Ethnic studies / Ethnicity Books

Book SynopsisThis is the inspiring story of a modern American icon, the first comprehensive account of the life and times of Michelle Obama. With disciplined reporting and a storyteller’s eye for revealing detail, Peter Slevin follows Michelle to the White House from her working-class childhood on Chicago’s largely segregated South Side. He illuminates her tribulations at Princeton University and Harvard Law School during the racially charged 1980s and the dilemmas she faced in Chicago while building a high-powered career, raising a family, and helping a young community organizer named Barack Obama become president of the United States. From the lessons she learned in Chicago to the messages she shares as one of the most recognizable women in the world, the story of this First Lady is the story of America. Michelle Obama: A Life is a fresh and compelling view of a woman of unique achievement and purpose.   

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune worth well over $130 million and a business empire spanning communications, real estate, and insurance. Gaston was, by any measure, a heroic figure whose wealth and influence bore comparison to J. P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. Here, for the first time, is the story of the life of this extraordinary pioneer, told by his niece and grandniece, the award-winning television journalist Carol Jenkins and her daughter Elizabeth Gardner Hines.Born at a time when the bitter legacy of slavery and Reconstruction still poisoned the lives of black Americans, Gaston was determined to make a difference for himself and his people. His first job, after serving in the celebrated all-black regiment during World War I, bound him to the near-slavery of an Alabama coal mine—but even here Gaston saw not only hope but opportunity. He launched a business selling lunches

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe astonishing journey of a bright, utterly displaced boy, from the short-lived African nation of Biafra, to Jamaica, to the harshest streets of Los Angeles—a searing memoir that adds fascinating depth to the coming-to-America storyThe first time Chude-Sokei realizes that he is “first son of the first son” of a renowned leader of the bygone African nation is in Uncle Daddy and Big Auntie’s strict religious household in Jamaica, where he lives with other abandoned children. A visiting African has just fallen to his knees to shake him by the shoulders: “Is this the boy? Is this him?”   Chude-Sokei’s immersion in the politics of race and belonging across the landscape of the African diaspora takes a turn when his traumatized mother, who has her own extraordinary history as the onetime “Jackie O of Biafra,” finally sends for him to come live with her. In Inglewood, Los Angeles, on the eve o

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe success of John Henrik Clarke''s American Negro Short Stories, first published in 1966, affirmed the vitality and importance of black fiction. Now this expanded edition of that best-selling book, with a new title, offers the reader thirty-one stories included in the originalfrom Charles W. Chesnutt and Paul Laurence Dunbar in the late nineteenth century to the rich and productive work of the Harlem Renaissance: writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright; the World War II accomplishments of Chester Himes, Frank Yerby, and many others; and the later fiction of James Baldwin, Paule Marshall, and LeRoi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka). Seven additional contributions round out a century of great stories with the work of Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Eugenia Collier, Jennifer Jordan, James Allan McPherson, Rosemarie Robotham, and Alice Walker. Dr. Clarke has included a new introduction to this 1993 edition, and a short biography of each contributor.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA finalist for the National Book Award in NonfictionA finalist for the National Book Critics'' Circle Award in NonfictionNamed a Best Book of 2023 by The New York Times, NPR, New York Magazine, Kirkus, and Barnes and NobleCritically acclaimed author of In the Wake, Christina Sharpe is a brilliant thinker who attends unflinchingly to the brutality of our current arrangements . . . and yet always finds a way to beauty and possibility (Saidiya Hartman).A singular achievement, Ordinary Notes explores profound questions about loss and the shapes of Black life that emerge in the wake. In a series of 248 notes that gather meaning as we read them, Christina Sharpe skillfully weaves artifacts from the pastpublic ones alongside others that are poignantly personaltogether with present realities and possible futures, intricately constructing an immersive portrait of everyday Black existence. The th

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The Heart of a Woman Maya Angelou leaves California with her son, Guy, to go to New York. There she enters the society and world of black artists and writers. Not since her childhood has she lived in an almost black environment, and she is surprised at the obsession her new friends have with the white world around them. She stays for a while with John and Grace Killens and begins to read her writing at the Harlem Writers Guild. She continues to sing, most notably at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, but more and more she begins to take part in the struggle of black Americans for their rightful place in the world. She helps organize a benefit cabaret for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and then is appointed Martin Luther Kings Northern Coordinator.Shortly after that, through her friend Abbey Lincoln, she takes one of the lead parts in Genet's The Blacks (it was a remarkable cast, including Godfrey Cambridge, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Raymond

