Ethnic studies / Ethnicity Books

Book Synopsis Debut poems of stunning power and range from a China scholar and policy advisor Torn between intimacy and estrangement, eros and politics, history and futurity, Your Face My Flag is a riveting debut poetry collection. Gewirtz explores the place of poetry in a globalized era, shaped by escalating geopolitical tensions between China and “the West.” From the factories where iPhones are assembled to riverside idylls where men have long met for sex, these poems move restlessly across continents and through centuries. In a world that conspires to dull us against the particular, Gewirtz writes with sharp focus, recapturing memory and desire in stunning detail.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDedicated to friends, fellow artists, and resilient working people, The Beloved Community sees Jones at her best as she writes toward and in search of all that connects and disconnects us.In her fifth poetry collection, The Beloved Community, Jackson Poetry Prize winnerPatricia Spears Jones interrogates the necessity and fragility of human bonds: sensual, familial, societal. From lyric to elegy, far-reaching poems use word play and metaphor to create richly textured landscapes in search of community. As we traverse delis, laundromats, and the Brooklyn block where morning glories grow ?leaves plump as Italian cookies,? poems about poverty, art, and community, become poems about location?always the city is alive and breathing. Later, the collection widens its view, leaving Brooklyn to visit the consequences of violence across America.From the Atlanta Child Murders to the murder of Nia Wilson, The Beloved Community is fearless in its rage and hope as it explores what disrupts? oppression, injustice, loss, grief, and a fraught sense of the erotic. Largely dedicated to musicians, artists, and fellow poets, Jones acknowledges art as tools for both care and resistance, recognizing that ?voice is our greatest magic.? Imbued with history, laced with tenderness, and channeling a long tradition of the blues in African American poetics, The Beloved Community speaks with spark and urgency.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn Authentic Life is an exacting and fearless interrogation of the education one receives from the institutions of academia and family. Sprawling yet urgent, meditative yet lucid, the poems in Jennifer Chang’s anticipated third collection, An Authentic Life, offer a bold examination of a world deeply influenced by war and patriarchy. In dialogues against literature, against philosophy, and against God, Chang interrogates the “fathers” who stand at the center of history. Poems navigate wounds opened by explorations of family and generational trauma, and draw on the author’s experiences as a mother, as the daughter of immigrants, and as a citizen of our deeply divided nation. Here, the patriarchal violence of history becomes intimate, brought down to a domestic scale. A woman sweeping the floor cannot escape thoughts of war, or h

Read more less

Book SynopsisBlade by Blade is an unflinching field journal of grief, loss, and discovery set against the California wilderness. Danusha Laméris’s third book, Blade by Blade, is a book of hungers: Hunger for the bright glare of poppies, for the hidden name of the beloved, for the cracked continental edge, for all we keep in “the heart’s farthest chambers.” Seeking a way back to joy following the deaths of her son and brother, the poet finds wonder in the furred legs of a caterpillar, in egrets, elephants, and elk, solace in the seagull’s speckled egg. Here we taste a longing to kiss in the dark corner of the gym, to leap into a volcano’s molten fire, to be unraveled, undone thread by thread, made one with all things. Microscopic and tidal, earthquake and fire-prone, Blade by Blade thrives

Read more less

Book SynopsisDancer, award-winning choreographer, show producer, stand-up comedienne, TV/Film actress and author, Norma Miller shares her touching historical memoir of Harlem's legendary Savoy Ballroom and the phenomenal music and dance craze that \u0022spread the power of swing across the world like Wildfire.\u0022 A dance contest winner by 14, Norma Miller became a member of Herbert White's Lindy Hoppers and a celebrated Savoy Ballroom Lindy Hop champion. Swingin' at the Savoy chronicles a significant period in American cultural history and race relations, as it glorifies the home of the Lindy Hop and he birthplace of memorable dance hall fads. Miller shares fascinating anecdotes about her youthful encounters with many of the greatest jazz legends in music history, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, and even boxer Joe Louis. Readers will experience the legend of the celebrated Harlem ballroom and the phenomenal Swing generation that changed music and dance history forever.Trade Review"This is an important book, bringing some much-overdue attention to the swing dancers who along with the musicians defined the era." -Robert Tate, Jazz Now "A refreshing look at the history of swing dancing is Swingin' at the Savoy... Miller has not only created an entertaining history of swing, but more importantly, gives the reader a sense of the personalities of people and places most have only heard of. The book is unique as a humorous autobiography, full of youthful antics and charm. Delightful anecdotes and photos of big bands give us a view of swing music and its popularity in a real world aspect different than most music historians today." -Lance Benishek, Dancing USATable of ContentsCONTENTS Acknowledgments Preface - Ernie Smith 1. Coming Home 2. Coming to America 3. Norman Miller 4. The Early Years 5. The Savoy 6. Coming of Age 7. A Man Called Whitey 8. The Harvest Moon Ball 9. The Swingin' Generation 10. The Other Side of the Ballroom 11. Ethel Waters 12. Savoy at the World's Fair 13. Hollywood Calls 14. Swingin' Down to Rio 15. Moving On 16. Norma Miller Dancers 17. On the Road Again 18. Swingin' into the Future 19. Saying Goodbye Epilogue - Robert P. Crease

Read more less

Book SynopsisPraise for Saeed Jones: "Jones is the kind of writer who's more than wanted: he's desperately needed."--FlavorWire "This book leaves your body transformed in a way that poetry should." --ElevenEleven "I get shout-happy when I read these poems; they are the gospel; they are the good news of the sustaining power of imagination, tenderness, and outright joy."--D. A. Powell "Prelude to Bruise works its tempestuous mojo just under the skin, wreaking a sweet havoc and rearranging the pulse. These poems don't dole out mercy. Mr. Jones undoubtedly dipped his pen in fierce before crafting these stanzas that rock like backslap. Straighten your skirt, children. The doors of the church are open."--Patricia Smith "It's a big book, a major book. A game-changer. Dazzling, brutal, real. Not just brilliant, caustic, and impassioned but a work that brings history--in which the personal and political are inter-constitutive--to the immediate moment. Jones takes a reader deep into lived experience, into a charged world divided among unstable yet entrenched lines: racial, gendered, political, sexual, familial. Here we absorb each quiet resistance, each whoop of joy, a knowledge of violence and of desire, an unbearable ache/loss/yearning. This is not just a "new voice" but a new song, a new way of singing, a new music made of deep grief's wildfire, of burning intelligence and of all-feeling heart, scorched and seared. In a poem, Jones says, "Boy's body is a song only he can hear." But now that we have this book, we can all hear it. And it's unforgettable."--Brenda Shaughnessy "Inside each hunger, each desire, speaks the voice of a boy that admits 'I've always wanted to be dangerous.' This is not a threat but a promise to break away from the affliction of silence, to make audible the stories that trouble the dimensions of masculinity and discomfort the polite conversations about race. With impressive grace, Saeed Jones situates the queer black body at the center, where his visibility and vulnerability nurture emotional strength and the irrepressible energy to claim those spaces that were once denied or withheld from him. Prelude to a Bruise is a daring debut."--Rigoberto Gonzalez From "Sleeping Arrangement": Take your hand out from under my pillow. And take your sheets with you. Drag them under. Make pretend ghosts. I can't have you rattling the bed springs so keep still, keep quiet. Mistake yourself for shadows. Learn the lullabies of lint. Saeed Jones works as the editor of BuzzfeedLGBT.Trade ReviewNPR's Best Books of 2014 Time Out New York Best Books of 2014 Book Riot, 2014's Must-Read Books from Indie Presses Split This Rock Recommended Poetry Books of 2014 Vol. 1 Brooklyn, A Year of Favorites, Jason Diamond Greenlight Bookstore, Holiday Picks "In his debut collection, Jones has crafted a fever dream, something akin to magic... Solid from start to finish, possessing amazing energy and focus, a bold new voice in poetry has announced itself"--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "Jones had a meteoric rise to literary prominence in the past year... the poems of this book are harrowing and heartbreaking, treating family, sexuality, and race with unrelenting intensity."--Publishers Weekly "A debut poetry collection examining identity in all its forms--racial, sexual, geographical, and more--with both incisive intensity and tenderness."--Off the Shelf "Jones's lavish sonic patterning and gothic imagery often recall the incendiary mythos and immaculate craft of Sylvia Plath's Ariel as well as the haunted, sensual longing of Thomas James's Letters to a Stranger." --Kenyon Review Online "[T]he way these poems address violence, life in the south, race, sexuality and relationships makes for an engrossing read best consumed in as few sittings as possible."--Time "This book leaves your body transformed in a way that poetry should." --ElevenEleven "This is indeed a book seamed in smoke; it is a dance that invites you to admire the supple twist of its narrative spine; it is hard and glaring and brilliant as the anthracite that opens the collection: 'a voice mistook for stone, / jagged black fist.'" --NPR Book Review "The features that distinguish his poems from prose -- brevity, symbolism, implication -- let him investigate the almost unsayable."--Los Angeles Times "This year's Stonewall-Gittings literature award goes to Saeed Jones's Prelude to Bruise (Coffee House), a punch-in-your-gut fusion of racial, sexual, and personal struggle and a National Book Critics Circle finalist."--Library Journal "Perhaps the readiest, most painfully assured debut of the decade."--Flavorwire "The poems in Prelude to Bruise enflame, with all flame's consequences of wounding and illumination ... It's a story of the forces of destruction--the destruction of black bodies and black selves--built into America, and it surfaces in the lines of lust, violence, possession, and power." --Rain Taxi "This book is so good it will give you night sweats."--Greenlight Bookstore "An astonishing poetry collection, furious, tender, and true." --Tin House "Prelude to Bruise is a harrowing examination of masculinity and femininity as a "brutal" performance."--Buzzfeed "Jones' sentences bristle with foreboding ... Jones seems to be playing with the idea of the nature of man, of those who live closer in tune with the laws of nature than with those of humanityJones, like great poet-novelists, fills his book with beautiful sentences."--Electric Literature "Prelude to Bruise is an airtight collection of visceral and stunning poems."--Mosaic Magazine "Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones, a tome of searing poetry about what it means to be Black, gay, Southern and so much more"--Refinery 29 "Prelude to Bruise Saeed Jones is a powerful collection ... with a high level of craft, emotion and metaphor."--Ebony "Reading this book will change you."--Cambridge Writers' Workshop "Saeed Jones's first full-length book, Prelude to Bruise, is a necessary piece of contemporary poetry that bravely tackles issues such as abuse, promiscuity, homosexuality, and racism."--Prairie Schooner "Jones uncovers what exactly is at stake when one presents oneself authentically, when one insists on being oneself regardless of the consequences."--Coldfront "Prelude to Bruise was published by Coffee House in August to widespread (and deserved!) acclaim."--Electric Literature "It packs a wallop ... I found myself in awe."--Raging Biblio-holism "I didn't exactly mean to survive myself," writes the African-American poet Saeed Jones, and the line comes to my mind: what it means to have survived official policies designed to erase you, and the kind of impulse to self-destruction that might arise in the face of this."--The Monthly(Australia) "His work is imaginative and lyrical while maintaining a self-proclaimed ferocity, as if there could really be any other kind, that challenges conventions of masculinity and race in a deeply emotional way." --Dazed, "The top ten American writers you need to read this year" "Maybe the best collection you will read this year, Jones is a poet who also understands how to tell a story, obviously keeping his feet planted in the former since poetry is his craft, but giving the reader so much more to unpack page after page. At times harrowing, Jones succeeds at never straying too far away from beauty and light, and that balance makes this a true reading experience."--Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn September Books Review "Saeed Jones may be one of the most necessary poets of our time." --July Westhale, Lambda Literary "Prelude to Bruise is a book with a controlled realm of imagery, which creates this really beautiful territory for the reader to explore."--Ace Hotel "Beautiful, haunting and heartbreaking--Jones's poems are an emotional punch to the gut. A lyrical shock to the system." --Lambda Literary "It's a diverse festival, showcasing talents as different as the best-selling crime novelist Rebecca Chance and the politically engaged poet Saeed Jones."--The Times Picayune "[Saeed Jones] is leading the way and writing critically about the community," [Spectrum's president] Diaz said."--The Torch "What these poems show us is the necessity of owning that longing, the refusal to let the wounds the world has laid upon us turn inward, into our shame, our silence. To show the world the face that the world has made."--Muzzle Magazine "Saeed Jones brought the audience to a near swoon."--Twin Cities Daily Planet "Prelude to Bruise is an airtight collection of visceral and stunning poems."--Mosaic Magazine "I was bowled over by Saeed Jones's Prelude to Bruise (Coffee House Press, GBP16), a beautiful and biting collection of poetry that has been making waves in the US. Investigating race, sexuality and what it means to be southern, Jones's lean, searing lines transcend identity politics."--New Statesmen (UK) "Poetry book most likely to win over your poetry-avoiding friends: Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones"--Time Out New York, "The Best Books of 2013" "Jones is responsible for a growing portion of the gay narrative being written online, and the Internet is a much better place for it. His voice will have even more impact with his upcoming debut, which will explore the collision of race, sexuality and identity."--The Root, "30 Viral Voices Under 30" "For years now the Buzzfeed LGBT editor has been lighting it up at his day job, and also on Twitter, with a ferocity befitting his name. Now, after earning praise from D.A. Powell and after winning a NYC-based Literary Death Match bout, Jones will use his debut collection to prominently display his poetry chops."--The Millions "This powerful collection feels at times like a blow to the throat, but when we recover, the air is sweeter for having been absent."--Guernica "A work of insight and great beauty, Jones' first poetry collection manages to be both ferocious and and subtle."--Brooklyn Magazine "It's a book about identity that expands beyond the borders of the terms we use to cordon off safe spaces."--Dialogist "[A] stunning debut collection of one of America's most promising young poets... These poems lacerate as they heal, making us feel the resilient intensity of a protagonist who says, "I didn't exactly mean to survive myself."--The Journal "Saeed Jones has created a radically different coming of age narrative distinctly his own through forceful, original poetry."--Lonesome Reader "[A] daring, ferocious, and often impossibly gorgeous meditation on boyhood and personhood, language and love."--Flavorwire, "10 New Must Reads for September" "The first book of Saeed Jones's poetry, Prelude to Bruise, reads with astonishing momentum and tenacity, a lyrical torch thrust into shadows and silence to illuminate pain from a history of wounds." --Shelf Awareness "Jones has a voice, and it is not plucky or regretful. It is not about being a 'man' -- it's more ambitious. This book is his credo, his aspiration. Convert or abstain, his 'hunger [does] not apologize.'"--Poets at Work "For their journey on this beautifully clear but sweltering Saturday afternoon, they were not disappointed, treated to over a dozen readings of vintage O'Hara poems, as well as new poems written by the likes of Saeed Jones, author of Prelude to Bruise and the editor of Buzzfeed LGBT..." --Huffington Post "You may know Saeed Jones as the Buzzfeed's Literary Editor, but you definitely should get to know him for his poetry as well."--Bustle "These poems are tightly constructed, scary-beautiful, and lyrically brilliant, driven by a raw and devastating emotional power. He awes me."--The Millions "Saeed Jones begins this electrifying book--one of the most exciting debut collections I've read in years--with a quotation from Kafka's notebooks: "The man in ecstasy and the man drowning--both throw up their arms." It's a powerful opening for these searing poems." --Towleroad "In his first book of poetry, Jones blazes forth, his voice new, potent, lyrical, and deadly beautiful. Enveloping his words in the body, its politics, its genders and colors, the legacy of its trials and abuse, Jones sings truths from the perimeter, the disenfranchised, the ready to be heard."--Bookshop Santa Cruz "Riveting and heartening to read..."--The Dodge Blog, "2014 Featured Poet: Saeed Jones" "Jones' haunting lyricism creates a portrait of hard-won self-realization, of a young man's determined struggle, pushing through doubt and distress with the strength of his imagination and verve." --NBCC's Critical Mass "I had to stop trying to read Saeed Jones's debut, Prelude to Bruise, on the subway to avoid yelping with joy, weeping, or getting all hot and bothered in public."--Work in Progress "Prelude to Bruise is a thunderous title for a first collection. It promises that a bruise will come later. It says that, even when we feel like we're drowning, we can still be ecstatic."--The Brooklyn Rail "Heartrending, lyrical, and raw."--BuzzFeed "Ecstatic and haunting."--Brooklyn Magazine "This is the type of book that merits cliched hyperbole: because it will actually "leave you floored," "feeling naked" (together, that's almost a Natalie Imbruglia lyric!), and "gasping for breath."--Flavorwire "A radical standard of pain acknowledges the intersection between individual and collective histories of suffering. This radical standard is the thrust of works like ... Saeed Jones' Prelude to Bruise, a collection of poems that narrates the wounds of a black gay boy in the American South."--Pacific Standard "Poems like "Post Apocalyptic Heartbreak," "History According to Boy," "Prelude to Bruise," and others will break your heart and force you to investigate and confront the unconscionable brutality of this nation."--MELO "A compelling collection."--Runestone "Saeed writes about blackness and gayness, fierce and thick and brave in every poem."--Medium "Damn near genius."--Shade

