This display (March 2016) included titles that cover a variety of social justice topics and movements such as: women's rights, civil rights, #blacklivesmatters, policing, human rights and more. Browse the list online and stop by the library to check out a title (or two)!
America at War with Itself by
From poisoned water and police violence in our cities, to gun massacres and hate-mongering on the presidential campaign trail, evidence that America is at war with itself is everywhere around us. The question is not whether or not it's happening, but how to understand the forces at work in order to prevent conditions from getting worse. Henry A. Giroux offers a powerful, far-reaching critique of the economic interests, cultural dimensions, and political dynamics involved in the nation's shift toward increasingly abusive forms of power. His analysis helps us to frame critical questions about what can and should be done to turn things around while we can. Reflecting on a wide range of social issues, Giroux contrasts Donald Trump's America with Sandra Bland's to understand who really benefits from politically fueled intolerance for immigrants, communities of color, Muslims, low-income families, and those who challenge state and corporate power. A passionate advocate for civil rights and the importance of the imagination, Giroux argues that only through widespread social investment in democracy and education can the common good hope to prevail over the increasingly concentrated influence of extreme right-wing politicians and self-serving economic interests. Praise for America at War with Itself: "This is the book Americans need to read now. No one is better than Henry Giroux at analyzing the truly dangerous threats to our society. He punctures our delusions and offers us a compelling and enlightened vision of a better way. America at War with Itself is the best book of the year."--Bob Herbert, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos and former Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times "In this current era of corporate media misdirection and misinformation, America at War with Itself is a must read for all Americans, especially young people. Henry Giroux is one of the few great political voices of today, with powerful insight into the truth. Dr. Giroux is defiantly explaining, against the grain, what's REALLY going on right now, and doing so quite undeniably. Simply put, the ideas he brings forth are a beacon that need to be seen and heard and understood in order for the world to progress."--Julian Casablancas "In America at War with Itself, Henry Giroux again proves himself one of North America’s most clear-sighted radical philosophers of education, culture and politics: radical because he discards the chaff of liberal critique and cuts to the root of the ills that are withering democracy. Giroux also connects the dots of reckless greed, corporate impunity, poverty, mass incarceration, racism and the co-opting of education to crush critical thinking and promote a culture that denigrates and even criminalizes civil society and the public good. His latest work is the antidote to an alarming tide of toxic authoritarianism that threatens to engulf America. The book could not be more timely."--Olivia Ward, Toronto Star "America at War with Itself makes the case for real ideological and structural change at a time when the need and stakes could not be greater. Everyone who cares about the survival and revival of democracy needs to read this book.”--Kenneth Saltman, Professor, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Author of The Failure of Corporate School Reform Henry A. Giroux's most recent books include The Violence of Organized Forgetting and America's Addiction to Terrorism. A prolific writer and political commentator, he has appeared in a wide range of media, including the New York Times and Bill Moyers.
American Prophets : Seven Religious Radicals and Their Struggle for Social and Political Justice by
American Prophets sheds critical new light on the lives and thought of seven major prophetic figures in twentieth-century America whose social activism was motivated by a deeply felt compassion for those suffering injustice. In this compelling and provocative book, acclaimed religious scholar Albert Raboteau tells the remarkable stories of Abraham Joshua Heschel, A. J. Muste, Dorothy Day, Howard Thurman, Thomas Merton, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Fannie Lou Hamer--inspired individuals who succeeded in conveying their vision to the broader public through writing, speaking, demonstrating, and organizing. Raboteau traces how their paths crossed and their lives intertwined, creating a network of committed activists who significantly changed the attitudes of several generations of Americans about contentious political issues such as war, racism, and poverty. Raboteau examines the influences that shaped their ideas and the surprising connections that linked them together. He discusses their theological and ethical positions, and describes the rhetorical and strategic methods these exemplars of modern prophecy used to persuade their fellow citizens to share their commitment to social change. A momentous scholarly achievement as well as a moving testimony to the human spirit, American Prophets represents a major contribution to the history of religion in American politics. This book is essential reading for anyone who is concerned about social justice, or who wants to know what prophetic thought and action can mean in today's world.
American Protest Literature by
'American Protest Literature' presents sources from 11 protest movements - political, social and cultural - from the Revolution to abolition to gay rights to antiwar protest. Each section reprints documents from the original phase of the movement as well as evidence of its legacy in later times.
