New Books in African American Studies

Tera W. Hunter, "Bound In Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century" (Harvard UP, 2017)

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Americans have long viewed marriage between a white man and a white woman as a sacred union. But marriages between African Americans have seldom been ...

Brandi T. Summers, "Black in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City" (UNC Press, 2019)

04 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

While Washington, D.C., is still often referred to as “Chocolate City,” it has undergone significant demographic, political, and economic change i...

Connor Towne O’Neill, "Down Along with That Devil’s Bones" (Algonquin Books, 2020)

04 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Down Along with That Devil’s Bones: A Reckoning with Monuments, Memory, and the Legacy of White Supremacy (Algonquin Books, 2020), journalist Con...

Zakkiyah Iman Jackson, "Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World" (NYU Press, 2020)

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In a world where black(ened) flesh, particularly feminine flesh, is considered the ontological zero of humanness, what interventions and complications...

Kathryn A. Mariner, "Contingent Kinship: The Flows and Futures of Adoption in the United States" (U California Press, 2019)

03 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Contingent Kinship: The Flows and Futures of Adoption in the United States (University of California Press, 2019) offers an ethnography of adoption pr...

Eddie Cole, "The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom" (Princeton UP, 2020)

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Some of America’s most pressing civil rights issues—desegregation, equal educational and employment opportunities, housing discrimination, and fre...

Emily J. Lordi, "The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s" (Duke UP, 2020)

30 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Soul is one of those concepts that is often evoked, but rarely satisfactorily defined. In The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 19...

Warren Hoffman, "The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical", 2nd edition (Rutgers UP, 2020)

28 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Warren Hoffman’s The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical, 2nd edition (Rutgers UP, 2020) explores the ways that race and racism have shap...

Karlos K. Hill, "The Murder of Emmett Till: A Graphic History" (Oxford UP, 2020)

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The image of Emmett Till’s open coffin, revealing the 14-year old’s horrifically disfigured face, is one of the most heart-wrenching images of the...

Felicia Angeja Viator, "To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America" (Harvard UP, 2020)

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1985, Greg Mack, a DJ working for Los Angeles radio station KDAY, played a song that sounded like nothing else on West Coast airwaves: Toddy Tee’...

Lisa B. Thompson, "Underground, Monroe, and the Mamalogues: Three Plays" (Northwestern UP, 2020)

23 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lisa B. Thompson is equally renowned as a scholar of African and African-American studies and as a playwright. Her latest book Underground, Monroe, an...

Simone C. Drake, "Are You Entertained?: Black Popular Culture in the Twenty-First Century" (Duke UP, 2020)

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Simone C. Drake and Dwan K. Henderson's Are You Entertained?: Black Popular Culture in the Twenty-First Century (Duke UP, 2020) is an engaging and in...

Dan Royles, "To Make the Wounded Whole: The African American Struggle Against HIV/AIDS" (UNC Press, 2020)

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the decades since it was identified in 1981, HIV/AIDS has devastated African American communities. Members of those communities mobilized to fight ...

Nadia Nurhussein, "Black Land: Imperial Ethiopianism and African America" (Princeton UP, 2019)

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Black Land: Imperial Ethiopianism and African America (Princeton University Press, 2019), Nadia Nurhussein explores late nineteenth and twentieth c...

Chinua Thelwell, "Exporting Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in South Africa and Beyond" (U Massachusetts Press, 2020)

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Exporting Jim Crow: Blackface Minstrelsy in South Africa and Beyond (U Massachusetts Press, 2020) by Dr. Chinua Thelwell is a rich, well-researched, a...

Tamura Lomax, “Jezebel Unhinged: Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture” (Duke UP, 2018)

19 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

One of the central threads in the public discourse on Black womanhood is the idea of the “Jezebel.” This trope deems Black women and girls as dish...

Alexandra J. Finley, "An Intimate Economy: Enslaved Women, Work, and America’s Domestic Slave Trade" (UNC Press, 2020)

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alexandra J. Finley is the author of An Intimate Economy: Enslaved Women, Work, and America’s Domestic Slave Trade, published by the University of N...

Why are Blacks Democrats?: An Interview with Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird

15 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Black Americans are by far the most unified racial group in American electoral politics, with 80 to 90 percent identifying as Democrats—a surprising...

Hannah L. Walker, "Mobilized by Injustice: Criminal Justice Contact, Political Participation, and Race" (Oxford UP, 2020)

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hannah Walker’s new book, Mobilized by Injustice: Criminal Justice Contact, Political Participation, and Race (Oxford UP, 2020), brings together the...

Jerry Gershenhorn, "Louis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle" (UNC Press, 2018)

07 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Louis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle (University of North Carolina Press, 2018) by Jerry Gershenhorn is a hi...

Armstrong Williams, "What Black and White America Must Do Now: A Prescription to Move Beyond Race" (Hot Books, 2020)

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What Black and White America Must Do Now: A Prescription to Move Beyond Race (Hot Books, 2020) explores the complexity of race and culture in the Unit...

Laura J. Arata, "Race and the Wild West" (U Oklahoma Press, 2020)

01 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After Laura Arata first visited Virginia City, Montana in graduate school, she became fascinated by the story of one historical figure—Sarah Bickfor...

