The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans
Kathy Russell
Drawing on interviews, history and sociology, the authors--a black woman, a white woman and a black man--ably survey the highly charged issue of discrimination among blacks on the basis of skin Continue reading »
Wilson and Russell (a white woman and a black woman, who wrote The Color Complex, on color consciousness among blacks, with Ronald Hall) offer here another thought-provoking mix of analysis and Continue reading »
Look Out: The Delight and Danger of Taking the Long View
Edward McPherson
Guggenheim fellow McPherson (The History of the Future) presents a charming, idiosyncratic meditation on the human urge to see further, and more, in this cultural history of the Continue reading »
Japanese studies scholar Sheftall turns to the bombing of Nagasaki in this harrowing follow-up to Hiroshima. In his opening passages, Sheftall briefly surveys Nagasaki’s Continue reading »
Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur
Jeff Pearlman
Biographer Pearlman (The Last Folk Hero) chronicles the brief, chaotic life of rap legend Tupac Shakur in this excellent biography. Shakur was born in 1971 to mother Afeni, a Continue reading »
The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding
Joseph J Ellis
This incisive history from Pulitzer winner Ellis (American Sphinx) probes the contradiction between the Revolutionary era’s defense of universal rights and its complicity in Continue reading »