Bad Feminist by
One of our most indispensable writers . . . on everything that matters
The Boundaries of Her Body by
The Boundaries of Her Body is the definitive history of the cycle of advances and setbacks that characterizes women's rights in America. Author Debran Rowland covers emotionally charged issues with thoughtful detail, offering insight into the strategies used by politicians and lobbyists to defeat long-standing law.
Civil Rights History from the Ground Up by
After decades of scholarship on the civil rights movement at the local level, the insights of bottom-up movement history remain essentially invisible in the accepted narrative of the movement and peripheral to debates on how to research, document, and teach about the movement. This collection of original works refocuses attention on this bottom-up history and compels a rethinking of what and who we think is central to the movement. The essays examine such locales as Sunflower County, MississipΠ Memphis, Tennessee; and Wilson, North Carolina; and engage such issues as nonviolence and self-defense, the implications of focusing on women in the movement, and struggles for freedom beyond voting rights and school desegregation. Events and incidents discussed range from the movement’s heyday to the present and include the Poor People’s Campaign mule train to Washington, D.C., the popular response to the deaths of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, and political cartoons addressing Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The kinds of scholarship represented here-which draw on oral history and activist insights (along with traditional sources) and which bring the specificity of time and place into dialogue with broad themes and a national context-are crucial as we continue to foster scholarly debates, evaluate newer conceptual frameworks, and replace the superficial narrative that persists in the popular imagination.
The Civil Rights Movement by
Praise for the book when it was first published: 'William T. Martin Riches has written a book for undergraduates and general audiences that provides an excellent introduction to and review of the U.S. civil rights movement' - Michael D. Cary, History: Review of New Books The Civil Rights Movement in the United States struggled to create a nation. The Civil War ended de jure slavery but it needed the movement to dismantle laws designed to keep African Americans subordinated to white power. In this compelling introduction, William T. Martin Riches analyses the way African Americans developed a mass movement after World War II and overthrew state-enforced racial segregation despite fierce resistance from whites. Riches emphasises how the movement influenced others seeking justice in America, and evaluates the coalitions formed to preserve gains threatened by the rise of the New Right. Thoroughly revised and updated in the light of the latest scholarship, the third edition of The Civil Rights Movement: * sets the movement in its broader context * stresses the changing role of black women, and their problems with the women's movement and black nationalism * demonstrates the positive influence on some white southerners * explores the key role played by the state and federal judiciaries * assesses the administrations of George W. Bush * examines the rise of Neo-Conservatism * covers the presidential election campaign of 2008 and analyses Barack Obama's first months in office. William T. Martin Riches was formerly Senior Lecturer and Convenor of American Studies at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown.
The Crusades of Cesar Chavez by
Cesar Chavez founded a labor union, launched a movement, and inspired a generation. He rose from migrant worker to national icon, becoming one of the great charismatic leaders of the 20th century. Two decades after his death, Chavez remains the most significant Latino leader in US history. Yet his life story has been told only in hagiography-until now. In the first comprehensive biography of Chavez, Miriam Pawel offers a searching yet empathetic portrayal. Chavez emerges here as a visionary figure with tragic flaws; a brilliant strategist who sometimes stumbled; and a canny, streetwise organizer whose pragmatism was often at odds with his elusive, soaring dreams. He was an experimental thinker with eclectic passions-an avid, self-educated historian and a disciple of Gandhian non-violent protest. Drawing on thousands of documents and scoresof interviews, this superbly written life deepens our understanding of one of Chavez's most salient qualities: his profound humanity.Pawel traces Chavez's remarkable career as he conceived strategies that empowered the poor and vanquished California's powerful agriculture industry, and his later shift from inspirational leadership to a cult of personality, with tragic consequences for the union he had built. The Crusades of Cesar Chavez reveals how this most unlikely American hero ignited one of the great social movements of our time.
Debt or Democracy by
Debt or Democracy explodes the myths behind modern money. It challenges the neoliberal obsession with public debt and deficit, arguing that a much more serious problem is the privatised creation of money through bank debt that leads to boom and bust. Far from being a burden on the taxpayer, Mary Mellor argues that public money and public expenditure is necessary for economic well-being. Arguing that money is a public resource that should be under democratic control, Debt or Democracy directly challenges conventional economic thinking and presents a radical alternative for socially just and ecologically sustainable provisioning.