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisCandid, poignant, provocative, and informative, the essays and stories in Skin Deep explore a wide spectrum of racial issues between black and white women, from self-identity and competition to childrearing and friendship. Eudora Welty contributes a bittersweet story of a one-hundred-year-old black woman whose spirit is as determined and strong as anything in nature. Bestselling author Naomi Wolf recalls her first exposure to racism growing up, examining the subtle forms it can take even among well-meaning people; bell hooks writes about the intersection between black women and feminist politics; and Joyce Carol Oates includes a one-act play in which racial stereotypes are reversed. Among the other writers featured in the collection are Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Susan Straight, Mary Morris, and Beverly Lowry. A groundbreaking anthology that reveals surprising insights and hidden truths to a subject too often clouded by misperceptions and easy assumptions,  Skin Deep is a major contribution to understanding our culture.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world—an incandescent debut from an astonishing new talent • A TODAY SHOW #READWITHJENNA PICK In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian’s parents were professors; in America, her family is “illegal” and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive.In Chinatown, Qian’s parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to t

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work Finalist for the PEN America/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography The definitive biography of the groundbreaking African American author who had an extraordinary legacy on black writers globally.Trade Review"A riveting, one-of-a-kind tale of a writer who saw the subject of race from odd, revealing angles." -- Clifford Thompson - Wall Street Journal"Chester B. Himes is a bracing journey through the life of an uncompromising writer." -- Michael P. Jeffries - New York Times Book Review"Fascinating…Jackson [is] a fluid writer." -- Thomas Chatterton Williams - Harper's Magazine"Makes a convincing case for a writer who's always been something of a tough sell…Jackson memorably characterizes Himes' great gifts as a writer." -- Maureen Corrigan - NPR"Jackson’s book—big, intelligent and unflinching—is what literary biography looks like when it’s done right." -- Kevin Canfield - San Francisco Chronicle"Comprehensive." -- Alex Belth - Esquire"Dr. Jackson has presented a much needed view of an important Harlem writer. I had the pleasure of knowing Chester and most of the folk he knew. He was fun. He was good looking. And he was a wonderful story teller. Chester struggled, as most writers do, with being himself. But when he opened the special door to ‘Chester,’ we all could peep inside to a special genius. He was old and I quite young when we met. He had a flashlight to let me see the way down what could have been a dark road. Chester Himes is to writing what Miles Davis is to the trumpet, what John Coltrane is to the saxophone, what lips are to love. I am so glad this research has been completed. Chester deserves this sun to cast his shadow over the library that is the hope of black Americans." -- Nikki Giovanni

Read more less

Book SynopsisA creative writing group unites and inspires girls of the first South African generation “born free.”Trade Review"Wise, observant, compassionate, and free of sanctimony, Burge does a lovely job of skillfully—and respectfully—weaving the girls’ narratives into the larger story of a radically changing society still burdened by the wounds of an oppressive system. The Born Frees would be my pick for a book to give young women and girls (and the males in their lives) to inspire them to activism and hope." -- Julia Alvarez, author of In the Time of the Butterflies and A Wedding in Haiti"In this compelling and personal book, Kimberly Burge takes us deep inside the hearts and minds of a group of extraordinary young women whose struggles and courage epitomize what South Africa is like today." -- Jim Wallis, New York Times bestselling author of The (Un)Common Good and president of Sojourners"Readers will take the stories in The Born Frees with them forever. It is especially important for young people to know about and discuss, to build a wider world awareness and ignite passionate exploration of what matters." -- Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes"Such a warm book, full of brave young women you will never forget. My heart was deeply moved by their perception of their own condition, and that of the country at large." -- Amana Fontanella-Khan, author of Pink Sari Revolution"Incredible and inspiring, this account belongs in every library and on every bookshelf." -- Library Journal, Starred review"Deftly combining memoir and sociology, journalist Burge describes her experience teaching creative writing to adolescent girls in the South African township of Gugulethu, near Cape Town, in 2010…. Through [these] stories, readers will understand what life is like for many young women in South Africa…. This is a troubling but inspiring read." -- Publishers Weekly"[S]earing, close-up personal stories of teenage girls in a writing club…. [T]he individual profiles are rooted in harsh daily lives that spell out the heartbreak and the hope of what some have called a discarded generation…will make a strong connection with YA readers." -- Booklist"An affecting portrait of post-apartheid South Africa, particularly useful for writing instructors serving at-risk constituencies." -- Kirkus Reviews