Read more less

Book SynopsisSelected by Jos Charles as the winner of the 2021 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, Return Flight is a lush reckoning: with inheritance, with body, with trauma, with desire—and with the many tendons in between. When Return Flight asks “what name / do you crown yourself,” Huang answers with many. Textured with mountains—a folkloric goddess-prison, Yushan, mother, men, self—and peppered with shapeshifting creatures, spirits, and gods, the landscape of Jennifer Huang’s poems is at once mystical and fleshy, a “myth a mess of myself.” Sensuously, Huang depicts each of these not as things to claim but as topographies to behold and hold. Here, too, is another kind of mythology. Set to the music of “beating hearts / through objects passed down,” the poems travel through generations—among Taiwan, China, and America—cataloging familial wounds and beloved stories. A grandfather’s smile shining through rain, baby bok choy in a child’s bowl, a slap felt decades later—the result is a map of a present-day life, reflected through the past. Return Flight is a thrumming debut that teaches us how history harrows and heals, often with the same hand; how touch can mean “purple” and “blue” as much as it means intimacy; and how one might find a path toward joy not by leaving the past in the past, but by “[keeping a] hand on these memories, / to feel them to their ends.”Trade ReviewPraise for Return Flight “[An] avid, observant debut . . . The poems here chart the path from past to present wherever it leads, coolly and curiously.”—New York Times Book Review, “Newly Published”“I love the complicated emotional range Huang conveys . . . Deceptively delicate.”—Ron Charles, Washington Post’s “Book Club” newsletter"Huang joyfully and deftly weaves together mythology, objects, landscapes, food, violence and intimacy across time and space into an immersive collection that hits every pleasure center and deeply felt emotional beat."—Seattle Times“An emerging, brilliant poet . . . Huang’s poems ring true for readers expressly because of their willingness to share the often complicated, difficult-to-pin-down yearning of the outsider, and as Huang’s speakers journey back through difficult terrain, we are often returned to a place of compassion and openness for where we might land next.”—Lavender Magazine“Return Flight is both grave and beautiful, often simultaneously, a clear window into Jennifer Huang’s life”—International Examiner“There is such a thing as a vulnerability, not of the personal, but of the unsaid: a strength in testifying to contradiction, overflowing occurrence, like saying something that surprises even yourself or a fleeing that returns. Return Flight is an attentive but effulgent but joyously aching book. Its lines dig inward and cling even as they unfold outward in excess and surprise. ‘What pain is the desire for pain?’ one poem asks. ‘Many visitors lately, another begins, I wake to an ache in my sternum.’ Huang’s lines can move like that, with, sonically, crystalline compactness, while directing the reader with cinematic clarity of scene and the delights of recontextualization. ‘I wanted this poem to be about dropping textbooks on my arm to get out of practicing violin’ is an actual—how carefully it discloses!—opening line. And while there is much to mourn, and Return Flight does mourn, it never gives into despair, the unsaid of parting, things never touching—but offers in its place a poetics of gentle, real, expansive touching. It comes back around and leads us out: like a ‘window you turn to and notice outside two papayas touching.’ Return Flight is a book that aligns itself with pleasure. Burrow inside.”—Jos Charles“Jennifer Huang’s compelling poems arise from the mutable realm between speaking and flying, touching and breaking, absence and forgiveness, numbness and desire, everywhere and nowhere, the home of the body—and home. Here, the poem abides even through gradations of silence—the bone in the throat, the tongue both captive and captivated, and love, too, abides, despite striations and separations, even dissolving the veil between the living and the dead. Huang writes, “what I know is what I imagine,” and it is imagination, made manifest in poems that map a blooming selfhood, that fuels the concentric energy of Return Flight.”—Diane Seuss“Jennifer Huang’s Return Flight feels like a conversation and journey at once. It is a charismatic debut collection, one of whose many feats is its meditation on lineage. The poet asks: How does pain suture and puncture a family through generations? What language gives what body to that pain? Whose languages and forms have I inherited? Whose literary lineages am I writing in? Deeply introspective, Huang also contemplates the ‘distance between me and I,’ the distance between themselves and their body, and how love can turn the self into a stranger as well as an opening for others. I marvel at the intimacy and wonder with which Huang treats and transforms their figures––many of whom are shape-shifting, mythical, or part-human––to render their themes into rich imagery. At the end of this conversation, this journey, I also emerge a different animal, vigilant and curious about my own body and its place in this strange, cruel, and miraculous world.”—Emily Jungmin Yoon“How delighted I am by these poems that praise ‘the holy scent of ripe mud’ and the ‘joyful stench’ of chou doufu. How moved I am by this poet who understands that beauty can stink, desire can suffocate as much as illuminate, and becoming is an endless looking back while dreaming into. And family is never simple, always ample with history, lilies, seas, such fissure alongside tenderness. Jennifer Huang is more than an undeniably talented poet—they are an uncompromising truth-teller.”—Chen Chen“Poems about childhood and selfhood, pleasure and pain, that try on different forms…”— Elisa Gabbert, Medium

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn astonishing collection about interconnectedness—between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ourselves—from U.S. Poet Laureate and MacArthur Fellow Ada Limón.“I have always been too sensitive, a weeper / from a long line of weepers,” writes Limón. “I am the hurting kind.” What does it mean to be the hurting kind? To be sensitive not only to the world’s pain and joys, but to the meanings that bend in the scrim between the natural world and the human world? To divine the relationships between us all? To perceive ourselves in other beings—and to know that those beings are resolutely their own, that they “do not / care to be seen as symbols”?With Limón’s remarkable ability to trace thought, The Hurting Kind explores those questions—incorporating others’ stories and ways of knowing, making surprising turns, and always reaching a place of startling insight. These poems slip through the seasons, teeming with horses and kingfishers and the gleaming eyes of fish. And they honor parents, stepparents, and grandparents: the sacrifices made, the separate lives lived, the tendernesses extended to a hurting child; the abundance, in retrospect, of having two families.Along the way, we glimpse loss. There are flashes of the pandemic, ghosts whose presence manifests in unexpected memories and the mysterious behavior of pets left behind. But The Hurting Kind is filled, above all, with connection and the delight of being in the world. “Slippery and waddle thieving my tomatoes still / green in the morning’s shade,” writes Limón of a groundhog in her garden, “she is doing what she can to survive.”