Documenting the Undocumented by
Looking at the work of Junot Díaz, Cristina García, Julia Alvarez, and other Latino/a authors who are U.S. citizens, Marta Caminero-Santangelo examines how writers are increasingly expressing their solidarity with undocumented immigrants. Through storytelling, these writers create community and a sense of peoplehood that includes non-citizen Latino/as. This volume also foregrounds the narratives of unauthorized migrants themselves, showing how their stories are emerging into the public sphere.
Immigration and citizenship are multifaceted issues, and the voices are myriad. They challenge common interpretations of "illegal" immigration, explore inevitable traumas and ethical dilemmas, protest their own silencing in immigration debates, and even capitalize on the topic for the commercial market. Yet these texts all seek to affect political discourse by advancing the possibility of empathy across lines of ethnicity and citizenship status. As border enforcement strategies escalate along with political rhetoric, detentions, and deaths, these counternarratives are more significant than ever before, and their perspectives cannot be ignored. What we are witnessing, argues Caminero-Santangelo, is a mass mobilization of stories. This growing body of literature is critical to understanding not only the Latino/a immigrant experience but also alternative visions of nation and belonging.
Exile and Pride by
"Eli Clare works a vital alchemy. . . . Using the language of the elemental world, he delineates a complex human intersection and transmutes cruelty into its opposite--a potent, lifegiving remedy."--Alison Bechdel, author of "Fun Home" First published in 1999, "Exile & Pride" established Eli Clare as one of the leading writers on the intersections of queerness and disability. With this critical tenth-anniversary edition, the groundbreaking publication secures its position as essential to the history of queer and disability politics, and, through significant new material that boldly interrogates and advances the original text, to its future as well. Clare's writing on his experiences as a genderqueer activist/writer with cerebral palsy permanently changed the landscape of disability politics and queer liberation, and yet "Exile & Pride" is much too great in scope to be defined by even these two issues. Instead it offers an intersectional framework for understanding how our bodies actually experience the politics of oppression, power, and resistance. At the heart of Clare's exploration of environmental destruction, white working-class identity, queer community, disabled sexuality, childhood sexual abuse, coalition politics, and his own gender transition is a call for social justice movements that are truly accessible for everyone. Blending prose and theory, personal experience and political debate, anger and compassion, "Exile & Pride" provides a window into a world where our whole selves in all their complexity can be loved and accepted. An award-winning poet and essayist, Eli Clare is also the author of "The Marrow's Telling."
Ferguson by
It's difficult to truly understand Ferguson, Missouri, the Michael Brown shooting, or present-day race relations in America without first getting a grasp on the historical events that preceded the 2014 riots. Events, attitudes, and practices from several centuries ago put the United States on the path to becoming a nation of two societies--one black, one white--separate and unequal. "Ferguson: Americas Breaking Point" begins where slavery in America "officially" ended--after the Civil War. Tim Suereth explores the pivotal events that led the United States into continuing strife between its own people, and describes the circumstances which caused the Ferguson race riots. He also speculates about what the repercussions will be for other racially-divided cities across the country, and for law enforcement organizations everywhere. "Ferguson: Americas Breaking Point" ends in Ferguson, a small suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, that became the epicenter of the fight for civil rights in the 21st century. The book describes the details of the Michael Brown shooting, and aftermath, in a daily timeline of memorable moments, by Darren Wilson, the Brown family, law enforcement, the Federal Government, activists, anarchists and the judicial system. Racial rioting will continue in America until policymakers heed the advice of the 1968 Presidential Commission on Civil Disorders, which concluded that the deepening racial division among the races can be reversed if swift action is taken, but warned: "If we are heedless, none of us shall escape the consequences." American politicians have been heedless, and Ferguson was the consequence. Read "Ferguson: America's Breaking Point" to learn the startling and worrisome details.
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation by
The eruption of mass protests in the wake of the police murders of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City have challenged the impunity with which officers of the law carry out violence against Black people and punctured the illusion of a postracial America. The Black Lives Matter movement has awakened a new generation of activists. In this stirring and insightful analysis, activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberation.
Girls Like Us by
British-born Rachel Lloyd dropped out of school at 13 to support her single alcoholic mother. With little opportunity, she soon found herself spiraling into a life of torment and abuse as a sexually exploited girl. This is a memoir that tells her life story - a harrowing and inspirational tale of suffering, recovery, discovery, and nobility.