Read more less

Book Synopsis"One of those rare books that quickly became the standard work in its field." —Anne Firor Scott, Duke UniversityTrade Review"Told with human sympathy and professional skill…Ar'n't I a Woman? moves well beyond mere revisionism; it is as important as it is overdue." -- James Oakes, author of Freedom National"This small but important book should be read by everyone interested in the subjects of freedom and equality. Which means most of us." -- Kirkus Reviews

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe definitive history of the epic struggle for economic justice that became Martin Luther King Jr.'s last crusade.Trade Review"...brilliant in the way it delineates the economic benefits to Southern society of American apartheid... it is also stirring in portraying the strike leaders, ordinary workers who risked everything to establish their basic rights in the face of arrogant and condescending power." Michael Carlson, The Spectator"

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis stunning work illuminates today’s black experience through the voices of our most transformative and powerful African American poets.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA meditation on race and identity from one of our most provocative cultural critics.Trade Review"[Williams] is so honest and fresh in his observations, so skillful at blending his own story with larger principles, that it is hard not to admire him. At a time of increasing division, his philosophizing evinces an underlying generosity. He reaches both ways across the aisle of racism, arguing above all for reciprocity, and in doing so begins to theorize the temperate peace of which all humanity is sorely in need." -- Andrew Solomon - New York Times Book Review (cover)"An elegant and sharp-eyed writer....In a publishing environment where analyses of race tend to call out white fragilities and catalogue historical injustices, Self-Portrait in Black and White is a counterintuitive, courageous addition." -- Carlos Lozada - Washington Post"A fluent, captivating, if often disquieting story....We witness Williams on a journey of both self-discovery and self-creation, and his memoir is most valuable as a way deeper into, as opposed to a way out of, race talk." -- Emily Bernard - Harper's"Thomas Chatterton Williams has the essential things a writer needs—command of language, complexity and depth of thought, and, maybe above all, courage. In Self-Portrait in Black and White he sticks his neck way out in pursuit of unfashionable, necessary truths. This book brings a blast of fresh air that will change your thinking about race in America." -- George Packer, author of Our Man and The Unwinding"A gorgeously written and deeply knowledgeable account of fatherhood, identity, and race. Tender and probing, respectful of intellectual disagreement and of the raw emotions these subjects can stir, it nevertheless proceeds fearlessly and rigorously toward his own original and challenging conclusions. This is a book that will surely provoke, inform, and move readers, regardless of where they stand on the political and philosophical divide." -- Phil Klay, author of Redeployment"An elegantly rendered and trenchantly critical reflection on ‘race’ and identity—one that is perfectly suited to our time. This is a subtle, unsettling, and brave book. Using his own journey through life as point of departure, Thomas Chatterton Williams launches a major assault on the conventional wisdom about racial categorization in America. Not only does he envision a New World; he dares to point the way toward how we all might yet arrive on those uncharted shores." -- Glenn Loury, professor of economics and faculty fellow, Watson Institute, Brown University"A brave and powerful book that I could not put down. At a time when white supremacy is resurgent in many countries, should we fight it by insisting on the equality of the races or the elimination of race as a social and biological category? It is a question that needs to be asked and a debate that needs to be had." -- Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America"How does anyone confront a history that demands what they believe about themselves is different from what’s required to love their children? The answer, and path to it, is complicated. But here is a son embodying the lessons of a father. Some will walk away from this believing that black, like white, is a social construct that needs to be abandoned—but all will walk way knowing that a father’s love cannot be quantified by anything as whimsical as skin complexion." -- Reginald Dwayne Betts, author of Felon and A Question of Freedom"This small book poses a very large question: how to become a self? Williams uses his own story to remind us that inner freedom depends on escaping the insidious categories of history and the suffocating clichés of the present. It is a stirring call to genuine liberation." -- Mark Lilla, author of The Once and Future Liberal"In fifty years, smart students will be writing senior theses seeking to understand why anyone in the early 21st century found anything in Self-Portrait in Black and White at all controversial. For now, curl up with this book to join a conversation on race about progress rather than piety, thought rather than therapy." -- John McWhorter, author of The Creole Debate

