Cultural Literature

Booklist Editors' Choice "Best Books of 2019" An intimate portrait of the joys and hardships of rural life, as one man searches for community, equality, and tradition in Appalachia Charles D. Thompson, Jr. was born in southwestern Virginia into an...

Memphis in 1968 was ruled by a paternalistic plantation mentality embodied in its good-old-boy mayor, Henry Loeb. Wretched conditions, abusive white supervisors, poor education, and low wages locked most black workers into poverty. Then two sanitation...

As Hip-Hop first exploded throughout New York City's boroughs and surrounding towns, a new generation was emerging--the first to be raised on the genre. At the center of it all was a collective known as the Juice Crew, led by the charismatic radio...

2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award WinnerFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award From an award-winning historian comes a dazzling history of the birth of cultural anthropology and the adventurous scientists who pioneered it--a sweeping chronicle...

In God, I Listened Too, Dr. La-Doris McClaney recounts her life and shares how the power of prayer, determination, and pure grit can transform a simple seed into an abundant harvest worth millions of dollars and countless lives forever changed. From her...

Equal parts cultural history and memoir, God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man recounts a traditional way of life--that of the Geechee Indians of Sapelo Island-- that is threatened by change, with stories that speak to our deepest notions of family,...

""William Myers has produced an outstanding study of the call to ministry among African American clergy. This is the broadest and deepest study of African American call stories and narratives ever written. Moving beyond the ethnographic descriptions,...

Joseph Sebarenzi's parents, seven siblings, and countless other family members were among 800,000 Tutsi brutally murdered over the course of ninety days in 1994 by extremist Rwandan Hutu--an efficiency that exceeded even that of the Nazi Holocaust. His...

A New York Times Notable Book National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist An NPR Best Book of the Year God Save Texas is a journey through the most controversial state in America. It is a red state, but the cities are blue and among the most diverse in...

Woody Strode's extraordinary career led him from football field to wrestling ring to Hollywood. In 1939 Woody, Jackie Robinson and Kenny Washington led UCLA to its first undefeated football season. After World War II Woody and Kenny Washington became the...