Ariella Rotramel, "Pushing Back: Women of Color-Led Grassroots Activism in New York City" (U Georgia Press, 2020)

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Pushing Back: Women of Color–Led Grassroots Activism in New York City (U Georgia Press, 2020) explores women of color’s grassroots leadership in o...

Laura Briggs, "Taking Children: A History of American Terror" (U California Press 2020)

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Laura Briggs’s Taking Children: A History of American Terror (University of California Press 2020) is a forceful and captivating book that readers w...

William L. Patterson, "We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People" (International Publishers, 2017)

25 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People, the historic petition authored by William L. Patterson, was published i...

Jennifer Cobbina, "Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Why the Protests in Ferguson and Baltimore Matter, and How They Changed America" (NYU Press, 2019)

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Following the high-profile deaths of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and twenty-five-year-old Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryla...

Teresa A. Goddu, "Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2020)

16 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America (University of Pennsylvania Press) is a richly illustrated history of the American...

Postscript: A Discussion of Race, Anger and Citizenship in the USA

14 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do we have a serious conversation about race that moves beyond the brevity of Twitter or an op-ed? In this episode of Post-Script (a New Books in ...

Edward C. Valandra, "Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities" (Living Justice Press, 2020)

11 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities (Living Justice Press, 2020) consists of stories that have arisen from the lived experiences of ...

Roundtable Discussion of Jennifer Morgan's "Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery" (UPenn Press, 2004)

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to New Books in African American Studies, a channel on the New Books Network. I am your host Adam McNeil. Today is part 2 of my discussion abo...

B. Heersink and J. A. Jenkins, "Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Prior to the 1960s, Democrats were seen as having a lock on the South in national and local electoral politics, while Republicans had strengths in oth...

Hettie V. Williams, "Bury My Heart in a Free Land: Black Women Intellectuals in Modern U.S. History" (Praeger, 2018)

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Black women intellectuals have traditionally been overlooked in the academic study of American intellectual history. Bury My Heart in a Free Land: Bla...

Muhammed Fraser-Rahim, "America’s Other Muslims" (Lexington Books, 2020)

09 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

America's Other Muslims: Imam W.D. Mohammed, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam explores the oldest and perhaps the most important Musli...

Jennifer L. Morgan, "Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2004)

09 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 2004, Dr. Jennifer L. Morgan’s Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery (University of Pennsylvania Press) was published. Six...

Catherine Adel West, "Saving Ruby King: A Novel" (Park Row Books, 2020)

08 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Two south side Chicago families are bound together by a violence-infused past. Ruby’s mother, Alice King, has been murdered. Her father, Lebanon Kin...

Stooges Brass Band, "Can’t Be Faded: Twenty Years in the New Orleans Brass Band Game" (U Mississippi Press, 2020)

07 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Can’t Be Faded: Twenty Years in the New Orleans Brass Band Game (University of Mississippi Press, 2020) is a collaboration between musician and ethn...

Postscript: Shirley Chisholm as Principled Political Strategist

07 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America. “I am not the candidate...

Simon Hall, "Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s" (Faber and Faber, 2020)

02 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s (Faber, 2020), Simon Hall, a Professor of Modern History at the Univer...

Charisse Burden-Stelly, "W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History" (ABC-CLIO, 2019)

31 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why is the scholarship and advocacy work of W.E.B. Du Bois so relevant for 21st century politics? Does his unique combination of both serve as a possi...

Jessica Marie Johnson, "Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2020)

28 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The story of freedom and all of its ambiguities begins with intimate acts steeped in power. It is shaped by the peculiar oppressions faced by African ...

Dan Edelstein, "On the Spirit of Rights" (U Chicago Press, 2018)

28 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

By the end of the eighteenth century, politicians in America and France were invoking the natural rights of man to wrest sovereignty away from kings a...

A Discussion with J. T. Roane on Writing African American Lives

24 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to New Books in African American Studies, a channel on the New Books Network. I am your host, Adam McNeil. Today on the podcast I have the hon...

Lauren Michele Jackson, "White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation" (Beacon, 2019)

19 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation (Beacon, 2019), Lauren Michele Jackson analyzes Christi...

Benjamin Talton, "In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics" (Pennsylvania UP, 2019)

19 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press) by Benjamin Talton is a transnational history...

Khary O. Polk, "Contagions of Empire: Scientific Racism, Sexuality, and Black Military Workers Abroad, 1898-1948" (UNC Press, 2020)

19 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Khary Oronde Polk is the author of Contagions of Empire: Scientific Racism, Sexuality, and Black Military Workers Abroad, 1898-1948, published by the ...

Aaron Carico, "Black Market: The Slave's Value in National Culture after 1865" (UNC Press, 2020)

17 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On the eve of the Civil War, the estimated value of the U.S. enslaved population exceeded $3 billion--triple that of investments nationwide in factori...

Kimberly Brown Pellum, "Black Beauties: African American Pageant Queens in the Segregated South" (History Press, 2020)

17 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Florida A&M University professor and former Miss FAMU Kimberly Brown Pellum, Ph.D., recently released her book, Black Beauties: African American Pagea...