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Ypi is a beautiful writer and a serious political thinker, and in just a couple hundred readable pages, she takes turns between being bitingly, if darkly, funny (she skewers Stalinism and the World Bank with equal deadpan) and truly profound...Free is meant to inspire." -- Max Strasser - New York Times"A young life unfolding amid great historical change: ideology, war, loss, uncertainty. This is history brought memorably and powerfully to life." -- Tara Westover, author of Educated"Free is astonishing. Lea Ypi has a natural gift for storytelling. It brims with life, warmth, and texture, as well as her keen intelligence. A gripping, often hilarious, poignant, psychologically acute masterpiece, and the best book I’ve read so far this year." -- Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road"Illuminating and subversive, Free asks us to consider what happens to our ideals when they come into contact with imperfect places and people, and what can be salvaged from the wreckage of the past." -- Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran"Written by an intellectual with storytelling gifts, Free makes life on the ground in modern-day Albania vivid and immediate." -- Vivian Gornick, author of The Odd Woman and the City"A new classic that bursts out of the global silence of Albania to tell us human truths about the politics of the past hundred years… revelation after revelation—both familial and national—as if written by a master novelist. As if it were, say, a novella by Tolstoy. That this very serious book is so much fun to read is a compliment to its graceful, witty, honest writer. A literary triumph." -- Amy Wilentz, author of Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti"Lea Ypi is a pathbreaking philosopher who is also becoming one of the most important public thinkers of our time.… This extraordinary book is both personally moving and politically revolutionary. If we take its lessons to heart, it can help to set us free." -- Martin Hägglund, author of This Life"Free is one of those very rare books that shows how history shapes people’s lives and their politics. Lea Ypi is such a brilliant, powerful writer that her story becomes your story." -- Ivan Krastev, coauthor of The Light That Failed"Written by one of Europe’s foremost left-wing thinkers, this is an unmissable book for anyone engaged in the politics of resistance." -- Paul Mason, author of Postcapitalism"This extraordinary coming-of-age story is like an Albanian Educated, but it is so much more than that." -- David Runciman, author of How Democracy Ends"A lyrical memoir, of deep and affecting power, of the sweet smell of humanity mingled with flesh, blood, and hope." -- Philippe Sands, author of The Ratline"Ypi’s beguiling memoir of innocence and experience in Albania’s communist era and its aftermath is told through intimate stories of a taken-for-granted life devolving into uncertainty. It serves as a profound primer on how to live when old verities turn to dust." -- Washington Post Best Books of 2022"Utterly engrossing . . . Ypi's memoir is brilliantly observed, politically nuanced and - best of all - funny." -- Stuart Jeffries - Guardian"A uniquely engaging and illuminating account of a young life during a period of intense turmoil... Free offers gem after gem of the bizarre reality that Hoxhaism produced.....Detailing the absurdities of Hoxha’s regime from a child’s perspective, Ypi pulls off the remarkable feat of emphasizing their cruelty with a light and often humorous touch... Free concludes with important lessons about sustaining the ability to ‘reflect, apologize and learn,’ given that ‘people never make history under circumstances they choose.’" -- Misha Glenny - Times Literary Supplement"Precious little was known about life in communist Albania under Enver Hoxha. That strange world and its legacy is now stunningly brought to life in Lea Ypi’s Free. From protective doublespeak round the kitchen table to the uncertain, and unfulfilled promises of post-communism, Ypi offers a moving and compelling memoir of growing up in turbulent times, as well as a frank questioning of what it really means to be 'free.'" -- Frederick Studeman - Financial Times"Free is much more than a historical account of a country we know or care little about, except as a punchline for jokes about poverty and atavism. Just as Ypi and her family watched empires crumble, taking whole realities with them, we too are living in catastrophic times, with the geopolitical certainties that have sheltered us for the past century, for better or worse – the US, UK and more recently, the EU – all in various stages of collapse or decay. This, Ypi warns us, is how it will feel when the levee breaks." -- Ed O'Loughlin - Irish Times"Lea Ypi's Free is the first book since Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend that I have pressed on family, friends and colleagues, insisting they read it. . . a truly riveting memoir and a profound meditation on what it means to be free." -- Ruth Scurr - Spectator"Ypi's deliciously smart memoir of her Albanian girlhood at the end of the Cold War is a brilliant disquisition on the meanings of freedom - its lures, false hopes, disappointments and possibilities - in our time." -- Lyndsey Stonebridge - New Statesman"Essential reading. Lea Ypi's gorgeously written text - part memoir, part bildungsroman - tells a very personal story of socialism and postsocialism. Poignant and timely." -- Kristen Ghodsee - Jacobin"An astonishing and deeply resonant memoir about growing up in the last days of the last Stalinist outpost of the 20th century. . . What makes it so unforgettable is that we see this world, one about which we know so little, through the eyes of a child... It is more fundamentally about humanity, and about the confusions and wonders of childhood. Ypi weaves magic in this book: I was entranced from beginning to end." -- Laura Hackett - Sunday Times"Riveting. . .A wonderfully funny and poignant portrait of a small nation in a state of collapse. . . gloriously readable. . .One of the nonfiction titles of the year, it is destined for literary accolades and popular success" -- Luke Harding - Observer"The author’s narrative voice is stunning, expertly balancing humor, pathos, and deep affection for the characters and places that defined her past. She is adept at immersing readers in her childhood experiences of unquestioned loyalty to “The Party” while also maintaining a tongue-in-cheek, critical distance from what she now recognizes as a tyrannical regime." -- Kirkus Reviews