Read more less

Book SynopsisA vulnerable and honest collection of poems exploring lineage, love, and the pandemic, from one of the most acclaimed poets of his generation.“You are told to believe in one paradise / and then there is the paradise you come to know,” begins Rick Barot. What follows is an account of the rich and thorny valley between those poles. Moving the Bones dwells in liminal spaces—of love and memory, the pandemic’s singular domesticity, a serene cemetery of ancestral plots, dawn. In precise and tender verse, Barot captures the particularities of being in the middle of one’s life, reflecting on the joys and sorrows of the past and confronting the inevitabilities that lie ahead.For Barot, this presence of mind is an art of being lost in thought. “My mind has a slow metabolism, it is slow / to understand what anything means,” he confides, “but understands that if you look a

Read more less

Book SynopsisDiscover and celebrate the achievements of some of America’s most inspiring women!The first female. African American vice president, first U.S. senator, the 83rd U.S. Attorney General, and first black state legislator in Alaska. The first time a black woman and a white band shared the same stage; the first black woman writer to win a Pulitzer Prize; and the first black prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera Company. Black women have accomplished incredible things throughout American history.An important book, Originals! Barrier-breaking Black Women profiles the lives and successes of such notable and iconic women as abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Olympic gold medalist Wilma Rudolph, mathematician Katherine Johnson, organizer and politician Stacy Adams Stacey Abrams, astronaut Mae Jemison, jazz legend Billie Holiday, ballerina Misty Copeland, Vice President Kamala Harris, and also the accomplishments of hundreds of less-famous and lesser-known women. This fascinating read recounts 1,400 achievements, including …   Gail Fisher, the first black actress to receive an Emmy Award. Tina Sloan-Green, the first black American woman to compete on the U.S. National Lacrosse team. Sarah J. (Smith Thompson) Garnet, the first black female principal in the New York City public school system. Ruth Carol Taylor, the first flight attendant to smash the color barrier. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler, the first black woman awarded a medical degree in the United States. Camilla Ella Williams, the first black woman to sing with the New York City Opera. Altha Stewart, the first African American president of The American Psychiatric Association. Jessie Carney Smith, the first black national president of Beta Phi Mu, the honor society for persons with graduate degrees in library science. Gwendolyn Brooks, the author of Annie Allen, a book of poetry that won the first Pulitzer Prize awarded to an African American. Jeanine McIntosh-Menze, the first African American female aviator in the U.S. Coast Guard’s 215-year history.The story of black women in America is one of struggle and obstacles overcome. It’s a story of great achievement and soaring heights. Let Originals! inspire and educate you as it shares the stories and breakthroughs of hundreds of black women in American history!! With more than 210 photos and illustrations, this enlightening book also includes a helpful bibliography and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first-ever collection of interviews with the tortured but ground breaking singer.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMaria Baldwin (1856--1922) held a special place in the racially divided society of her time, as a highly respected educator at a largely white New England school and an activist who carried on the radical spirit of the Boston area's internationally renowned abolitionists from a generation earlier.African American sociologist Adelaide Cromwell called Baldwin "the lone symbol of Negro progress in education in the greater Boston area" during her lifetime. Baldwin used her respectable position to fight alongside more radical activists like William Monroe Trotter for full citizenship for fellow members of the black community. And, in her professional and personal life, she negotiated and challenged dominant white ideas about black womanhood. In Maria Baldwin's Worlds, Kathleen Weiler reveals both Baldwin's victories and what fellow activist W. E. B. Du Bois called her "quiet courage" in everyday life, in the context of the wider black freedom struggle in New England.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis#1 New Release in Caribbean & West Indies History — Discover the True Story Behind One of the Black Passengers on the TitanicAn Incredible Tragedy: Joseph Laroche was an anomaly among the passengers of the Titanic. He was exceptionally well-educated in a time when few black men had access to an education―and when even fewer were able to travel on a luxurious ship in first or second class. Who was Joseph Laroche? Where was he going, and what was his story? Rediscovered History: This biography recounts the life of Joseph Laroche, his part in the history of Haiti, and how he, as a 24-year-old father of two (soon to be three) children, ended up on the last ship of that era of glamourous travel. He was a direct descendant of the father of Haitian independence and related to two Haitian presidents. As an engineer, Laroche contributed to the construction of the Parisian railway and had a promising future ahead of him. A Brilliant Biography: Ivorian-French writer Serge Bilé is the author of this fresh perspective on the tragedy that still fascinates millions and has inspired dozens of history books. With thorough research in Haiti and France, Bilé unearths the story of the intriguing figure of Joseph Laroche. This is a story of multi-cultural black history and of the political and natural forces that converged on one man. Readers who were fascinated by the true stories behind Hidden Figures and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks will love this engaging tale.Table of ContentsTable of Contents Introduction Rules Set An Intention Getting to Know You Who Am I? Let's Get You Mentally Healthy To Read Everyday Your Values Taking Care of Your Mental Wellbeing Structuring Your Mind Body Acceptance Relationships Finding Joy (Where You Can) So, in Conclusion Extra Worksheets About the Author

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs a member of the 1992 world-champion Chicago Bulls, a dashiki-clad Hodges delivered a handwritten letter to President George H. W. Bush demanding that he do more to address racism and economic inequality. Hodges was also a vocal union activist, initiated a boycott against Nike, and spoke out forcefully against police brutality in the wake of the Rodney King beating. But his outspokenness cost him dearly. In the prime of his career, after ten NBA seasons, Hodges was blackballed from the NBA for using his platform as a professional athlete to stand up for justice. In this powerful, passionate, and captivating memoir, Hodges shares the stories—including encounters with Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King, Jim Brown, R. Kelly, Michael Jordan, and others—from his lifelong fight for equality for African Americans.Trade Review“Long Shot tracks Hodges’s political awakening, from black-studies courses in college to his early run-ins with Donald Sterling, the notoriously racist owner of the San Diego (and later Los Angeles) Clippers. The trajectory is clear, and, despite the occasionally engrossing glimpse into the typical N.B.A. player’s home life—Hodges’s tumult involved R. Kelly—almost every detail is shared as context for his more radical turn in the late eighties and nineties.”—New Yorker "Hodges has told his compelling life story with fiery passion, looping around a cast of characters stretching from Jordan, Magic Johnson and Phil Jackson back to Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, before returning to the present." —Guardian “In the book, Hodges talks about conversations he had with teammates Jordan and Pippen about their lack of knowledge regarding Black history. ‘I don't bring this up to shame Scottie, Michael, and the other players who aren't educated in our history,’ Hodges writes. ‘I bring it up because we can't solve a problem if we don't recognize the sickness.’” —Rolling Stone “Craig has written a very in depth portrait of his struggles and triumphs in the NBA and beyond.” —Kareem Abdul-Jabbar "The people's champion." —Chuck D "A skillfully told, affecting memoir of sports and social activism." —Kirkus "With its sharp observations about Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and the state of race relations in the NBA, Long Shot is likely to cause a stir." —Chicago Reader “Craig Hodges is someone I looked up to as a child & now as an adult…I read Long Shot in like two hours, I couldn’t stop turning pages. There are so many hooks in it." —Jesse Williams "Long Shot is a beautifully written, brutally honest book. If you loved the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, if you love black history, or if you are fascinated by the politics of sports, I highly recommend this book. Simply put: Craig Hodges’ life is incredible and Long Shot is invaluable." —AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature "It is time to remove Craig Hodges from exile status and place him where he has always belonged: on the short-list of the activist athletes who stood tall, paid the price and now live their life perhaps scarred, but without regrets. Read this book so a new generation of NBA players and fans will know his true story. Read this book so to say not in a whisper but with a confident shout, 'You DO want to be like Craig Hodges.' —Dave Zirin, from the Introduction “This riveting and affirmative read offers a revealing and pertinent insight into the odious nature of corporate-driven politics in the US and the consequences of racism, poverty, homelessness and despair it engenders. And, as a candid glimpse behind the scenes of the US basketball industry, it’s an eye-opener and many a nugget make it a diverting read. A singular lesson of history in the making.’Michal Boncza, Morning Star

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe eruption of mass protests in the wake of the police murders of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City have challenged the impunity with which officers of the law carry out violence against Black people and punctured the illusion of a postracial America. The Black Lives Matter movement has awakened a new generation of activists. In this stirring and insightful analysis, activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberation.Trade Review"This brilliant book is the best analysis we have of the #BlackLivesMatter moment of the long struggle for freedom in America. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor has emerged as the most sophisticated and courageous radical intellectual of her generation." Dr. Cornel West "Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's searching examination of the social, political and economic dimensions of the prevailing racial order offers important context for understanding the necessity of the emerging movement for black liberation." Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow "From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation is an essential read for anyone following the movement for Black Lives. The text chronicles a portion of history we rarely ever see, while also bringing together data and deep primary source research in a way that lucidly explains the origins of the current moment." Los Angeles Review of Books "Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor 's has not written the average rushed first-wave book on a social movement. Taylor, a professor of African American studies- at Princeton, is the rare academic writer whose sense of humor is as sharp as her scholarship. She 's written a sweeping yet concise history not just of the Black Lives Matter movement, but of the past seven years under the first black president and of how the 20th century led to our current state of woke uprising. It 's full of gems of historical insight and it fearlessly tackles what black liberation looks like when it happens in a black-governed city 40 miles from a black-occupied White House." Steven Thrasher, The Guardian "Class Matters! In this clear-eyed, historically informed account of the latest wave of resistance to state violence, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor not only exposes the canard of color-blindness but reveals how structural racism and class oppression are joined at the hip. If today 's rebels ever expect to end inequality and racialized state violence, she warns, then capitalism must also end. And that requires forging new solidarities, envisioning a new social and economic order, and pushing a struggle to protect Black Lives to its logical conclusion: a revolution capable of transforming the entire nation." Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination "With political eloquence, intellectual rigor, and an unapologetically left analysis,the brilliant scholar-activist Keeanga Taylor has provided a powerful contribution to our collective understanding of the current stage of the Black freedom struggle in the United States, how we arrived at this point, and what battles we need to fight in order to truly achieve liberation. From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation is a must read for everyone who is serious about the ongoing praxis of freedom." Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision "Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor has a strong voice, a sharp mind and a clear, readable style that all come together in this penetrating, vital analysis of race and class at this critical moment in America's racial history." Gary Younge, editor-at-large for the Guardian "Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor brings the long history of Black radical theorizing and scholarship into the neoliberal 21st century with From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation. Her strong voice is deeply needed at a time when young activists are once again reforging a Black liberation movement that is under constant attack. Deeply rooted in Black radical, feminist and socialist traditions, Taylor 's book is an outstanding example of the type of analysis that is needed to build movements for freedom and self-determination in a far more complicated terrain than that confronted by the activists of the 20th century. Her book is required reading for anyone interested in justice, equality and freedom." Michael C. Dawson, author of Blacks In and Out of the Left

Read more less

Book SynopsisA taut, tender collection of poems woven with sadness and loss dealing with aging, attachments, and the precarity of life.“Dawn Lundy Martin’s poems read like a real-time excavation of what poetry can and can’t do," writes Maggie Nelson. In Instructions for the Lovers, her most stripped down, direct work to date, Martin creates a poetic field dense with thought, image, and sound as she reflects on her relationship with her mother, experiences of queer polyamory, lesbian sex, and the racist conditions within the dying American university system. With rigorously embodied vulnerability and virtuosity, Martin constructs moments of pleasure, humor, and sexiness woven with grief—a tender body to live in.

Read more less

Book SynopsisExperimental poet and translator Mónica de la Torre’s new collection is a document of both the events of 2020 and the process of a poet rethinking artistic practice as she tracks subtle shifts in her experience during multiple global crises. As the world shuts down, Mónica de la Torre’s poems become gregarious sites of encounter—homages to connections lost and new bonds forged. Shuttling between lyrical and experimental modes, the poems in Pause the Document challenge linear notions of time by looping the temporalities of dreams, art, the natural world, emotion, and odd encounters under extraordinary circumstances. Richer and more playful than straightforward records, these poems are portals into the intangible dimensions of daily life.  

