attention, resist closure, and complicate the meaning of the past. A faded image of a family gathered at a festively...

For a half-century or more, black people have labored under the spell of what Jesse Lee Peterson calls the "alchemists." These are the race hustlers, media hacks, politicians, community organizers, and the like who promise to "fundamentally transform"...

WINNER OF SPITBALL MAGAZINE'S 2002 CASEY AWARD FOR BEST BASEBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR "An essential read." -John Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox With a new introduction by celebrated baseball writer Roger Kahn and a new afterword by the author,...

An accessible exploration of a burgeoning new field: the incredible evolution of language The first popular book to recount the exciting, very recent developments in tracing the origins of language, The First Word is at the forefront of a controversial,...

While signs of racial progress are everywhere, the reality is that America is hardly more integrated than it was before the civil rights movement. Beyond the rhetoric of politicians, the media, and the prevalent symbols of integration lies a very...

A 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Wall Street Journal writer exhaustively examines his family's legacy of post-enslavement trauma and resilience, in this riveting memoir--a soulful, shocking, and spellbinding read that blends the raw power of...

The essential biography of the controversial rebel, traitor, and only king of Haiti. Henry Christophe is one of the most richly complex figures in the history of the Americas, and was, in his time, popular and famous the world over: in The First and Last...

A visual journey of Caribbean art profiling more than 60 contemporary Caribbean artists, curated by award winning multidisciplinary artist and textile surface designer, Malene Barnett​. Through powerful interviews with more than 60 artists and...

In the speeches and articles collected in this book, the black activist, organizer, and freedom fighter Stokely Carmichael traces the dramatic changes in his own consciousness and that of black Americans that took place during the evolving movements of...