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A work by turns shocking, moving, and though-provoking. It merits the attention of anyone interested in the historical roots of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and, more recently, Black Lives Matter.... By Hands Now Known is one of those rare books that forces us to consider in new ways the nature of our politics and society and the enduring legacy of our troubled past." -- Eric Foner - New York Review of Books"Devastating.... [A] remarkable book." -- Dave Davies - Fresh Air, NPR"[Shows] the ‘chronic, unpredictable violence’ that shaped daily life in the South.... Recounting such stories is part of the important work that this book does.... But historical retrieval is only part of Burnham’s goal with this book, which also makes a case for reparations, to pick up ‘where law has failed.’... With justice so elusive, even a simple acknowledgment of the facts is a necessary step. As some of the survivors put it when they first heard from Burnham and her team: ‘I thought I’d never get this call.’" -- Jennifer Szalai - New York Times"The corrective we all need.... This book is a rich, evocative testament to [Burnham’s] life’s work, as she illuminates a series of harrowing, untold cases of racial violence from 1920 to 1960, tapping a database she built over the course of a decade. Her insights and interpretations bring a vital, necessary perspective to the segregationist era." -- Oprah Daily"The detailed accounts of racial terror in this book are hard to stomach, but necessary to understand the national legacy of slavery and the Jim Crow system that emerged after emancipation.... Margaret Burnham’s rich historical analysis documents the longstanding failure of federal laws and institutions to prevent racial violence and police brutality. The book also shines a light on the resourcefulness of African Americans who organized to help one another and fight for justice." -- Debbie Elliott - NPR"Burnham illuminates a continuum of white supremacy.... She also examines Black Americans’ long-standing ‘practices of dissent and resistance’ and describes reparations as an ethical imperative." -- The New Yorker"[A] searing indictment of the all-encompassing violence of Jim Crow and a persuasive case for long-overdue reparations.... An indispensable addition to the literature of social justice and civil rights." -- Kirkus, starred review"Meticulously researched and carefully documented.... The dozens of fully fleshed out stories in this book—which are examples, of course, of countless stories left untold—add a personal element to this achingly real history. By Hands Now Known is impossible to read without being overwhelmed by the magnitude of racial violence in the U.S. in the past and persisting into the present." -- Booklist, starred review"Uncovers the hidden and unknown victims of Jim Crow violence.... Readers interested in the long history of the civil rights struggle should definitely read this." -- Library Journal, starred review"Searing.... An essential reckoning with America’s history of racial violence." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review"Defying national suppression and indifference, By Hands Now Known vividly conveys the stories of those whose lives were destroyed by previously undocumented racial violence between 1920 and 1960.… Margaret A. Burnham, drawing on a painstakingly constructed database, launches a vital and restorative reckoning with the reprehensible devastation of lives, communities, justice, and memory." -- Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University, and author of When Should Law Forgive?"If you truly want to understand why police and vigilantes who kill Black people are rarely held to account, you must read this extraordinary book.… By far the most sobering and most illuminating work I have ever read on the long history of state-sanctioned racial violence in the US." -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Race Rebels"In this necessary and important book, Margaret A. Burnham addresses the enormous violence necessary to sustain Jim Crow through a series of compelling case studies about the lives destroyed by the brutal regime of separate but equal.… In reckoning with the impact of this history on the present, Burnham asks how we might undo or redress this legacy of violence. It is timely and essential reading." -- Saidiya Hartman, author of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments"Needs to be read by everyone who recognizes the historic mandate of our time: to interrupt cycles of racist violence.… Rigorously delineated, passionately argued, Margaret A. Burnham’s book offers us heart-wrenching cases.… But Burnham goes further, asking us to finally acknowledge the history of ever-present resistance, even under the most insurmountable conditions, and to consider what justice might mean today." -- Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz"A vitally important history.… Burnham’s meticulous unpacking—of newspaper accounts, coroners’ reports, and interviews with surviving witnesses, family members, and clergy—is searing, unforgettable, and profoundly moving." -- Patricia J. Williams, author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights and Giving a Damn"Masterfully explores how everyday acts of violence fundamentally shaped Jim Crow during the twentieth century. With meticulous and compelling new research, Margaret A. Burnham offers a powerful, moving, and groundbreaking account of the interconnections between race, law, and citizenship in US history." -- Keisha N. Blain, coeditor of the number-one New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls and award-winning author of Until I Am Free"[This] narratively lively yet stunningly exhaustive interrogation of Jim Crow laws retained from slavery, misconstrued after Reconstruction, and nationalized during Plessy v. Ferguson, ought to become indispensable to all legal and civil rights considerations, and the cause célebre of our time—reparations." -- David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of W. E. B. Du Bois