Grant Park by
"A novel as significant as it is engrossing." --Booklist, starred review Grant Park is a page-turning and provocative look at black and white relations in contemporary America, blending the absurd and the poignant in a powerfully well-crafted narrative that showcases Pitts's gift for telling emotionally wrenching stories. Grant Park begins in 1968, with Martin Luther King's final days in Memphis. The story then moves to the eve of the 2008 election, and cuts between the two eras. Disillusioned columnist Malcolm Toussaint, fueled by yet another report of unarmed black men killed by police, hacks into his newspaper's server to post an incendiary column that had been rejected by his editors. Toussaint then disappears, and his longtime editor, Bob Carson, is summarily fired within hours of the column's publication. While a furious Carson tries to find Toussaint--while simultaneously dealing with the reappearance of a lost love from his days as a 60s activist--Toussaint is abducted by two white supremacists plotting to explode a bomb at Barack Obama's planned rally in Chicago’s Grant Park. Toussaint and Carson are forced to remember the choices they made as young men, when both their lives were changed profoundly by their work in the civil rights movement.
Hip Hop Movement by
The Hip Hop Movement offers a critical theory and alternative history of rap music and hip hop culture by examining their roots in the popular musics and popular cultures of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement. Connecting classic rhythm & blues and rock & roll to the Civil Rights Movement, and classic soul and funk to the Black Power Movement, The Hip Hop Movement explores what each of these musics and movements contributed to rap, neo-soul, hip hop culture, and the broader Hip Hop Movement. Ultimately, this book s remixes (as opposed to chapters) reveal that black popular music and black popular culture have always been more than merely popular music and popular culture in the conventional sense and reflect a broader social, political, and cultural movement. With this in mind, sociologist and musicologist Reiland Rabaka critically reinterprets rap and neo-soul as popular expressions of the politics, social visions, and cultural values of a contemporary multi-issue movement: the Hip Hop Movement. Rabaka argues that rap music, hip hop culture, and the Hip Hop Movement are as deserving of critical scholarly inquiry as previous black popular musics, such as the spirituals, blues, ragtime, jazz, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, soul, and funk, and previous black popular movements, such as the Black Women s Club Movement, New Negro Movement, Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Movement, Black Power Movement, Black Arts Movement, and Black Women s Liberation Movement. This volume, equal parts alternative history of hip hop and critical theory of hip hop, challenges those scholars, critics, and fans of hip hop who lopsidedly over-focus on commercial rap, pop rap, and gangsta rap while failing to acknowledge that there are more than three dozen genres of rap music and many other socially and politically progressive forms of hip hop culture beyond DJing, MCing, rapping, beat-making, break-dancing, and graffiti-writing."
A History of U. S. Feminisms by
The History of U.S. Feminism is an introductory text designed to be used as supplementary material for first-year women’s studies students or as a brush-up text for more advanced students. Covering the first, second, and third waves of feminism, The History of U.S. Feminism provides historical context of all the major events and players since the late nineteenth century through today. The chapters cover first-wave feminism, a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth and early twentieth century which focused primarily on gaining women's suffrage; second-wave feminism, which started in the ’60s and lasted through the ’80s and is best understood as emphasizing the connection between the personal and the political; and third-wave feminism, which started in the early ’90s and arose in part from a backlash against the movements propagated by the second wave.
Howard Zinn Speaks by
"Howard Zinn--there was no one like him. And to hear him speak was like listening to music that you loved--lyrical, uplifting, honest."--Michael Moore "Zinn's speeches . . . are a joy and an inspiration."--Marisa Tomei "Collected here for the first time, Howard's speeches come to us at the moment when we need them most: just as a global network of popular uprisings searches for what comes next."--Naomi Klein Howard Zinn was one of the great orators of the twentieth century and illuminated our history like no other historian. He rarely spoke from notes, and yet could weave rich historical narratives that inspired and captivated audiences. He could grab the attention of even the most jaded students and charm listeners with his sharp humor and personal, engaging style. Many of his speeches have never been published in book form. This first ever collection of his speeches will be an invaluable resource for new generations to continue to discover his work, as well as the millions he moved and informed in his lifetime. Howard Zinnwrote the classicA People's History of the United States. The book, which has sold more than two million copies, has been featured in the filmGood Will Hunting, and has appeared multiple times onThe New York Timesbest-seller list. Anthony Arnovewrote, directed, and producedThe People Speakwith Howard Zinn, Chris Moore, Josh Brolin, and Matt Damon, and co-edited, with Howard Zinn,Voices of a People's History of the United States.