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy is back with exactly the book we need in these unsettling times."Yes, please. I'll have another dose of delight." -Margaret Roach, New York TimesIn Ross Gay's new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America's most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight.For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the "nefarious" scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world-sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbour's fig tree-and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us.The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savour and share.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDillibe Onyeama was the first black boy to complete his education at Eton in 1968. Written at just twenty-one, it was a deeply personal, revelatory account of the racism he endured during his time as a student at the prestigious institution. He tells in vivid detail of his own background as the son of a Nigerian judge at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, of his arrival at the school, of the curriculum, of his reception by other boys (and masters), and of his punishments. He tells, too, of the cruel racial prejudice he suffered and his reactions to it, and of the alienation and stereotyping he faced at such a young age. ‘A Black Boy at Eton’ was a searing, ground-breaking book displaying the deep psychological effects of colonialism and racism, and the follow-up ‘Afro-Saxon’ talks more about his story.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book examines how the political period in Spain following Franco's death, known as the Transición, is being remembered by a group of writers, filmmakers and TV producers born in the sixties and early seventies. Reading against the dominant historical account that celebrates Spain’s successful democratisation, this study reveals how recent television, film and fiction recreate this past from a generational perspective, linking the experience of the Transición to the country’s present political and financial crises. Privileging above all an emotional connection, these artists use personal feelings about the past to analyse and revisit the history of their coming-of-age years. Lost in Transition considers the implications of adopting such a subjective positioning towards history that encourages an unending narrative, always in search of more meaningful and intimate connections with the past. Taking into account recent theoretical approaches to memory studies, this book proposes a new look at the production of memory in contemporary Spain and its close relationship to popular culture, shifting the focus from what is remembered to how the past is recalled affectively to be made part of an ongoing and enduring everyday experience.Trade Review‘Lost in Transition represents another valuable addition to the burgeoning area of studies on memory in contemporary Spain…The author shows awareness and understanding of the existing research on the topic and departs from the existing bibliography by trying new critical approaches and expanding the corpus of recent works, which represents an important contribution to the field.’José Colmeiro, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies Table of Contents[Acknowledgments] [List of Illustrations] 1. Introduction 2. Ordinary Memories: Feeling the Past 3. The Moment of Memory 4. Mediating Memory (or Telling How It Happened) 5. Transitional Stories 6. Conclusion Filmography Bibliography [Index]

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this definitive historical investigation, Italian author and philosopher Domenico Losurdo argues that from the outset liberalism, as a philosophical position and ideology, has been bound up with the most illiberal of policies: slavery, colonialism, genocide, racism and snobbery. Narrating an intellectual history running from the eighteenth through to the twentieth centuries, Losurdo examines the thought of preeminent liberal writers such as Locke, Burke, Tocqueville, Constant, Bentham, and Sieyès, revealing the inner contradictions of an intellectual position that has exercised a formative influence on today's politics. Among the dominant strains of liberalism, he discerns the counter-currents of more radical positions, lost in the constitution of the modern world order.Trade ReviewA brilliant exercise in unmasking liberal pretensions, surveying over three centuries with magisterial command of the sources. -- Peter Clarke * Financial Times *Liberalism: A Counter-History by Domenico Losurdo stimulatingly uncovers the contradictions of an ideology that is much too self-righteously invoked. -- Pankaj Mishra * Guardian *Liberalism is far too serious to be left in the hands of the liberals. * Il Giornale *There is always something to learn from books by Domenico Losurdo. And [this book] is no exception, for the outstanding knowledge of modern and contemporary political thought, the rigorous philology and the pursuit of sources that have been forgotten or expunged. * Il Corriere della Sera *Vast historical research recommended for the depth of the 'excavation' and for the wealth of new material that emerges. * Il Sole 24 Ore *The latest, original work by Domenico Losurdo, a philosopher-historian of great lucidity, author of always innovative books ... travels through and analyzes the dark, deep and often malodorous side of liberalism. * La Stampa *Losurdo is almost unbelievably well-read * Jacobin *Losurdo chronicles the ways in which the leading theorists of liberalism aided and abetted the building up of a 'master-race democracy' in the antebellum United States and, afterwards, a world-wide 'war' waged by the northern European empires of liberty against one another and for the colonial subjection of the rest of the world. * The University Bookman *The book is a historically grounded, very accessible critique of liberalism, complementing a growing literature critical of liberalism. * CHOICE magazine *Liberals might be inclined to disregard Losurdo's work as bombastic and hyperbolic, but they would be exercising poor judgment to do so. This is not revisionist history, but history told from the point of view of those who are making it. -- Chris Byron * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFollowing a turbulent upbringing, a history of addiction and a committal to an asylum, the teachings of Malcolm X changed Hakim Jamal's life. He became an eloquent, rousing spokesperson for the Nation of Islam movement, moved to London, began a relationship with Gale Benson - the daughter of a British MP - and published a book about Malcolm X, with Diana Athill. Before long, however, he began behaving erratically again, and believed himself to be God. Raw and unflinching, Make Believe is a memoir of friendship, love, mania and injustice. A witness to his struggles, Athill reflects on her relationship with Hakim with characteristic empathy and candour, whilst charting the events that led to Gale's - and not long after, Hakim's - murder.Trade ReviewUnnervingly candid, cooly harrowing, redolent of the hectic late Sixties and early Seventies but oddly suggestive of the tortuous depths that all relationships hold -- John UpdikeA memoir with the immediacy and grip of a good novel -- Hilary Mantel

Read more less

Book SynopsisCombining firsthand accounts from activists with the research of scholars and reflections from artists, Policing the Planet traces the global spread of the broken-windows policing strategy, first established in New York City under Police Commissioner William Bratton. It's a doctrine that has vastly broadened police power the world over-to deadly effect.With contributions from #BlackLivesMatter cofounder Patrisse Cullors, Ferguson activist and Law Professor Justin Hansford, Director of New York-based Communities United for Police Reform Joo-Hyun Kang, poet Martín Espada, and journalist Anjali Kamat, as well as articles from leading scholars Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin D. G. Kelley, Naomi Murakawa, Vijay Prashad, and more, Policing the Planet describes ongoing struggles from New York to Baltimore to Los Angeles, London, San Juan, San Salvador, and beyond.Trade ReviewThis book is the best analytical and political response we have to the historic rebellions in Ferguson! Don't miss it. -- Cornel West, author of Black Prophetic FireWe owe Jordan Camp and Christina Heatherton a great expression of gratitude for this brilliant and provocative collection of voices that compels us to see the Black Lives Matter Movement in the larger context of twenty-first-century racial capitalism and the growing carceral state. -- Barbara Ransby, author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom MovementA major work . As someone who certainly admires the work of these scholars, I couldn't think of a more compelling and timely work such as this. I am pleased to not only be in community with these amazing people but to listen and learn from them . Policing the Planet comes at an incredibly important time. -- Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Schomburg Center for Research in Black CultureWhen this series of essays addressing contemporary activism's biggest movement hits stands in May, we'll be ready. A variety of contributors, including anti-police brutality and militarization activists from around the country and world, promise to make Policing the Planet a definitive work for anybody confused about exactly what structural law enforcement powers lead to our current racial justice climate. * Colorlines *This broad collection of sharp commentary from activists, academics, and artists situates recent struggles right where they belong-in opposition to an increasingly global regime of police abuse. * Flavorwire *A probing collection of essays and interviews. * Philadelphia Tribune *Through compiling so many critical voices in one place, Camp and Heatherton have created a much-needed guidebook of resistance to our planet's police state and the structures of urban governance that feed it. -- Aaron Cantú * Washington Spectator *Policing the Planet is an important intervention to a key issue at a crucial time. -- Ramor Ryan * TeleSur *An incredible anthology tracing the bloody history of broken-windows policing and its implications for city life in general. -- James Tracy * Rooflines *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFive years ago, DeRay Mckesson quit his job as a schoolteacher, moved to Ferguson, Missouri, and spent the next 400 days on the streets as an activist, helping to bring the Black Lives Matter movement into being. Now, in his first book, he draws on his own experiences – of growing up without his mother, with a father in recovery, of having a house burn down and a bully chase him home from school, of pacifying a traffic cop at gunpoint and being dragged out of a police station by his ankles, of determined activism on the streets and in the White House – to make the case for hope, for believing a better future is possible. It is a visionary’s call to take responsibility for imagining, and then building, the world we want to live in.Trade Review‘Hope and insight and empathy spring from every page of On the Other Side of Freedom. DeRay Mckesson…stares down the faces of bigotry and unfreedom and cynicism and doesn’t flinch in writing out our marching orders toward freedom.’ -- Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America‘He forces anyone who reads his words to understand the humanity of the black body; the black body that has otherwise been demonised, made monster-like, or contorted into some negative narrative. A vital read, if you are to truly know resistance, and the stories it gives rise to.’ -- Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie‘On the Other Side of Freedom reveals the mind and motivations of a young man who has risen to the fore of millennial activism through study, discipline, and conviction. His belief in a world that can be made better, one act at a time, powers his narratives and opens up a view on the costs, consequences, and rewards of leading a movement.’ -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.‘Mckesson and a core group of other activists have built the most formidable American protest movement of the 21st century to date.’ * New York Times *‘An inspiring reminder that hope is vital to any political change, and it’s the driving force for any successful attempt at social justice.’ * Esquire (Best Nonfiction Books of 2018) *‘Riveting and affecting . . . written with astounding poetry, vulnerability, and flair. Mckesson is a gifted, pointed storyteller.’ * The Village Voice *

Read more less

Book Synopsis'What we ought to do, as writers, is seize freedom now, immediately, by recognizing that we already have it.'Cynthia Ozick, one of 'the greatest living American writers', has, over a lifetime of observation, produced some of the sharpest and most influential works of criticism in contemporary Anglo-American writing. Described as the 'Emily Dickinson of the Bronx' and 'one of the most accomplished and graceful literary stylists of her time', her acclaimed works span topics from Henry James to Helen Keller, and from Christian Heroism to lovesickness. The essays selected here come from the six volumes Ozick published in the USA over the last thirty-three years. Collected by David Miller, Ozick's friend and agent, they represent the diversity, curiosity, originality, and crackling wit of her works. A volume to treasure, to re-read and to relish, this is Cynthia Ozick, 'the Athena of America's literary pantheon', at her very best.Trade ReviewIt's not unlike falling in love, reading the essays of Cynthia Ozick. Here is a mind as gentle and fierce all at once... A mind that embodies literature's finest potential. * Los Angeles Times *Even when you disagree with her, she electrifies your mind. * New York Times *Splendid... Ozick relies on sensibility and intelligence to make their own way in the world... lyric grace under intellectual pressure gives her news its staying power. Her essays invite our admiration even as they challenge us to talk back. -- David LehmanAs an essayist, Cynthia Ozick is a very good storyteller. Her arguments are plots... they twist and turn, digress, slow down and speed up, surprise with sudden illuminations.... She likes to spin and sparkle... * The New York Times Book Review *She is a writer innately drawn to paradox, and to the moral questions inherent in the relationships between richness and poverty, mind and body, history and imagination... In everything Ozick writes, she regards the land of the free with the head-shaking disbelief of someone who knows. -- Ali Smith * Guardian *No American writer working today is more distinctive in everything she does on the page. * PEN/Malamud Award *Ozick is razor sharp as she dissects art, religion and the distinction between literary and popular fiction * Observer *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Hazaras of Afghanistan have borne the brunt of many of the destructive forces unleashed by the establishment of the Afghan monarchy in 1747. The history of their relationship with the Afghan state has been punctuated by frequent episodes of ethnic cleansing, mass dispossession, forced displacement, enslavement and social and economic exclusion. Mostly Shia in a country dominated by Sunni Muslims, and identifiable because of their Asian features, the Hazaras became Afghanistan's internal 'Other'. They look different and practise a different school of Islam in a country that is prone to internal conflict and the machinations of external powers. The history of the Hazaras therefore offers a unique perspective into the deep contradictions of Afghanistan as a modern state, and how its ethnic and religious dynamics continue to undermine the post-2001 political process. This volume provides a fresh account of both the strategies and tactics of the Afghan state and how the Hazaras have responded to them, focusing on three key phenomena: Hazara rebellion and resistance to the intrusion of the Afghan state in the nineteenth century; the incorporation of the Hazara homeland into Afghanistan in the 1890s and their subsequent marginalisation and exclusion; and the Hazaras' ethnic mobilisation and struggle for recognition in recent decades.Trade Review'Ibrahimi's impressively detailed history helps us to make sense of the current political situation in Afghanistan ... throughout the book Ibrahimi adopts a healthy critical stance towards essentialist theories of ethnicity. He aptly shows that to get a full picture of Afghan politics it is necessary to both zoom out to the global and transnational level, and zoom in below the provincial level.' -- The Times Literary SupplementNiamatullah Ibrahimi's richly-textured account of Hazaras' relations with the Afghan state not only sheds light on the social and political complexities of a highly-vulnerable group; it also illuminates dimensions of the state building enterprise in Afghanistan in ways that highlight the challenges of internationally-supported state building more broadly. A pathbreaking book. -- William Maley, Professor of Diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University; author of 'What is a Refugee?' and 'Reconstructing Afghanistan: Civil-Military Experiences in Comparative Perspective''In this this sympathetic but nonpolemic book . . . Ibrahimi has undertaken field and archival research to trace the efforts of the Hazaras to protect their identity and patrimony and to find a legitimate place in the Afghan state.''An excellent forensic survey.'A work of great interest, which skilfully examines the link between nation-state formation since the late nineteenth century and the politicisation of ethnic identities. Focusing on the case of the Hazaras, Ibrahimi demonstrates how ethnicity, far from being a primordial form of social organisation, became an idiom of political mobilisation. -- Alessandro Monsutti, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva; author of 'War and Migration: Social Networks and Economic Strategies of the Hazaras of Afghanistan'Ibrahimi vividly relates the history of the long persecuted Hazara minority, unravelling their relations with the Afghan state for over two centuries, their complex internal political rivalries, the role of foreign interventions, and their recent successes in an on-going struggle for recognition. It is a bloody, tragic, but often inspiring story. -- Richard Tapper, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology in the University of LondonIbrahimi evaluates the costs in the creation of modern nation-states in multiethnic societies by narrating the sufferings of one group, the Hazaras, in the making of Afghanistan. A must-read for political analysts, policy makers and those wishing to understand why failed multiethnic nation-states provoke politics of rage and extremism in the region. -- Nazif M. Shahrani, Professor of Anthropology, Central Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Indiana University

