How the Word is Passed considers the ways in which America has depicted, struggled with, and
ignored its history of slavery through public monuments, museums, and other
sites of remembrance.
I work in the field of public history, and I found this
book to be an insightful critique of the differences between history, nostalgia,
and memory. In some ways, this book reads as a travelogue, as we follow the
author through the United States and to Africa as he struggles to understand
how his nation has reckoned with its past.
The book is personal while at the
same time revealing historical truths in a journalistic way. This book has
helped me in my own work in public history.
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION
'A beautifully readable reminder of how much of our urgent, collective history resounds in places all around us that have been hidden in plain sight.' Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks - those that are honest about the past and those that are not - which offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in…
Great
fiction can illuminate a reality and foster empathy and understanding. This is
the case with Demon Copperhead.
This book, which follows the title
character through a troubled childhood in Appalachia, provides a window into
the origins of the opioid crisis. I became truly invested in the plight of the
Demon. At times, while I was eager to keep reading, it felt ominous to turn the
page if I sensed another tragedy approaching.
This story lived and breathed
with me, and I thought about the character when I wasn’t actively reading about
him.
Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…
I
found this book to be a well-researched and convincing account of the racial
hierarchy in the United States, which Wilkerson identifies as a caste system. In
part, Wilkerson justifies this label through comparisons with India’s caste
system, and the caste system which was in place in Nazi Germany.
This book opened
my eyes in many ways. Especially shocking was the degree to which Nazi leaders
and academics studied the U.S policies before enacting their own laws.
Wilkerson effectively argues that these racial hierarchies are not haphazard or
coincidental but were/are constructed with purpose and malice.
THE TIME NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR | #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"Powerful and timely ... I cannot recommend it strongly enough" - Barack Obama
From one of America's most celebrated and insightful writers, the moving, eye-opening bestseller about what lies hidden under the surface of ordinary lives
In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human…
Soldiers found guilty of desertion or cowardice during the Great War faced death by firing squad.Novels, histories, movies, and television series often depict court martial as brutal and inflexible, and social memories of this system of frontline justice have inspired modern movements to seek pardons for soldiers executed on the battlefield.
In this powerful and moving book, Teresa Iacobelli looks beyond stories of callous generals and quick executions to consider the trials of nearly two hundred soldiers who were sentenced to death but spared by a disciplinary system capable of thoughtful review and compassion.
By bringing to light these men's experiences, Death or Deliverance reconsiders an important chapter in the history of both a war and a nation.
