Cultural Literature

Winner of the Zócalo Public Square Book PrizeBenjamin L. Hooks Award Finalist "An insightful, powerful, and moving book."--Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice "Sturkey's clear-eyed and meticulous book pulls off a delicate balancing act. While depicting...

Winner of the 2020 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize A rich, multigenerational saga of race and family in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, that tells the story of how Jim Crow was built, how it changed, and how the most powerful social movement in American...

From an accomplished historian comes an uncompromising look at the pervasive racism in Hollywood, as seen through the life and times of actress Hattie McDaniel Hattie McDaniel is best known for her performance as Mammy, the sassy foil to Scarlett O'Hara...

If you believe the news, today's America is plagued by an epidemic of violent hate crimes. But is that really true? In Hate Crime Hoax, Professor Wilfred Reilly examines over one hundred widely publicized incidents of so-called hate crimes that never...

In 1861, Harriet Ann Jacobs published a masterpiece, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Her book is the first and only narrative to give voice to a woman who escaped slavery. Cornelia Grinnell Willis not only purchased Harriet's freedom, but she also

A great many books have been written about Harlem, but for social history by product has surpassed Gilbert Osofsky's account of how a pleasant, pastoral upper-middle-class suburb of Manhattan turned into an appalling black slum within forty years. Mr...

Harlem is one of the best-known neighborhoods in the U.S., and it's also one of the nation's most vibrant cultural hubs. Though its reputation has been tarnished at times by economic depressions and crime, its loyal community has created a unique history...

Baseball has witnessed more than 125,000 home runs. Many have altered the outcome of games, and some have decided pennants and become legend. But no dinger has had greater impact than Hank Aaron's 715th home run. His historic blast on April 8, 1974,...

On a frosty day in February 1862, hundreds gathered to watch the execution of Nathaniel Gordon. Two years earlier, Gordon had taken Africans in chains from the Congo -- a hanging offense for more than forty years that no one had ever enforced. But with...

The end of Roe v. Wade is coming. How will you prepare? Handbook for a Post-Roe America is a comprehensive and user-friendly manual for understanding and preparing for the looming changes to reproductive rights law, and getting the healthcare you...

As heard on NPR's Fresh Air A "persuasive and essential" (Matthew Desmond) work that will forever change how we look at life after prison in America through Miller's "stunning, and deeply painful reckoning with our nation's carceral system" (Heather Ann...

Rachel Berghash's lyrical, impressionistic memoir charts her relationship with her homeland during a lifelong journey of self-discovery, beginning with a child's-eye view of the city's sacred mysteries, her family's religious orthodoxy, and the...