Read more less

Book SynopsisOver recent years, tabloid readers have become familiar with the concept of the "white working class", those thought to have been "left behind" by globalization, including immigration. Such sentiments were weaponized by politicians on all sides to fuel the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the Brexit campaign. And this racialized narrative has emerged repeatedly in mature democracies – in the political campaigns of Trump, Le Pen and others – and continues to gain traction in the guise of economic nationalism and populism. The need to understand the putative emergence of the white working class has become both intellectually significant and politically urgent. In Race and the Undeserving Poor, Robbie Shilliam does just this. He charts the development over the past 200 years of a shifting postcolonial settlement that has produced a racialized distinction between the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, the latest incarnation of which is a distinction between a deserving, neglected white working class and "others" who are undeserving, not indigenous, and not white. Shilliam's analysis shows that the white working class are not an indigenous constituency, but a product of the struggles to consolidate and defend imperial order that have shaped British society since the abolition of slavery.Trade ReviewPolitically uncertain times require rigorous and judicious scholarship and, with this superbly argued book, Robbie Shilliam provides just that. The UK’s vote to leave the European Union has prompted a reconsideration of ideas of (national) belonging and of class. Shilliam eviscerates standard accounts that seek to locate the emergence of the ‘white working class’ in national terms and presents a brilliantly compelling account of why this emergence is better understood in terms of the postcolonial genealogy of British Empire. A vital, necessary book to make sense of our present. -- Gurminder K. Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies, University of SussexA milestone in political science and cultural studies ... Shilliam’s account of the racialisation of the ‘undeserving poor’ offers a systemic critique of how whiteness excuses politics from the difficult task of anti-capitalist internationalism ... accessibly introduces concepts that shed light on how whiteness is made by blackening. Each of these concepts packs an intricate but straightforward story about the internationalisation of British capital. -- Elio Di Muccio, Capital & Class... a detailed and sharp analysis of the racialization of those deemed 'undeserving' in British society. It places the emergence of the 'white working class', which was such a dominant category in debates around Brexit, within the broader historical context of the British Empire ... this 'white working class' imaginary persists in spite of the fact that the British working class are not homogenously white, and notably, that those who su?er most under austerity are Black and minority ethnic communities ... provides an important analytical framework for us to begin to understand contemporary debates around nationalism and belonging. -- Katy Harsant, Ethnic and Racial StudiesTable of ContentsForeword by Matthew Watson1. Introduction2. English poor laws and Caribbean slavery3 Anglo-Saxon empire and the residuum4. National welfare and colonial development5. Commonwealth labour and the white working class6. Social conservatism and the white underclass7. Brexit and the return of the white working class8. Conclusion: Brexit, viewed from Grenfell Tower

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn a moment of rising authoritarianism, climate crisis, and ever more exploitative forms of neoliberal capitalism, there is a compelling and urgent need for radical paradigms of thought and action. Through interviews with key revolutionary scholars, Bhandar and Ziadah present a thorough discussion of how anti-racist, anti-capitalist feminisms are crucial to building effective political coalitions. Collectively, these interviews with leading scholars including Angela Y. Davis, Silvia Federici, and many others, trace the ways in which black, indigenous, post-colonial and Marxian feminisms have created new ways of seeing, new theoretical frameworks for analysing political problems, and new ways of relating to one another. Focusing on migration, neo-imperial militarism, the state, the prison industrial complex, social reproduction and many other pressing themes, the range of feminisms traversed in this volume show how freedom requires revolutionary transformation in the organisation of the economy, social relations, political structures, and our psychic and symbolic worlds. The interviews include Avtar Brah, Gail Lewis and Vron Ware on Diaspora, Migration and Empire. Himani Bannerji, Gary Kinsman, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and Silvia Federici on Colonialism, Capitalism, and Resistance. Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Avery F. Gordon and Angela Y. Davis on Abolition Feminism.Trade ReviewThe contributors may not agree on every detail, and neither may you, but if you are looking for a thought-provoking, academic overview, covering all aspects of revolutionary feminism, you have found it' -- Stella Dadzie, author of The Heart of the RaceProvides reassuring and informative perspectives on the lifelong journey of effecting change in complex socio-economic and political systems. Their compilation of interviews engages activists who have been building political coalitions across a range of intersecting feminisms: queer, Indigenous, anti-racist, anti-imperial. The questions they pose reveal a depth of research across a wide arc of topics. -- Taylor Le Melle * Mousse Magazine *Collaborative to its core, [Revolutionary Feminisms] invites scholars, activists and researchers to join in, pick up the threads of struggles that came before us and weave them into new contexts. -- Sophia Siddiqui * Race & Class *'Revolutionary feminisms' are not a theoretical framework, but are made and unmade through lived experience, struggle and political consciousness. There has never been a more important time to take heed of the message in this publication, delivered through a chorus of powerful voices: revolutionary feminisms need to become a revolution of solidarity. -- Helene Kazan * Radical Philosophy *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe national racial reckoning that began in 2020 promised to radically restructure American society from the bottom up. But five years on, it has mainly served to strengthen the ruling class and deliver the rich an opportunity to rehabilitate a profoundly unequal economic order precisely at a moment when the stability of the system and the public’s trust in it are drastically deteriorating.Corporations have used antiracism to consolidate their political power and evade government regulation. Employers have surveilled and undermined workers through counterproductive diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings. Affluent professionals and Democratic politicians have exacerbated a stark class divide by pushing half-baked "racial equity" policies that come at the expense of the majority of working people. And the right has reacted to these developments by stoking a toxic culture war against "wokeness" that serves only as a distraction from the increasing economic hardship faced by Americans of all races.Selling Social Justice investigates the rise and spread of contemporary antiracist ideology and shows how the rich came to embrace this particular form of justice. In this provocative and thoroughly researched account, Jennifer C. Pan explores why, in a twenty-first-century economy of increasing scarcity, antiracism is the wrong frame for understanding and fighting inequality.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century, attracting tens of thousands of Indigenous and non-Native allies from around the world. Its slogan "Mni Wiconi"-Water is Life-was about more than just a pipeline. Water Protectors knew this battle for Native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even after the encampment was gone, their anti-colonial struggle would continue. In Our History is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance leading to the #NoDAPL movement from the days of the Missouri River trading forts through the Indian Wars, the Pick-Sloan dams, the American Indian Movement, and the campaign for Indigenous rights at the United Nations. While a historian by trade, Estes also draws on observations from the encampments and from growing up as a citizen of the Oceti Sakowin (the Nation of the Seven Council Fires), making Our History is the Future at once a work of history, a personal story, and a manifesto.Trade ReviewA touching and necessary manifesto and history featuring firsthand accounts of the recent Indigenous uprising against powerful oil companies...With an urgent voice, Estes reminds us that the greed of private corporations must never be allowed to endanger the health of the majority. An important read about Indigenous protesters fighting to protect their ancestral land and uphold their historic values of clean land and water for all humans. * Kirkus Reviews *A powerful blend of personal and historical narrative. A major contribution. -- Naomi Klein, author of This Changes EverythingEmbedded in the centuries-long struggle for Indigenous liberation resides our best hope for a safe and just future for everyone on this planet. Few events embody that truth as clearly as the resistance at Standing Rock, and the many deep currents that converged there. In this powerful blend of personal and historical narrative, Nick Estes skillfully weaves together transformative stories of resistance from these front lines, never losing sight of their enormous stakes. A major contribution. -- Naomi Klein, author of This Changes EverythingReading Our History is the Future is like standing in the middle of camp again. During the Standing Rock uprising, we witnessed what our ancestors always prayed for-making their dreams a reality. -- Bobbi Jean Three Legs, leader of the Standing Rock Youth RunnersIn Our History is the Future historian Nick Estes tells a spellbinding story of the 10 month Indigenous resistance at Standing Rock in 2016, animating the lives and characters of the leaders and organizers, emphasizing the powerful leadership of the women. Alone this would be a brilliant analysis of one of the most significant social movements of this century. But embedded in the story and inseparable from it is the centuries long history of the Oceti Sakowin' resistance to United States' genocidal wars and colonial institutions. And woven into these entwined stories of Indigenous resistance is the true history of the United States as a colonialist state and a global history of European colonialism. This book is a jewel-history and analysis that reads like the best poetry-certain to be a classic work as well as a study guide for continued and accelerated resistance. -- Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United StatesWhen state violence against peaceful protest at Standing Rock became part of the national consciousness, many noticed Native people for the first time -- again. Our History is necessary reading, documenting how Native resistance is met with settler erasure: an outcome shaped by land, resources, and the juggernaut of capitalism. Estes has written a powerful history of Seven Fires resolve that demonstrates how Standing Rock is the outcome of history and the beginning of the future. -- Louise Erdrich, author of the National Book Award winner The Round HouseA touching and necessary manifesto and history featuring firsthand accounts of the recent Indigenous uprising against powerful oil companies...With an urgent voice, Estes reminds us that the greed of private corporations must never be allowed to endanger the health of the majority. An important read about Indigenous protesters fighting to protect their ancestral land and uphold their historic values of clean land and water for all humans. * Kirkus Reviews *Our History is the Future offers a first draft of history that will serve as the last word for years to come. Combining the literary skill of the poet, the rich contextual knowledge of the historian, and the sharp edge of experience, Nick Estes has crafted a powerful account of the Standing Rock resistance, situating it in a struggle lodged deep in time and across the full reach of global solidarities. -- Philip J. Deloria, author of Playing IndianOur History is the Future brings the history of Native American anti-imperialism to the center of the study of racial capitalism while renewing the focus on political economy in Indigenous Studies; it brings the experience of the camp at Standing Rock to the study of history, and deep learning to the ongoing fight for sovereignty; it is a book by a young scholar that draws brilliantly on the wisdom of centuries of struggle. In short: you should read it. -- Walter Johnson, author of River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton KingdomOur History is the Future is a game-changer. In addition to providing a thorough and cogent history of the long tradition of Indigenous resistance, it is also a personal memoir and homage to the Oceti Sakowin; an entreaty to all their relations that demands the "emancipation of the earth." Estes continues in the legacy of his ancestors, from Black Elk to Vine Deloria, he turns Indigenous history right-side up as a story of self-defense against settler invasion. In so doing, he is careful and judicious in his telling, working seamlessly across eras, movements, and scholarly literatures, to forge a collective vision for liberation that takes prophecy and revolutionary theory seriously. The book will be an instant classic and go-to text for students and educators working to understand the "structure" undergirding the "event" of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This is what history as Ghost Dance looks like. -- Sandy Grande, author of Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political ThoughtThis extraordinary history of resistance counters the myth of Indigenous disappearance and insignificance while calling into question the very notion that resistance itself is impossible in a world saturated by capital and atrophying inequality. This is a radical Indigenous history in its finest form -- that connects individual lives to global scales of political articulation while remaining attentive to intellectual formation and coalitional politics from the 19th Century to the present. Estes draws from multiple archives and intellectual traditions and seeks to not only connect past to present but also to transform futures and possibilities for justice. -- Audra Simpson, Mohawk Interrupts: Political Life Across the Borders of the Settler StatesNick Estes is a forceful writer whose work reflects the defiant spirit of the #NoDAPL movement. Our History is the Future braids together strands of history, theory, manifesto and memoir into a unique and compelling whole that will provoke activists, scholars and readers alike to think deeper, consider broader possibilities and mobilize for action on stolen land. -- Julian Brave Noisecat, 350.orgFearless and inspiring, Nick Estes delivers a powerful rebuke of Euro-American Manifest Destiny with an Indigenous perspective that is inclusive and ideological precise. This book correctly, if not necessarily, focuses its energy on the natural evolutionary and revolutionary pathway of Oceti Sakowin resistance. Respectful, brilliant, and insightful, This book should be considered a key ingredient to achieve the universal Native construct of balance-something we must all have to ensure our continued existence. -- Marcella Gilbert, Lakota Water Protector, Warrior Women Film ProjectOur History is the Future establishes Nick Estes as one of the leading scholars of our time. This dynamic book offers a careful, deeply researched, and even-handed account of the events at Standing Rock, placing them in a long continuum of Oceti Sakowin resistance. This is a war story that links the #NoDAPL movement in the present to anti-colonial and anti-capitalist struggles in the past to demonstrate the possibilities of liberated futures. -- Jordan T. Camp, author of Incarcerating the Crisis: Freedom Struggles and the Rise of the Neoliberal StateIt is customary to hail a bold young author as the voice of their generation. In Our History is the Future, Nick Estes gives voice to many generations, those who've come before and those still to come. The book slips through time, evoking the scent of campfire that once indicted Indigenous people in the 19th century, a smoke that still lingers on 21st century Water Protectors and marks them as enemies of the state. This utterly astonishing book imparts the long history of Indigenous people, their relatives, and their struggle for liberation against capitalist North America's settler colonial violence. The long memory of the people, Estes shows, cannot be clipped by the oblivion of empire. The people do not forget. -- Christina Heatherton, co-editor of Policing the Planet: How the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives MatterA mindful and dynamic text. Nick Estes' narrative power gives dynamism and detailed realism to some of the most formative movements of our time. The book is expansive in its isolation and focus. The book embodies resistance and shows the true effort it takes to maintain it. -- Terese Mailhot, author of HeartberriesWith scrupulous research and urgent prose, [Nick Estes] declares the DAPL protest a flowering of indigenous resistance with roots deep in history and Native sacred land...A powerful work, Estes's condemnation of the United States government is clear and resonant. * Publishers Weekly *This book is a mustread for anyone interested in the #NoDAPL movement. It works as an introduction - and a fearless analysis of - one of the biggest social movements of our times. -- Fiorella Lecoutteux * Peace News *Activist, scholar, and Lower Brule Sioux citizen Estes challenges the power systems that have attacked and disenfranchised Indigenous peoples for centuries with both the story of northern Plains peoples as well as a political philosophy of Indigenous empowerment. The author provides context for contemporary struggles against the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipelines. * Library Journal *Our History Is The Future traces not just an Indigenous politics of opposition, but a vibrant and omnipresent theory of decolonisation that strives to create and preserve as well as resist...Perhaps the most powerful argument of the book is the conceptualisation of Indigenous resistance as an omnipresent process that runs throughout the course of American history. -- Shelley Angelie Saggar * Hong Kong Review of Books *Nick Estes gives voice to the new wave of indigenous environmental mobilisation. -- Neha Shah * Guardian *Our History Is the Future should be on the reading lists of historians, social scientists, and members of the public interested in grasping the interconnections and continuity among the many efforts of Indigenous resistance to settler colonialism and corporate encroachments onto their lands, waters, and natural resources. -- Simone Poliandri * American Indian Culture and Research Journal *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhether class or race is the more important factor in modern politics is a question right at the heart of recent history's most contentious debates. Among groups who should readily find common ground, there is little agreement. To escape this deadlock, Asad Haider turns to the rich legacies of the black freedom struggle. Drawing on the words and deeds of black revolutionary theorists, he argues that identity politics is not synonymous with anti-racism, but instead amounts to the neutralization of its movements. It marks a retreat from the crucial passage of identity to solidarity, and from individual recognition to the collective struggle against an oppressive social structure. Weaving together autobiographical reflection, historical analysis, theoretical exegesis, and protest reportage, Mistaken Identity is a passionate call for a new practice of politics beyond colorblind chauvinism and "the ideology of race."Trade ReviewAsad Haider offers a clarifying and frank assessment of the left's evacuation of class from our identity debates, as well as a powerful defense of political solidarity across hierarchies of race. Drawing on the radical legacy of anti-racist movements-from the Black Panthers to the Combahee River Collective-Mistaken Identity puts forward a powerful vision of collection action, that should offer hope and inspiration to a new generation of activists. -- Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and Feel FreeRiveting. Haider moves deftly over difficult terrain. His prose is precise and propulsive. His Marxism is not a mausoleum but a living, breathing thing. And he writes as both a militant and a theorist, one who believes that theory is integral to political struggle and that theoretical rigour has political stakes. The American left has shown signs of life recently, but it has no shortage of enemies. Defeating them will require, among other things, ideas. Haider's book contributes several. We will need more. -- Ben Tarnoff * Guardian *Essential reading for anyone interested in bringing socialist ideas into movements against racism today. * Socialist Worker *Mistaken Identity will inspire some, piss off others, and compel all of us to reconsider how we fight back. A bold, fresh, and radical critique of so-called "identity politics," this book deserves a wide reading-especially now, when liberal multiculturalism, the "renaturalization" of capitalism, and a resurgent bourgeois black nationalism draped in radical language forecloses the possibility of revolutionary solidarity. Asad Haider proclaims another universality is possible, and it's probably not what you think. -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical ImaginationAsad Haider renews the critique of identity politics for the contemporary Left. Drawing on the work of British cultural studies, black feminism, and theories of the subject (and subjection), Haider writes in an open and persuasive prose to show how identity is always partial and ambivalent, deflecting from the larger racial ideologies while reproducing its terms. This is a fresh and timely book, thoughtful and provocative. -- Judith Butler, author of Gender Trouble and Frames of WarReviving what has become a deeply unfashionable anti-racist standpoint, Asad Haider indicts the complicity of "identity politics" from the left. For him, the dissident mentalities and meticulous historical methods of open-ended, ecumenical commitment to radical social transformation are still valid. This spiky little book shows how opposition might be salvaged from an ocean of pessimism and despair. -- Paul Gilroy, author of The Black Atlantic and There Ain't No Black in the Union JackAsad Haider offers a devastating and constructive critique of what is commonly understood as "identity politics," while still maintaining the centrality race, racism and racist oppression in capitalism. -- Bill Fletcher, Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided and former president of TransAfrica ForumPithy, smart and readable, Mistaken Identity is a wonderful book for our time. Notwithstanding his critique of identity, there is a compelling authenticity to Haider's voice, making him someone one wants to think with about shaping a left vision today. -- Wendy Brown, author of States of Injury and Undoing the Demos[Asad Haider] constructs a comprehensive and critical dissection of identity politics in his hard-hitting debut...This book is an important contribution to discourses on American politics, race, and social movements. * Publishers Weekly *Asad Haider has written a brief and informed survey and critique of the inherent flaws in identity politics. It convinces the reader through a measured calm, not polemics, and that's a refreshing change in these troubled times. -- Christian John Stephens * PopMatters *For a slim book, Haider's argument is expansive and philosophically challenging. Although he never overwhelms the reader with unexplained jargon, the range of work he engages with is impressive, including that of Althusser, Judith Butler, Wendy Brown, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall, and more. Moving through this material with skill and acumen, Haider sets out to undercut the material and philosophical foundations of identity politics (and the idea of identity itself). -- Michael Mirer * Public Books *Mistaken Identity is a refreshing and timely answer to the rupturing status quo that flows within the popular movements of our day. Haider's critique of liberal identity politics cuts through the fog that has been raised by opportunists who seek to divide popular movements. His insurgent universality could become a potentially useful way of thinking through the identity politics that seek to divide rather than reconstitute our movements into a larger program with demands for a better world for all of us. -- Brant Roberts * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *Short and readable, the book provides an intellectual genealogy of anti-racism and of the myriad ways in which contemporary anti-racist politics go awry. -- Aidan J. Beatty * Logos: Journal of Modern Society and Culture *Lucid, compact, and fiercely polemical, Asad Haider's book Mistaken Identity identifies a desperate need for greater political solidarities and broader coalitions at a time when left political movements are governed largely by the logic of 'staying in your lane,' which poses a significant barrier to mass organizing in the United States. -- Field Street Collective * Commune Magazine *

