Cultural Literature

"Essential reading" on some of the most egregious human rights violations within women's prisons in the United States (Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black) Here, in their own words, thirteen women recount their lives leading up to...

In 2004, the Academy Award-nominated movie Hotel Rwanda lionized hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina for single-handedly saving the lives of all who sought refuge in the Hotel des Milles Collines during Rwanda's genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. Because of...

The most popular outdoor basketball court in New York City is half the regulation size, offers no seating, and has sidelines bounded by a chain-link fence--but the summer league on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village has developed its share of stars and...

By 1940 the big band sound had grown stale, and jazz musicians began to search out new sounds and styles. At the Harlem nightclub Minton's Playhouse, a small group of musicians -- John Birks, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Beau Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk,...

An indictment of the American educational system criticizes the fact that the system has discarded the traditional goals of transmitting knowledge and fostering cognitive skills in favor of building self-esteem and promoting social harmony.

An indictment of the American educational system criticizes the fact that the system has discarded the traditional goals of transmitting knowledge and fostering cognitive skills in favor of building self-esteem and promoting social harmony.

A treat for every hip hop fan, this book presents a rare and indispensable look into the private life of the iconic Tupak Shakur, complete with original letters and poems.

In July 2004, federal agents raided the homes of five Palestinian-American families, arresting the five dads. The first trial of the "Holy Land Foundation Five" ended in a hung jury. The second, marked by highly questionable procedures, resulted in very...

A trailblazing memoir about one family's quest to face its slave-trading past, and an urgent call for reconciliation In 2001, Thomas DeWolf discovered that he was related to the most successful slave-trading family in U.S. history, responsible for...

Infinite Suburbia is the culmination of the MIT Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism's yearlong study of the future of suburban development. Extensive research, an exhibition, and a conference at MIT's Media Lab, this groundbreaking...

Written by a wrongfully convicted man who spent 16 years in solitary confinement and 12 years on death row--a powerful memoir about fighting for, and winning, exoneration In the summer of 1992, a grandmother, a teenage girl, and four children under the...

Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a bank holiday on March 5, 1933, closing banks across the country until they proved financial soundness. Meanwhile, as the United States crawled out of the Great Depression, Jesse H. Mitchell and a group of black...