Human Rights by
Today it is usually not long before a problem gets expressed as a human rights issue. Indeed, human rights law continues to gain increasing attention internationally, and must move quickly in order to keep up with a social world that changes so rapidly.This Very Short Introduction, in its second edition, brings the issue of human rights up to date, considering the current controversies surrounding the movement. Discussing torture and arbitrary detention in the context of counter terrorism, Andrew Clapham also considers new challenges to humanrights in the context of privacy, equality and the right to health. Looking at the philosophical justification for rights, the historical origins of human rights and how they are formed in law, Clapham explains what our human rights actually are, what they might be, and where the human rightsmovement is heading.
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by
2015 Recipient of the American Book Award The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire. With growing support for movements such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples' Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. In An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: "The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them." Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples' history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is a 2015 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.
Jewish Feminists by
Studying American Jewish feminism from the 1960s and '70s, Jewish Feminists examines how second-wave feminist activists retrospectively construct their identities as Jews and how these constructions have changed throughout their lives. Dina Pinsky argues that these Jewish feminists experience a sense of ambivalence as both feminists and Jews as they ask how being Jewish makes them different from other women (or feminist men). Drawing from interviews with more than two dozen second-wave feminist Jews, of which five are men, Pinsky describes how these identities sometimes coincide or contrast. The book demonstrates that Jews share a unique relationship to gender, influenced by their experiences and perspectives as Jews. Pinsky adds to the feminist dialogue about cultural difference and intersectionality by exploring the narratives of a group that has long been absent from this discussion.
The L Life by
There have been few cultural touchstones to open people's eyes to everyday lesbian life;until now. Through fascinating interviews and stunning portrait photography, The L Life introduces us to the women who are changing our view of the world. This candid collection is a celebration of real women, alongside headline-makers such as breast cancer researcher and bestselling author Dr. Susan Love; groundbreaking authors Alison Bechdel and Ann Bannon; entertainers such as actress Jane Lynch and comedian Kate Clinton; Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and longtime activist Phyllis Lyon; award-winning film producer Christine Vachon; and many more.
March: Book 1 by
Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon, one of the key figuresof the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence hastaken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from asegregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receivingbeatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the firstAfrican-American president. Now, to share his remarkable story with newgenerations, Lewis presents March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaborationwith co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell(winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for Swallow MeWhole). March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis' lifelongstruggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on thedistance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis'personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civilrights movement. Book One spans John Lewis' youth in rural Alabama, hislife-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the NashvilleStudent Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolentlunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of CityHall. Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drewinspiration from the 1958 comic book "Martin Luther King and the MontgomeryStory." Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience,testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard forgenerations. Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books selection: recognizingan African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children andyoung adults: "March: Book One," written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin,illustrated by Nate Powell, and published by Top Shelf Productions.
March: Book 2 by
Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, continues hisaward-winning graphic novel trilogy with co-writer Andrew Aydin andartist Nate Powell, inspired by a 1950s comic book that helped prepare his own generation to join the struggle. Now, March brings the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation, urgently relevant for today's world. After the success of the Nashville sit-in campaign, John Lewis is more committed than ever to changing the world through nonviolence - but as he and his fellow Freedom Riders board a bus into the vicious heart of the deep south, they willbe tested like never before. Faced with beatings, police brutality, imprisonment, arson, and even murder, the movement's young activists place their lives on the line while internal conflicts threaten to tear them apart.
March: Book 3 by
Welcome to the stunning conclusion of the award-winning and best-selling MARCH trilogy. Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one ofthe key figures of the civil rights movement, joins co-writer Andrew Aydin andartist Nate Powell to bring the lessons of history to vivid life for a newgeneration, urgently relevant for today's world. By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights Movement has penetrated deep into the American consciousness, and as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is guiding the tip of the spear. Through relentless direct action, SNCC continues to force the nation to confront its own blatant injustice, but for every step forward, the danger grows more intense: Jim Crow strikes back through legal tricks, intimidation, violence, and death. The only hope for lasting change is to give voice to the millions of Americans silenced by voter suppression: "One Man, One Vote." To carry out their nonviolent revolution, Lewis and an army of young activists launch a series of innovative campaigns, including the Freedom Vote, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and an all-out battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television. With these new struggles come new allies, new opponents, and an unpredictable new president who might be both at once. But fractures within the movement are deepening ... even as 25-year-old John Lewis prepares to risk everything in a historic showdown high above the Alabama river, in a town called Selma.