Read more less

Book Synopsis"I have been in the world, but not of it," W.E.B. Du Bois begins this book, a continuation of the project he began in his celebrated work The Souls of Black Folk, describing the devastation of segregation, slavery, and the global color line that veiled half the world's people in shadow. First published in 1920, Darkwater gives voice to the rising power of "the darker races" around the world, and includes Africa's blistering indictment of Europe, a study of the curious and twisted souls of white folk, and his landmark essay "The Damnation of Women," in which he most seriously explores women's oppression and the double burdens forced onto black women. Combining essays and analysis with poetry, allegory, and short fiction, Darkwater is an angry and eloquent argument that, as Du Bois writes, "a belief in humanity is a belief in colored men."With a new introduction from award-winning poet and novelist Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, and a historical preface by Manning Marable.Trade ReviewThe greatest of the early civil-rights leaders, a figure of towering significance in American politics and letters. * The Guardian *Du Bois essentially defined black America in the 20th century with his notion of "double consciousness" - the idea that African Americans experience everything in this world both as Americans and as black people. Scholars have come up shaky in their efforts to update Du Bois's simple, but ingenious formula. -- Ta-Nehisi Coates[Du Bois was] the greatest of the early civil-rights leaders, a figure of towering significance in American politics and letters ... Remembered for his single-minded commitment to racial justice and his capacity to shape black consciousness, Du Bois used language and ideas to hammer out a strategy for political equality and to sound the depths of the black experience in the aftermath of slavery. -- Stuart HallDu Bois' philosophy is significant today because it addresses what many would argue is the real world problem of white domination.So long as racist white privilege exists, and suppresses the dreams and the freedoms of human beings, so long will Du Bois be relevant as a thinker, for he, more than almost any other, employed thought in the service of exposing this privilege, and worked to eliminate it in the service of a greater humanity. -- Donald J. MorseIn 1920 W.E.B. Du Bois's Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil issued a call for an anti-colonial, internationalist approach to historical and social science scholarship. At a time when anthropology's institutional stance as the science of localized and isolated"primitive" cultures was still being forged, Darkwater offered an alternate mapping of the discipline, one centered on an understanding of capitalism as a racialized, interconnected global system that continually produced inequality and difference. * Dialectical Anthropology *We need to view [Du Bois] not simply as the individual genius that he undoubtedly was. We need to view him and his life of struggle and achievement-and betrayal by his native land-as a metaphor for the essential meaning of black life in America. Advocate, statesman, negotiator, defender,champion, ambassador, griot, and peerless challenger of the system, Du Bois was all these things and more of-and for-our national self. . . . He was the best prime minister we ever had for our State That Never Was. -- Bill StricklandThe lasting power of Darkwater's democratic vision.consists not only in what Du Bois is able to see; it also encompasses what he enables readers to see anew - and, possibly, both differently and further than Du Bois himself. Without presuming that it is necessarily or always the case that the view from Du Bois's "veiled corner" will prove more illuminating than the view from another vantage, Darkwater shifts the burden of proof. It forces us to pause and consider the counter-examples that are disregarded or neutralized whenever we talk about democratic, or relatively democratic, societies as though a shared commitment to racial equality were an established fact. -- Lawrie Balfour * Political Theory *In Darkwater DuBois writes what appears as a guide for "colored men and women" on childrearing. But, as it concerns the residents of the future, it is, in fact, a revolutionary political agenda. * The New Centennial Review *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book armed activists on the streets-as well as the many who have become concerned about police abuse-with a critical analysis and ultimately a redefinition of the very idea of policing. The book contends that when we talk about police and police reform, we speak the language of police legitimation through the art of euphemism. So state sexual assault become "body-cavity search," and ruthless beatings become "non-compliance deterrence."A Field Guide to the Police is a study of the indirect and taken-for granted language of policing, a language we're all forced to speak when we talk about law enforcement. In entries like "Police dog," "Stop and frisk," and "Rough ride," the authors expose the way "copspeak" suppresses the true meaning and history of policing. Like any other field guide, it reveals a world that is hidden in plain view. The book argues that a redefined language of policing might help chart a future free society.Now in an expanded and updated edition, including explanations of newsmaking new terms, like "dead names", "kettling", and "qualified immunity", as well as a new foreword by leading criminal justice advocate Craig GilmoreTrade Review“Seeing through police bluewashing at every turn, Correia and Wall have put together a comprehensive, rigorous and highly useful guide to understanding ‘copspeak.’ Unpacking the structural violence and racism of the police, and their functional role in capitalism, as well as in the historical continuity of slavery, Police: A Field Guide is a resolutely practical guide to thinking of a world beyond the police. Of value to activists and theorists alike, this text is a careful analysis of core concepts in policing of use to everyone committed to ending racist state violence and the tyranny of cops everywhere.”—Nina Power, author of One-Dimensional Woman “Police: A Field Guide is a dictionary of liberation, an antidote to the ‘copspeak’ that’s everywhere, even in our own heads. By dissecting and analyzing a vocabulary of power that has become dangerously ubiquitous, this book can help us dispel and loosen its grip.”—Astra Taylor, author of The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age “One of the angriest and saddest indictments of American policing I have ever read. The exposure of ‘copspeak’ is masterly and the analysis of the relationships between law and order, racism and capitalism, are explained with surgical precision.”—Clive Bloom, author of Riot City: Protest and Rebellion in the Capital