Read more less

Book SynopsisA compelling and definitive history...of racist preconceptions in white behavior toward native Americans.—Leo Marx, The New York Times Book ReviewColumbus called them Indians because his geography was faulty. But that name and, more important, the images it has come to suggest have endured for five centuries, not only obscuring the true identity of the original Americans but serving as an ideological weapon in their subjugation. Now, in this brilliant and deeply disturbing reinterpretation of the American past, Robert Berkhofer has written an impressively documented account of the self-serving stereotypes Europeans and white Americans have concocted about the Indian: Noble Savage or bloodthirsty redskin, he was deemed inferior in the light of western, Christian civilization and manipulated to its benefit. A thought-provoking and revelatory study of the absolute, seemingly ineradicable pervasiveness of white racism, The White Man's Indian is a truly important b

Read more less

Book SynopsisBorn a slave in Maryland circa 1817, Frederick Douglass went on to become the most influential and distinguished African American of the nineteenth century. As an abolitionist, newspaper publisher, orator and statesman, Douglass dedicated his life to the triumph of freedom over oppression for all black Americans.Published shortly after his escape from slavery, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave became an immediate bestseller in 1845 and is still the most widely read slave narrative in American history. A piercing denounciation of slavery, the Narrative mobilized masses of people for the abolitionist cause. But the Narrative is also a deeply personal memoir in which Douglass chronicles his childhood years of deprivation and brutality, his efforts to teach himself to read (teaching a slave to read was illegal in the South), and his dangerous flight to freedom in 1838.In his insightful introduction, Professor Henry Louis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA seminal volume of four classic slave narratives, including Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, The History of Mary Price: A West Indian Slave, Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl, and The Life of Olaudah Equiano.Before the end of the Civil War, more than one hundred former slaves had published moving stories of their captivity and escape, joined by a similar number after the war. No group of slaves anywhere, in any other era, has left such prolific testimony to the horror of bondage and servitude.Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of America's top experts in African American studies, presents four of these classic narratives that illustrate the real nature of black experience in slavery.Fascinating and powerful, this collection includes four of the best-known examples: the lives of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs (alias Linda Brent), Mary Price, and Olaudah Equiano (alias Gustavus Vassa). These amazing stories are not only first-person histories of the highest caliber, they are also a unique literary form that has given birth to the spirit, vitality, and vision of America's modern black writers.Updated with the ninth edition of The Life of Olaudah Equiano, the last edition he revised and published in his lifetime.With a Revised and Updated Introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA distinguished Stanford law professor examines the steep decline in marriage rates among the African American middle class, and offers a paradoxical-nearly incendiary-solution. Black women are three times as likely as white women to never marry. That sobering statistic reflects a broader reality: African Americans are the most unmarried people in our nation, and contrary to public perception the racial gap in marriage is not confined to women or the poor. Black men, particularly the most successful and affluent, are less likely to marry than their white counterparts. College educated black women are twice as likely as their white peers never to marry. Is Marriage for White People? is the first book to illuminate the many facets of the African American marriage decline and its implications for American society. The book explains the social and economic forces that have undermined marriage for African Americans and that shape everyone''s live

Read more less

Book SynopsisNearly forty years after its initial publication, George Lamming’s In the Castle of My Skin is considered a classic narrative of the Black colonial experience. This poetic autobiographical novel juxtaposes the undeveloped, unencumbered life of a small Caribbean island with the materialism and anxiety of the twentieth century.

Read more less