Moving the Mountain by
Presents the story of the struggles and triumphs of thousands of activists who achieved 'half a revolution' between 1960 and 1990. This book presents a grass-roots view of the small steps and giant leaps that have changed laws and institutions as well as the prejudices and unspoken rules governing a woman's place in American society.
Muslim Women Reformers by
In this inspiring compilation of stories from around the world, the voices of these long-oppressed women ring loud and clear as they demand the social and political rights women lack in many Muslim countries.
Nickel and Dimed by
Our sharpest and most original social critic goes "undercover" as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity. Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job -- any job -- can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you int to live indoors. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-rent America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. Read it for the smoldering clarity of Ehrenreich's perspective and for a rare view of how "prosperity" looks from the bottom. You will never see anything -- from a motel bathroom to a restaurant meal -- in quite the same way again.
No One Is Illegal by
Countering the chorus of anti-immigrant voices, Mike Davis and Justin Akers Chacon expose the racism of anti-immigration vigilantes and put a human face on the immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border to work in the United States. |A rare combination of an author, Mike Davis is Rachel Carson and Upton Sinclair all in one.| - Susan Faludi |Davis' writing is perceptive and rigorous.| - David Montgomery, The Nation
Of Poetry and Protest by
Included in this extraordinary volume are the poems of 43 of America’s most talented African American wordsmiths, including Pulitzer Prize–winning poets Rita Dove, Natasha Tretheway, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Tracy K. Smith, as well as the work of other luminaries such as Elizabeth Alexander, Ishmael Reed, and Sonia Sanchez. Included are poems such as “No Wound of Exit” by Patricia Smith, “We Are Not Responsible” by Harryette Mullen, and “Poem for My Father” by Quincy Troupe. Each is accompanied by a photograph of the poet along with a first-person biography. The anthology also contains personal essays on race such as “The Talk” by Jeannine Amber and works by Harry Belafonte, Amiri Baraka, and The Reverend Dr. William Barber II, architect of the Moral Mondays movement, as well as images and iconic political posters of the Black Lives Matter movement, Malcolm X, and the Black Panther Party. Taken together, Of Poetry and Protest gives voice to the current conversation about race in America while also providing historical and cultural context. It serves as an excellent introduction to African American poetry and is a must-have for every reader committed to social justice and racial harmony.
One Woman, One Vote by
Companion book to the PBS American Experience documentary by the same name, this anthology is the most comprehensive collection of writings - contemporary and historical - on the woman suffrage movement in America. It includes essays by the most prominent contemporary historians, many who challenge widely accepted theories and illustrate the diversity and complexity of the fight for the 19th Amendment.
Oppose and Propose by
Where do the tactics, strategies and lifestyles of today's activists come from? Many ways of promoting radical politics pioneered by Movement for a New Society in the 1970s and 1980s have become central to anti-authoritarian social movements: consensus decision making, spokescouncils, communal living, unlearning oppressive behaviour and co-operatively owned businesses. Andrew Cornell's history of the movement uses its story to raise crucial questions for activists today.
Peacework by
Profiles of peacemakers : our mothers, sisters, selves : Ethel Barol Taylor, Jeanne Morin Buell, Esther Pollack Newill, Cora Weiss, Isobel Milton Cerney -- Trial by fire : wartime awakening to peace and justice issues : Helma Wilhemina Waldeck, Lisa Schmidt Kalvelage, Mariagnes Aya Uenishi Medrud, Marii Kyogoku Hasegawa -- Civil rights and peace : Mary Bess Owen Cameron, Erna Prather Harris, Enola Maxwell, Doris Cohen Jones -- Conscription and conscience : the Vietnam War : Beth Robinson Coats, Rose Rosenthal Dellamonica, Lucy Whitaker Haessler, Margaret Dawson Stein -- Vision and action : Madeline Taylor Duckles, Louise Page Austin Wilson, Rose Marciano Lucey, Elise Hansen Boulding, Dagmar Saerchinger Wilson, Mary Buell Duffield
Perfect Hostage by
Burma is a country where, as one senior UN official puts it, "just to turn your head can mean imprisonment or death." Aung San Suu Kyi is considered to be Burma's best hope for freedom, and, because of her unwavering commitment to nonviolent resistance to the country's brutal military junta, she has been under house arrest since 1989. Elected Prime Minister, she was prevented from taking office, but despite failing health, vilification at the hands of the Burmese media, and actual imprisonment in one of the world's most appalling jails, Suu Kyi has persevered in a campaign of nonviolent protest as unflagging as those of Gandhi, King, and Mandela, which earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In Perfect Hostage, the most thorough biography of Suu Kyi to date, Justin Wintle tells both the story of the Burmese people and the story of an ordinary person who became a hero.