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn enduring history of how race and class came together to mark the course of the antebellum US and our present crisis. Roediger shows that in a nation pledged to independence, but less and less able to avoid the harsh realities of wage labor, the identity of "white" came to allow many Northern workers to see themselves as having something in common with their bosses. Projecting onto enslaved people and free Blacks the preindustrial closeness to pleasure that regimented labor denied them, "white workers" consumed blackface popular culture, reshaped languages of class, and embraced racist practices on and off the job. Far from simply preserving economic advantage, white working-class racism derived its terrible force from a complex series of psychological and ideological mechanisms that reinforced stereotypes and helped to forge the very identities of white workers in opposition to Blacks. Full of insight regarding the precarious positions of not-quite-white Irish immigrants to the US and the fate of working class abolitionism, Wages of Whiteness contributes mightily and soberly to debates over the 1619 Project and critical race theory.Trade ReviewThe Celestine Prophecy of whiteness studies. * SPIN *An extremely important and insightful book. * The Nation *A brilliant account of how white workers in antebellum America constructed a social identity fundamentally premised on their 'whiteness.' -- Steve Fraser * American Historical Review *Compelling. -- John White * Times Higher Education Supplement *Delivers powerful insights into the collective psyche of the U.S. working class. Striking. -- Chris Searle * Morning Star *An important contribution to our understanding of what has often been called 'American exceptionalism.' Sensitive and detailed handling of a wide range of original sources. -- Louis Kushnick * Race and Class *Brilliant. Remarkable for its subtlety, its penetrating and honest analysis. -- Fred Whitehead * People's Culture *Scholarly and thoroughly documented, The Wages of Whiteness is nonetheless a highly readable, compact and compelling narrative. A provocative illumination of the long and tortuous history of racism in the U.S. -- Franklin Rosemont * Heartland Journal *Casts a new light on a broad social, cultural and political landscape. -- Iver Bernstein * Journal of American History *Far and away the best treatment of white working-class racial attitudes in the nineteenth century that I have seen. -- George M. FredricksonAn indispensable addition to our knowledge of American working class formation. -- Joe W. Trotter * Journal of Social History *In this penetrating study of the origins of white working-class racial attitudes, Roediger profoundly illuminates the new labor history. A distinctive extension of the scholarly studies that locate the nexus of American society in race and labor. -- Joseph Boskin * Choice *A timely and important intervention in the current debates over 'race' and ethnicity. Roediger has opened up the question of white identity. -- Catherine Hall * New Left Review *Interesting and useful. Reconstructs how labor in America made racism part of its very being. -- John DeBrizzi * Telos *A brilliant, authoritative, carefully researched study of major importance. -- Michael Rogin * Radical History Review *A real contribution to the study of the dynamic relationship that exists between the variables of race and class. A very engaging and compelling book. Wages of Whiteness will have a broad appeal to students and researchers across a wide array of disciplines. -- Lisa Reilly and Cameron McCarthy * European Journal of Intercultural Studies *A welcome challenge to the old and new mythmakers. -- Noel Ignatiev * Labor [Le Travail] *A significant contribution, particularly necessary for those who want to see the struggle for labor unity across racial lines move forward. -- Paul Mishler * Science and Society *Roediger's lasting contribution ensures that the history of race and class can no longer be written from the perspective of romantic working class heroes, nor can it be written in a spirit of self-righteous 'anger.' -- Barry Goldberg * New Politics *Subtle, serious, commands our attention -- J. Milton Yinger * Ethnic and Racial Studies *Roediger's excellent book is must reading for those interested in American working-class formation. -- Andrew Kim * Critical Sociology *In The Wages of Whiteness David Roediger takes a courageous look at the development of white working-class racism and attempts to unravel its complex skein of economic, cultural, and psycho-political issues. -- Soledad Santiago * Foundation News *Of great originality and yet firmly grounded in a rich and diverse scholarship. There is no denying the enormous achievement of this book. Henceforth there will be no evading the question of racism in our contemplation of working-class formation in America. -- David Brody * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *Offers a compelling understanding of working-class racism. A rich and detailed history that traces notions of whiteness from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth. -- Rhonda Levine * Contemporary Sociology *Much has been written about the sources of racism and the wellsprings of racial conflict but few historians have shown David Roediger's sensitivity to the process by which race figured in defining the very nature of American society. The author's most important contribution is to elucidate how racial identity was critical to the formation of the working class during the nineteenth century. Roediger's central argument is most compelling. -- Ronald Mendel * Labour History Review *David Roediger's fascinating and vital study will satisfy even the most jaded intellectual palate and deserves the widest circulation. -- Martin Crawford * History *The book speaks so clearly to what historians know about the American working class, but with enormous originality. Broadly accessible to a wide audience, it connects the histories of slave labor and free labor thus providing a more profound understanding of American working class formation. Theoretically sophisticated, pulling together subtle but significant connections among race, class and gender. Blindingly revealing and of lasting scholarly value. * Organization of American Historians Prize Committee on awarding Wages the 1992 Merle Curti Prize *At last an American labor historian realizes that white workers have a racial identity that matters as race matters to those who are not white. -- Neil Irvin PainterPraise for Black on White: Black Writers on what It Means to be White edited by David R. Roediger:Although long dismissed as irrelevant or biased, African American views on whiteness are in fact crucial to any intelligent discussion on race. By documenting the history of these views, David Roediger is not only addressing a compelling need, he is enriching the ?eld of Race Studies. -- Toni MorrisonPraise for Black on White: Black Writers on what It Means to be White edited by David R. Roediger:Black on White is a brilliantly disturbing collection of work by black authors who are the often unappreciated foreparents of contemporary debates about the fallacies and functions of whiteness. These writings throw generous light on Fannie Lou Hamer's deliciously cryptic claim: the mistake that whites made with blacks is that they put us behind them leaving blacks little choice, for survival's sake, but to learn and master white culture. Black on White is proof that not only was Hamer right, but that if white Americans are to survive the madness of whiteness, they must now listen to and learn from those who made a glorious art out of a painful necessity. -- Michael Eric Dyson author of Race RulesPraise for Black on White: Black Writers on what It Means to be White edited by David R. Roediger:Brilliant, wide-ranging and beautifully executed, Black on White puts to rest any claims that 'whiteness' is a passing fad meant to put white folks at the center again. -- Robin D.G. KelleyPraise for Black on White: Black Writers on what It Means to be White edited by David R. Roediger:Yet another ?ash of brilliance illuminates and largely defines a vital subject area. Black on White deserves the widest reading. -- Sterling Stuckey, Presidential Chair, University of California Riverside and author of Slave CulturePraise for Black on White: Black Writers on what It Means to be White edited by David R. Roediger:This valuable collection provides a new and badly-needed perspective on America's deep seated problems of racial inequality and antagonism. Much has been written and anthologized to show what whites thought and felt about blacks. This is the ?rst effort to present a range of black opinion on the meaning of whiteness, and it is a notably successful one. -- George M. Fredrickson, Edgar E. Robinson Professor of United States History, Stanford UniversityPraise for Black on White: Black Writers on what It Means to be White edited by David R. Roediger:Black on White is a superb collection of writings by African Americans about the nature of White identity in the United States. David Roediger's informed and inspired introduction and the eloquent and insightful works he has collected expose the ideas, attitudes, and actions that transform the ?ction of white racial identity into an all too real social fact. At a time when white politicians, pundits, and private citizens base many public policies and even more private decisions in the knowledge they claim to have about black people, whiteness seems to disappear. Black on White redirects our focus to the way white people appear to blacks, to the insights, analyses, and interpretations emanating from people who became experts on whiteness out of dire necessity. -- George Lipsitz, University of California, San DiegoPraise for The Sinking Middle Class:An incisive, timely, clear-eyed analysis of race and class in America. -- Robin D.G. KelleyPraise for The Sinking Middle Class:Brilliant and Insightful [it] explores the ways in which appeals to save the middle class in electoral politics harm the very constituencies they purport to help. -- George LipsitzPraise for Class, Race, and Marxism:No contemporary intellectual has better illuminated the interwoven social histories and conceptual dimensions of race and class domination. With this stunning new collection of essays, David Roediger once again demonstrates that he is a vital thinker for all of us seeking to bridge the imperatives of economic and social justice. -- Nikhil Singh, New York UniversityPraise for Class, Race, and Marxism:David Roediger's work is always as learned as it is profoundly engaged with the pursuit of social justice. From his signature study of the 'wages of whiteness,' to the analysis of links between settler colonial dispossession, gendered social reproduction, plantation management, and immigrant labor in the making of modern racial capitalism-Roediger's bold commitments to demonstrating the historical and ongoing implications of race and class in the United States are timely, and more necessary than ever. -- Lisa Lowe, Tufts UniversityPraise for Class, Race, and Marxism:These bracing essays express hard truths and grounded hopes as they help us to rethink a past too much with us still. Portraying a history of oppression and resistance made at the intersections of social identities, Roediger makes sophisticated analyses of culture and political economy accessible to scholars and to activists. -- Kimberlé Crenshaw, Columbia University School of LawPraise for Class, Race, and Marxism:When it comes to thinking about the history of racism, anti-racism and the US working class, David Roediger has no peer. Incisive, provocative, and uncannily timely, Class, Race, and Marxism reckons honestly with the challenges of building class solidarity across the fissures of race, the difficulties of writing about it, and the ways in which the two are entwined. If there is a single lesson here, it is that solidarity is not forever-it is elusive, fragile, and hard as hell. -- Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great DepressionPraise for Class, Race, and Marxism:David Roediger wades into the fray with refreshing nuance and generosity. * In These Times *Praise for Class, Race, and Marxism:Roediger's book couldn't have appeared at a more timely moment. * Brooklyn Rail *Praise for Class, Race, and Marxism:A scintillating compilation . Roediger's book explains exactly why even the most sickening atavisms of racism are fully compatible with the capitalist order, with ramifications into the 21st century. -- Alan Wald * Against the Current *Praise for Class, Race, and Marxism:Roediger addresses the challenges that class and race continue to present for U.S. radicals . should be required reading for anyone trying to understand the era of Trumpian politics. This is an important book, with lessons that some way wish to ignore, but at their peril. * Working Class Studies Association C.L.R. James Award *Praise for Class, Race, and Marxism:Studying, understanding, struggling against, and ultimately replacing this centuries-old, foundational, and deep societal reality remains essential, as Roediger, a consistently pathbreaking historian, makes clear in these insightful essays. * Monthly Review *Praise for Class, Race, and Marxism:Amid the cacophony of competing perspectives, David Roediger's Class, Race and Marxism not only expertly evaluates the historical, theoretical, and political stakes of contemporary debates on race and class, but also significantly contributes to scholarship that 'refus[es] to place race outside of the logic of capital.' * Black Scholar Journal *Praise for Seizing Freedom:Seizing Freedom persuasively documents the self-emancipation of the enslaved Black folk of the American South. A meticulously researched book, it offers close readings of verbal and visual texts, unfailingly attentive to issues of race, gender, and labor coming together and falling apart. It brilliantly brings together disability studies, race in the Civil War, and the disappearance of the gold standard. A worthy supplement to Du Bois's Black Reconstruction. -- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia UniversityPraise for Seizing Freedom:This sparkling book does more than merely restore and underscore the agency of bold worker-slaves in attempts to make the US democratic and free. It aims artfully at the underlying mechanisms of revolutionary transformation: imagination and solidarity, time, labor and the human body, gender, class and race. In Roediger's hands, these are neither dry nor overly abstract categories. The insurgent history of abolition gets resuscitated and used vividly to address a host of stalled contemporary debates and ossified styles of thought. -- Paul Gilroy, King's College LondonPraise for Seizing Freedom:Sweeping in its scope and filled with brilliant and original insights, this book reminds us of how little still is our appreciation both for what slaves accomplished between 1860 and 1865 and how beholden the national labor movement and the woman suffrage campaigns were to the 'general strike' they won...Evocative and inspiring, Seizing Freedom represents a landmark study by one of the foremost scholars of the history of race and labor in our time that will fundamentally challenge the way we understand the moral and practical power of emancipation. -- Thavolia Glymph, Duke UniversityPraise for Seizing Freedom:Seizing Freedom, David Roediger's spellbinding account of black self-emancipation and the array of movements accelerated by this 'general strike of the slaves' as DuBois put it, reminds us that it is never too late to take up the democratic promise of Radical Reconstruction. -- Angela Y. Davis, University of California, Santa CruzPraise for How Race Survived US History:Sometime in the US of the past quarter-century, calling policies and the people who dream them up racist became a worse offense than for them to be racist. This inversion, always dressed in self-righteous indignation, is actually part of the social evolution of white supremacy. David Roediger's book details in sharp and readable prose how race survived US history. It is a must-read for all who strive to understand-and abolish-what underlies the strangely strident rhetoric enveloping everything from presidential contests to prison expansion. -- Ruth Wilson GilmorePraise for How Race Survived US History:In a trenchant, broad-ranging analysis, the leading US historian of racism, David Roediger, demonstrates white supremacy's incredible staying power against major societal forces that should long ago have dismantled it. Not capitalism, not emancipation, not labor movements, not mass immigration, not the civil rights movement, not colorblind liberalism, and not the Barack Obama presidential campaign-not one of these forces separately, and not all of them together-have been able to destroy the deep structures of white racism in the United States. -- Joe R. FeaginPraise for How Race Survived US History:David Roediger's bold and brilliant book presents an extraordinary new framework for understanding the persistence of racism in the history of the United States. This book is a wake-up call and a warning, an appeal for understanding and action. It offers a clear and convincing demonstration that white supremacy is not merely a relic of the past but rather a perpetually renewed and infinitely renewable resource for inequality and injustice in the present. -- George LipsitzPraise for How Race Survived US History:A staggering re-interpretation of the whole course of American history in which the skeletons in the closet walk again. From genocide and massacre to lynching to the coded tongue of liberalism, the bankruptcy of white supremacy is found in the racialized structures maintained by the enclosures of incarceration and the foreclosures of impignoration -- Peter LinebaughPraise for How Race Survived US History:An extremely timely argument about the enduring significance of 'race' in American society, as well as a sophisticated polemic against the complacent assumption that the Obama phenomenon spells the end of American racism. -- Richard SeymourPraise for Colored White:David Roediger has been showing us all for years how whiteness is a marked and not a neutral color in the history of the United States. Colored White . . . marks yet another advance. In the burgeoning literature on whiteness this book stands out for its groundedness, its analytic clarity, and its scope. -- Michael RoginPraise for Colored White:No other writer on whiteness can match Roediger's historical breadth and depth; his grasp of the formative role played by race in the making of the nineteenth-century working class, in defining the contours of twentieth-century US citizenship, and in shaping the meaning of emerging social identities and cultural practices in the twenty-first century. -- George LipsitzPraise for Working toward Whiteness:Whiteness Studies can enable us to see American history in a wholly new light, and for the development of the field we must thank Roediger . . . full of thought-provoking observations. * Boston Globe *Praise for Working toward Whiteness:A tour de force. Roediger marshals vast knowledge extending from social and labor history to popular culture and the role of the state. This book will be the point of departure for future studies of whiteness. -- Rudolph J. VecoliPraise for Working toward Whiteness:This book is a major achievement by all standard. A more than worthy successor to Roediger's groundbreaking The Wages of Whiteness, this new book tells in rich detail how the 'new immigrants' from eastern and southern Europe . . . went from being an 'in-between' racial group to to one that was unequivocally white. -- George FredricksonPraise for Working toward Whiteness:Roediger has given us another of our most compelling, incisive, and elegant analyses of racial subjugation and privilege-in-the-making in the US. A brilliant investigation of that historical zone where institutions, ideas, and street-level experiences meet and give form to one another. It may be Roediger's most powerful contribution yet. -- Matthew Frye JacobsonPraise for History against Misery:This wonderful collection of essays is not only a powerful indictment of late capitalism . . . but also a fascinating survey of resistance voices, from the IWW to the Surrealists, from the Chicago Idea Anarchists to Black Liberation. -- Michael LöwyPraise for History against Misery:It is to the summer of our discontent that the surrealist brings us a wintry elation: humor, a poetics of resistance, purposeful deviance motivated by genuine compassion and a love of truth. -- Blake Schwarzenbach

