I love revisionist history because it challenges me to rethink the way i understand the way the world works. In this brilliant work, French shatters our assumptions about how and why Europe began its long march to dominance over the planet. He majes a powerful case, one i believe will become generally accepted by historians late in this century and thereafter.
In a sweeping narrative that traverses 600 years, one that eloquently weaves precise historical detail with poignant personal reportage, Pulitzer Prize finalist Howard W. French retells the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in America and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe's dehumanising engagement with the "darkest" continent.
Born in Blackness dramatically retrieves the lives of major African historical figures whose stories have been repeatedly etiolated and erased over centuries, from unimaginably rich medieval African emperors who traded with Asia; to Kongo sovereigns who…
James McBride is one of America’s most outstanding novelists. In this book, his most recent work, he illuminates a time in our history when large numbers of African Americans and Jews lived side by side in poor neighborhoods without friction. And McBride manages to find humor throughout the story, softening the edges of what might become in the hands of a lesser writer an angry and unpleasant experience for the reader.
“A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.” —Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review
“We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for…
Almost every profession today consists of specialties, and those who practice within the bounds of a single specialty interact very little with those in other specialties. That’s true of history, as it is of physics, biology, and so many other fields of study. Generalists are rare, and those who approach their work taking a truly global view rarer still. Kennedy is a brilliant exception. In this book, which spans tens of thousands of years, he challenges some of the fundamental assumption we take for granted about our shared past.
A “gripping” (The Washington Post) account of how the major transformations in history—from the rise of Homo sapiens to the birth of capitalism—have been shaped not by humans but by germs
“Superbly written . . . Kennedy seamlessly weaves together scientific and historical research, and his confident authorial voice is sure to please readers of Yuval Noah Harari or Rutger Bregman.”—The Times (U.K.)
According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism…
This book lays out the argument for business to cultivate millions of new customers in the poorer countries of the world by applying the principles of human-centered design, helping villagers build small-scale local businesses that will lift them out of poverty.
