Cultural Literature

Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be "smart enough," using technology to promote democracy and equity.Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that...

For more than two millennia, African blacksmiths have transformed one of Earth's most basic natural resources into objects of life-changing utility, empowerment, prestige, spiritual potency, and astonishing artistry--shaping African cultures in the most...

"A tour de force. . . . Crouch has given us a bone-deep understanding of Parker's music and the world that produced it. In his pages, Bird still lives." -- Washington PostA stunning portrait of Charlie Parker, one of the most talented and influential...

- For the first time African headrests are brought to life with detailed information on their carvers, and the stories of their creation, ownership, and useHeadrests from Southern Africa - The architecture of sleep presents the subject of southern...

DK Eyewitness travel guides: award-winning guidebooks Welcome to this vibrant corner of the world. Whether you want to meander around medieval medinas, be entranced by storytellers and musicians on Marrakech's main square or indulge in some rest and...

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR and THE WASHINGTON POST Compelling, insightful and important, Beneath a Ruthless Sun exposes the corruption of racial bigotry and animus that shadows a community, a state and a nation. A fascinating examination of an...

With its beautiful beaches and golf courses, the island of the Dominican Republic is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean. Yet when missionary priest Fr. Christopher Hartley arrived in the country in 1997, he discovered another...

From the New York Times-bestselling authors of THE PACT Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt discovered early in their friendship that they shared a disturbing trait: as children, they navigated dangerous inner-city life without a father's...

Praised by The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Bitch Magazine; Slate; Publishers Weekly; and more, this is "a bracing corrective to a national mythology" (New York Times) around the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement has become...

To be a moral witness is perhaps the highest calling of journalism, and in this unforgettable, highly readable account of contemporary slavery, author Benjamin Skinner travels around the globe to personally tell stories that need to be told -- and heard...

We Fought the Road is the story of the building of the Alaska-Canada Highway during World War II. More than one third of the 10,607 builders were black; thought to be incapable of performing on a war front by many of their white commanding officers...