Read more less

Book SynopsisA Change is Gonna Come chronicles more than forty years of black music: from the hopeful, angry refrains of the Freedom movement to the slick pop of Motown; from Woodstock and the 'Summer of Love' to Vietnam and the race riots; from disco inferno to the Million Man March. This is an insightful and riveting study which looks at the place black music occupies in social history, its battle for the desegregation of popular music and its contribution to social change outside the recording studio

Read more less

Book Synopsis'Welcome. Welcome to Bristol in 1963. Welcome to Waterloo Bridge in 2016. Welcome to a house in May 2017. Welcome to three couples and what might be, what once was and what could have been in 2017. Welcome to a West Indian household in 2018. Welcome to London in 2018. Welcome to the past, present and – crucially – the future.' This anthology brings together six plays, all written or performed since 2017, by six brilliant Black British writers – Travis Alabanza, Firdos Ali, Natasha Gordon, Arinzé Kene, Chinonyerem Odimba and debbie tucker green. The plays demonstrate a rich range of settings, forms, styles, locations, scales, contents and concerns – and explore themes including politics and protest, grief and colonisation, relationships and gender. They have been seen on stages including the National Theatre, the Royal Court, the Bush and Bristol Old Vic, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in the West End, and on tour of the UK. Selected and introduced by leading theatre director Natalie Ibu, Contemporary Plays by Black British Writers celebrates a multiplicity of stories authored by Black playwrights in the UK over the last decade.Trade Review'A must... includes lots of things to work with for classes in KS3, 4 and 5... as Natalie Ibu says in her Introduction, it's impossible to create a collection of six plays that fully covers what Black British writers have to offer, but this is an excellent place to begin' * Drama & Theatre *'A fascinating insight into sexual identity, cultural differences, and shared experiences... I would recommend this book to a wide audience... it's an anthology that does not disappoint' * Word Matters (Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama) *

Read more less

Book Synopsis150 Station Road, Wheeldon Mill - a short stride across the Chesterfield Canal in the heart of Derbyshire - was home to the Nash family and their corner shop, serving a small mining community with everything from Brasso to Dolly Blue, from cheap dress rings to Lemon Sherbets.However, this was no ordinary home and no ordinary family. Three generations were adopted - Lynn Knight's great grandfather, a fairground boy given away when his parents left for America in 1865, her great aunt, rescued from an Industrial School in 1909, and her mother, adopted in London as a baby and brought north in 1930. Their story spans centuries and the changing society of twentieth century Britain. But more than that it is a story of community and of love. Full of colour, light and life, Lemon Sherbet & Dolly Blue is a story of what it really means to be family.Trade ReviewA book to recommend with all one's heart... It's a book you want to hug at each turn of fortune... Knight tells her tale scintillatingly. * The Times *A warm, human and well-written book, a slice of social history which throws a strong light on personal experiences. * Hilary Mantel *A treasure trove... Lynn Knight's vivid evocation of people who started with nothing, but lived lives rich in generosity and love makes a fascinating and thought-provoking story * Daily Mail *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAntiblack racism avows reason is white while emotion, and thus supposedly unreason, is black. Challenging academic adherence to this notion, Lewis R. Gordon offers a portrait of Martinican-turned-Algerian revolutionary psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon as an exemplar of "living thought" against forms of reason marked by colonialism and racism. Working from his own translations of the original French texts, Gordon critically engages everything in Fanon from dialectics, ethics, existentialism, and humanism to philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and political theory as well as psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Gordon takes into account scholars from across the Global South to address controversies around Fanon's writings on gender and sexuality as well as political violence and the social underclass. In doing so, he confronts the replication of a colonial and racist geography of reason, allowing theorists from the Global South to emerge as interlocutors alongside northern ones in a move that exemplifies what, Gordon argues, Fanon represented in his plea to establish newer and healthier human relationships beyond colonial paradigms.Trade Review'What Fanon Said is well researched and stages a very complex dialogue with existing scholarship on Fanon. Professor Lewis Gordon's vast intellectual/academic knowledge allows us to read Fanon in new and different ways: Lewis Gordon contextualizes Fanon's thought in a wide arch of knowledge--from St Augustine and traditional Akan philosophy through Fanon's contemporary interlocutors such as Simone De Beauvoir and J. P. Sartre, L. S. Senghor, etc., through to more recent continental philosophers such as Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida. Along the way Professor Gordon also incorporates the relevant debates from contemporary theoretical movements such as critical race theory. What Fanon Said is a provocative and illuminating study of Fanon's work and it will have a significant impact on contemporary debates about Fanon.' * Abdul R. Jan Mohamed, University of California, Berkeley *'As a careful and systematic analysis of the major controversies that have surrounded the works of Frantz Fanon, this book is a must read. Lewis Gordon delivers on his promise of boldly examining these controversies while at the same time providing a very spirited defense of many of Fanon's positions. What Fanon Said is now the most comprehensive treatment of the many and ever so intense polemics arising out of Fanon's works that continue to be fiercely debated.' * Paget Henry, Brown University *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe story of the enforced settlement of Gypsy travelers in southeast England, whose nomadic lifestyle ended when they were moved to concrete ghettos of local-government-run caravan sites following the 1968 Caravan Sites Act, is told in this textual and visual rendering. The seasonal work harvesting fruit and vegetables that attracted Gypsy families who lived in ""bender"" tents and traveled in horse-drawn wagons to Kent dried up in the post–World War II era when mechanization reduced the need for labor. Historical accounts, primary sources, and stories told by Gypsies provide an intimate picture of the cultural and social impact of this transition and the loss of identity that struck members of this rarely documented ethnic group.Table of ContentsChapter One: the Old Ways; Chapter Two: Vagrancy and the Gypsies; Chapter Three: Wagons and Tents; Chapter Four: Winds of Change; Chapter Five: On the Verge; Chapter Six: Council sites: sanctuary or graveyard?; Chapter Seven: "Into brick"; Conclusion: Caravans of the Mind

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisHaunted houses, bitter revenants and muffled heartbeats under floorboards — the American gothic is a macabre tale based on a true story. Part memoir and part cultural critique, Darkly reveals the heart of America’s darkness in the specters left from chattel slavery and the persistence of white supremacy. Locating the gothic in technologies of terror, the insurgency of melancholy, and the guilty conscience of a country that got away with murder, Darkly shows how this trauma has been metabolized into art, music, film, and literature. America's story is founded in horror, with a culture shaped from the Black experience, proving that you can’t get more goth than Black.Trade Review"I am struck by the depth of Leila Taylor's vision. The generosity shown in the way a history (and present) is illuminated. This book does so much beautiful work to widen the expectations and understandings of blackness, and I am immensely thankful for it." — Hanif Abdurraqib, author of Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest and They Can't Kill Us Until they Kill Us"A powerful and deeply personal exploration of what it means to be an outsider within an outsider culture. Between the black aesthetic of goth culture and the Blackness of America, Leila Taylor navigates seamlessly between cultural critique, personal history, and a history of America's troubled past in writing that is incessant, curious, and generous, and a voice that is at turns both searing and vulnerable. Powerful and strange, uncanny and unforgettable." — Colin Dickey, author of Ghostland"Takes us on a path that connects the Middle Ages, Edgar Allen Poe, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Afropunk, Prince, Black Lives Matter, and Hot Topic. It’s an incredible journey..." — Baratunde Thurston"Fascinating. A revelatory exploration of blackness, goth culture and the ramifications of inherited trauma."—Irenosen Okojie“A rare glimpse into American gothic from an African American perspective.”—Library Journal

Read more less