The Politics of Star Trek by
The Star Trek franchise reflects, conveys, and comments upon the key philosophical tensions of the modern era: pragmatism vs. justice; universalism vs. traditionalism; empire vs. consensual polity; environmentalism vs. modernity. George A. Gonzalez details the manner in which these tensions and controversies are manifested in Star Trek across its iterations, and in so doing argues that Star Trek offers an indispensable intellectual and analytical contribution to our understanding of the politics of the modern era.
Profiles in Humanity by
This compelling book tells the inspirational stories of men and women who fought for peace, freedom, equality, and human rights throughout the twentieth century. These courageous individuals include leading figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, and Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as Nobel Prize winners Aung San Suu Kyi, Andrei Sakharov, and Muhammad Yunus.
Sisters in the Struggle by
Women were at the forefront of the civil rights struggle, but their indvidiual stories were rarely heard. Only recently have historians begun to recognize the central role women played in the battle for racial equality. In Sisters in the Struggle, we hear about the unsung heroes of the civil rights movements such as Ella Baker, who helped found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper who took on segregation in the Democratic party (and won), and Septima Clark, who created a network of "Citizenship Schools" to teach poor Black men and women to read and write and help them to register to vote. We learn of Black women's activism in the Black Panther Party where they fought the police, as well as the entrenched male leadership, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where the behind-the-scenes work of women kept the organization afloat when it was under siege. It also includes first-person testimonials from the women who made headlines with their courageous resistance to segregation--Rosa Parks, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, and Dorothy Height. This collection represents the coming of age of African-American women's history and presents new stories that point the way to future study.
Subterranean Fire by
Workers in the United States have a rich tradition of fighting back and achieving gains previously thought unthinkable, from the weekend, to health care, to the right to even form a union. But in 2005, the number of workers organized in unions reached a 100-year low in both the public and private sectors, even though more and more people would like the protection of a union, and real wages for most workers have stagnated or declined since the early 1970s. Smith explores how the connection between the US labor movement and the Democratic Party, with its extensive corporate ties, has repeatedly held back working-class struggles. And she closely examines the role of the labor movement in the 2004 presidential election, tracing the shrinking electoral influence of organized labor and the failure of labor-management cooperation, “business unionism,” and reliance on the Democrats to deliver any real gains. Smith shows how a return to the fighting traditions of US labor history, with their emphasis on rank-and-file strategies for change, can turn around the labor movement. Subterranean Fire brings working-class history to light and reveals its lessons for today. Sharon Smith is the author of Women and Socialism, also published by Haymarket Books, as well as many articles on women’s liberation and the US working class. Her writings appear regularly in Socialist Worker newspaper and the International Socialist Review. She has also written for the journal Historical Materialism and is a contributor to Iraq Under Siege :The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War and Women and the Revolution by Ethel Mannin. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.
This Is an Uprising by
There is a craft to uprising--and this craft can change the world From protests around climate change and immigrant rights, to Occupy, the Arab Spring, and #BlackLivesMatter, a new generation is unleashing strategic nonviolent action to shape public debate and force political change. When mass movements erupt onto our television screens, the media consistently portrays them as being spontaneous and unpredictable. Yet, in this book, Mark and Paul Engler look at the hidden art behind such outbursts of protest, examining core principles that have been used to spark and guide moments of transformative unrest. With incisive insights from contemporary activists, as well as fresh revelations about the work of groundbreaking figures such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Gene Sharp, and Frances Fox Piven, the Englers show how people with few resources and little conventional influence are engineering the upheavals that are reshaping contemporary politics. Nonviolence is usually seen simply as a philosophy or moral code. This Is an Uprising shows how it can instead be deployed as a method of political conflict, disruption, and escalation. It argues that if we are always taken by surprise by dramatic outbreaks of revolt, we pass up the chance to truly understand how social transformation happens.
