Clint Smith

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Wisconsin

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Poet and contributor to The Atlantic Clint Smith's revealing, contemporary portrait of America as a slave owning nation Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks-those that are honest about the past and those that are not-that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves. It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving over 400 people on the premises. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola Prison in Louisiana, a former plantation named for the country from which most of its enslaved people arrived and which has since become one of the most gruesome maximum-security prisons in the world. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers. In a deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view-whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods--like downtown Manhattan--on which the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women and children has been deeply imprinted. Informed by scholarship and brought alive by the story of people living today, Clint Smith's debut work of nonfiction is a landmark work of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in understanding our country.

How the Word Is Passed

78a059d6-f090-482c-bc63-c817f63385b0-1

Lily Geismer

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

The Democrats' Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality

The 40-year history of how Democrats chose political convenience over addressing inequality--and how the poor have paid the price. For decades, the Republican party has been known as the party of the rich: arguing for "business-friendly" policies like deregulation and tax cuts. But as our national and global economy confronts a crisis of inequality, the truth is that Democrats have been unwilling to take risks that would help eliminate poverty. In this incisive new book, political historian Lily Geismer shows how the Democratic party of the 80s and 90s -- particularly during the height of the Clinton years -- peddled policy ideas that centered on helping the poor without asking the rich to make any sacrifices: doing well by doing good. Micro-lending became a big business, and private programs to promote democracy and equality abroad grew trendy. But as social programs in the private sector boomed, the structure of the government began to weaken, contributing to a crisis that has now fully arrived. Geismer makes her case through artful storytelling and a savvy eye, conjuring in meticulous detail the political moments that led to these fateful decisions. We've seen skyrocketing income inequality, huge discrepancies between the haves and have-nots, and growing poverty in America. This is the story of how we got ourselves into this mess, and where we can go from here.

Left Behind

ef5e3622-0ff5-41b0-8722-e123c4c7f7c6-0

Nikolaus Wachsmann

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

The first comprehensive history of the Nazi concentration camps In a landmark work of history, Nikolaus Wachsmann offers an unprecedented, integrated account of the Nazi concentration camps from their inception in 1933 through their demise, seventy years ago, in the spring of 1945. The Third Reich has been studied in more depth than virtually any other period in history, and yet until now there has been no history of the camp system that tells the full story of its broad development and the everyday experiences of its inhabitants, both perpetrators and victims, and all those living in what Primo Levi called "the gray zone." In KL, Wachsmann fills this glaring gap in our understanding. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system. Examining, close-up, life and death inside the camps, and adopting a wider lens to show how the camp system was shaped by changing political, legal, social, economic, and military forces, Wachsmann produces a unified picture of the Nazi regime and its camps that we have never seen before. A boldly ambitious work of deep importance, KL is destined to be a classic in the history of the twentieth century.

6cfe093e-5de3-4349-a4c1-4e35b24247c4-1

Danielle Allen

"Danielle Allen revisits Rawls' landmark A Theory of Justice to make the case that justice, which she defines as the necessary conditions for human flourishing, requires the protection of political equality or the ability of all people who wish to participate in the political process, to do so on an equal footing. She argues that Rawls, and other thinkers in his wake who focused on protection of individuals from intrusion of the state, as well as many economists with their focus on utilitarian approaches to public policy, have neglected political equality which has led to the denial of justice to many in our society. At a time when economic and political inequality have increased dramatically, and political inequality is threatened by efforts to limit the ability of many to engage in the most basic political right, voting, this book could not be timelier. This book builds on Allen's Berlin Lectures on COVID that we just published in arguing that policymaking fails when it excludes whole communities from participation in the political process. This manuscript is based on the Berlin Lectures that Allen originally intended to deliver in 2020. Allen substituted the lectures on policymaking for COVID given the urgency of the pandemic"--

Justice by Means of Democracy

7ec7b9df-c6bd-4189-8578-84621ed1ff29-0

Anabel Hernández

The True Story Behind the Missing Forty Three Students

The definitive account of the disappearance of forty-three Mexican students On September 26, 2014, a party of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College were en route to a protest when intercepted by local police. A confrontation ensued. Come the morning, the students were nowhere to be found. The crime that had transpired and the resultant cover-up brought the profound depths of corruption in the Mexican government and police force—as well as the vulnerability of ordinary Mexicans—into stark relief. Investigative reporter Anabel Hernández reconstructs the terrible events of that night and its aftermath, giving us the most complete picture available. Her sources are unparalleled. In researching this book, she secured access to internal government documents that have not been made public and to surveillance footage the government has tried to hide and destroy. Hernández demolishes the Mexican state’s official version of events, which the Peña Nieto government cynically dubbed the “historic truth.” As her research shows, state officials at all levels, from police and prosecutors to the upper echelons of government, conspired to put together a fake case, concealing and manipulating evidence, and arresting and torturing dozens of “suspects,” procuring forced confessions to back up the official lie. By following the role of the various Mexican state agencies through the events in such remarkable detail, A Massacre in Mexico shows with exacting precision precisely who is responsible for this monumental crime and who needs to be held accountable.

A Massacre in Mexico

dca0885a-2a9c-4d63-9650-624e70389a60-1

Max Ellithorpe

Max Ellithorpe

@maxellithorpe

Books Listed

Following

Followers

Clint Smith

How the Word Is Passed

Lily Geismer

Left Behind

Nikolaus Wachsmann

Kl

Danielle Allen

Justice by Means of Democracy

Anabel Hernández

A Massacre in Mexico

Get The App

Browse by categories

Clint Smith

How the Word Is Passed

Lily Geismer

Left Behind

Nikolaus Wachsmann

Kl

Danielle Allen

Justice by Means of Democracy

Anabel Hernández

A Massacre in Mexico

Get The App