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Why read it?

1 author picked Beating Against the Barriers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Several of the seven former slaves brought to life in Richard Blackett’s classic work pursued trans-Atlantic reform long before American disunion. Nothing like this book has appeared since its publication, and so I find myself poking around, always with great pleasure, in the taut, dramatic stories of Black émigrés like J. Sella Martin, William and Ellen Craft, and William Howard Day. Their vivid lives demonstrate the unique value of stories told by those with first-hand experience of Southern slavery.

The polished biographies pair these freed people’s quest to impugn the Confederacy with other commitments and takes pains to place interest…

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Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

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