Violence by
Much of the violence that has been associated with the United States has had particular salience for the South, from its high homicide rates, or its bloody history of racial conflict, to southerners' popular attachment to guns and traditional support for capital punishment. With over 95 entries, this volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture explores the most significant forms and many of the most harrowing incidences of violence that have plagued southern society over the past 300 years. Following a detailed overview by editor Amy Wood, the volume explores a wide range of topics, such as violence against and among American Indians, labor violence, arson, violence and memory, suicide, and anti-abortion violence. Taken together, these entries broaden our understanding of what has driven southerners of various classes and various ethnicities to commit acts of violence, while addressing the ways in which southerners have conceptualized that violence, responded to it, or resisted it. This volume enriches our understanding of the culture of violence and its impact on ideas about law and crime, about historical tradition and social change, and about race and gender--not only in the South but in the nation as a whole.
The Warmth of Other Suns by
One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. nbsp; With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an "unrecognized immigration" within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.
We must be up and doing : a reader in early African American feminisms by
African American women have been “up and doing” for their communities for as long as they have been in the United States, and their ability to resist the institution of slavery was central to the survival of African Americans. This anthology gives readers access to African American feminist thought in its foundational period by drawing together key documents from the late 1820s through the 1920s.
Women's Rights by
Women's rights issues have been a part of the political and social fabric of the United States since the Declaration of Independence. In fact, women's rights activists have often wielded principles enunciated in the Declaration as they struggled to secure equality. This reference source examines 15 controversial issues concerning women's rights in the United States. A historical overview introduces each issue, followed by the presentation of primary documents that illustrate the various positions women and men have taken in support of or opposition to the issue at hand.
Chapters highlight such landmark issues as the Declaration of the Rights of Women, women in the labor movement, women's suffrage, the politics of birth control and abortion, and Title IX. Each chapter concludes with an annotated list of sources to direct students in further research, making this a perfect starting point for students interested in examining the drama, impact, and constant national influence of women's issues.
Women's Rights Emerges Within the Anti-Slavery Movement, 1830-1870 by
Combining documents with an interpretive essay, this book is the first to offer a much-needed guide to the emergence of the women's rights movement within the anti-slavery activism of the 1830s. A 60-page introductory essay traces the cause of women's rights from Angelina and Sarah Grimké's campaign against slavery through the development of a full-fledged women's rights movement in the 1840s and 1850s. A rich collection of over 50 documents includes diary entries, letters, and speeches from the Grimkés, Maria Stewart, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Theodore Weld, Frances Harper, Sojourner Truth, and others.
Women and Social Change in America by
This book examines modern advances in gender equality and contemporary feminist discourse as a result of the American sexual revolution. It explains how and why the sexual revolution of the 1960s continues to have profound effects on modern views of femininity and what it means to be an American woman. Chapters cover how effective and available birth control affected women's advancement, the breakdown of traditional gender roles, and women's entrance into formerly male-dominated occupations.
They Can't Kill Us All by
A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting on the ground, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled from Ferguson, Missouri, to Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland; and then back to Ferguson to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today. In an effort to grasp the magnitude of the repose to Michael Brown's death and understand the scale of the problem police violence represents, Lowery speaks to Brown's family and the families of other victims other victims' families as well as local activists. By posing the question, "What does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?" Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs.
The Other Women's Movement by
American feminism has always been about more than the struggle for individual rights and equal treatment with men. There's also a vital and continuing tradition of women's reform that sought social as well as individual rights and argued for the dismantling of the masculine standard. In this much anticipated book, Dorothy Sue Cobble retrieves the forgotten feminism of the previous generations of working women, illuminating the ideas that inspired them and the reforms they secured from employers and the state. This socially and ethnically diverse movement for change emerged first from union halls and factory floors and spread to the "pink collar" domain of telephone operators, secretaries, and airline hostesses. From the 1930s to the 1980s, these women pursued answers to problems that are increasingly pressing today: how to balance work and family and how to address the growing economic inequalities that confront us. The Other Women's Movement traces their impact from the 1940s into the feminist movement of the present. The labor reformers whose stories are told in The Other Women's Movement wanted equality and "special benefits," and they did not see the two as incompatible. They argued that gender differences must be accommodated and that "equality" could not always be achieved by applying an identical standard of treatment to men and women. The reform agenda they championed--an end to unfair sex discrimination, just compensation for their waged labor, and the right to care for their families and communities--launched a revolution in employment practices that carries on today.