Rae Linda Brown, "Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price" (U Illinois Press, 2020)

14 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1933, the Chicago Symphony performed the Symphony in E Minor by Florence B. Price. It was the first time a major American orchestra played a compos...

Andrea Benjamin, "Racial Coalition Building in Local Elections: Elite Cues and Cross-Ethnic Voting" (Cambridge UP, 2017)

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What explains voting behavior in local elections? More specifically, what explains how ethnic and racial blocs vote in local elections, especially whe...

Kyle Barnett, "Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry" (U Michigan Press, 2020)

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry (University of Michigan Press, 2020), Kyle Barnett tells the story of the smalle...

Polly E. Bugros McLean, "Remembering Lucile: A Virginia Family's Rise from Slavery and a Legacy Forged a Mile High" (UP of Colorado, 2018)

12 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1918 Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Jones received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado, becoming its first female African American gr...

Nate Marshall, "Finna: Poems" (One World, 2020)

11 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Finna: Poems (One World), his new collection of poetry, Nate Marshall examines the way that pop culture influences Black vernacular, the role of st...

Monica Coleman, "Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman’s Journey with Depression and Faith" (Fortress Press, 2016)

10 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Monica A. Coleman's great-grandfather asked his two young sons to lift him up and pull out the chair when he hanged himself, and that noose stayed in ...

Nyasha Junior, “Reimagining Hagar: Blackness and Bible” (Oxford UP, 2019)

05 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Popular culture helps shape how audiences imagine Biblical personalities in our contemporary moment. For many, Warner Sallman’s portrait of Jesus fi...

Charlton D. McIlwain, "Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, from AfroNet to Black Lives Matter" (Oxford UP, 2020)

03 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, from AfroNet to Black Lives Matter (Oxford Univeristy Press), Charlton McIlwain, Vice Provost for ...

Melissa J. Wilde, "Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion" (U California Press, 2020)

03 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Although it has largely been erased from the collective memory of American Christianity, the debate over eugenics was a major factor in the history of...

David A. Harris, "A City Divided: Race, Fear and the Law in Police Confrontations" (Anthem Press, 2020)

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do we move police forces from a warrior culture to connecting better with communities they serve? Today I talked to David A. Harris about his new ...

Philip Butler, "Black Transhuman Liberation Theology: Technology and Spirituality" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019)

29 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In his book Black Transhuman Liberation Theology: Technology and Spirituality (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), Philip Butler explores what might happen if...

Sophie White, "Voices of the Enslaved: Love, Labor, and Longing in French Louisiana" (UNC Press, 2019)

29 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In her prize-winning study Voices of the Enslaved: Love, Labor, and Longing in French Colonial Louisiana (Omohundro Institute of Early American Histor...

Kevin J. Bryne, "Minstrel Traditions: Mediated Blackface in the Jazz Age" (Routledge, 2020)

29 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Blackface minstrel show is typically thought of a form tied to the 19th century. While the style was indeed developed during the Antebellum period...

Jan Doering, "Us versus Them: Race, Crime, and Gentrification in Chicago Neighborhoods" (Oxford UP, 2020)

28 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

With such high levels of residential segregation along racial lines in the United States, gentrifying neighborhoods present fascinating opportunities ...

M. C. Stevenson et al. (eds.), "The Legacy of Racism for Children: Psychology, Law and Public Policy" (Oxford UP, 2020)

28 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When children become entangled with the law, their lives can be disrupted irrevocably. When those children are underrepresented minorities, the potent...

Andrew Kettler, "The Smell of Slavery: Olfactory Racism and the Atlantic World" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

27 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book, The Smell of Slavery: Olfactory Racism and the Atlantic World (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Dr. Andrew Kettler charts the impac...

Justin Gomer, "White Balance: How Hollywood Shaped Colorblind Ideology and Undermined Civil Rights" (UNC Press, 2020)

24 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Justin Gomer is the author of White Balance: How Hollywood Shaped Colorblind Ideology and Undermined Civil Rights, published by the University of Nort...

Patricia Zavella, "The Movement for Reproductive Justice: Empowering Women of Color through Social Activism" (NYU Press, 2020)

24 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In The Movement for Reproductive Justice: Empowering Women of Color through Social Activism (NYU Press, 2020), Pat Zavella shows how reproductive just...

Raymond Winbush, "The Osiris Papers: Reflections on the Life and Writing of Dr. Frances Cress Welsing" (Black Classics Press, 2019)

22 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s interview is with Dr. Raymond Winbush a research professor and the Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University. ...

Christina Dunbar-Hester, "Hacking Diversity: The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures" (Princeton UP, 2020)

20 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Hacking Diversity: The Politics of inclusion in Open Technology Cultures (Princeton University Press, 2020), Christina-Dunbar Hester, an associate ...

Walter Johnson, "The Broken Heart of America" (Basic Books, 2020)

17 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

St. Louis, Missouri is the city with the highest rate of police shootings in the United States. It’s the city with an 18 year difference in life exp...

Mark Anderson, "From Boas to Black Power: Racism, Liberalism and American Anthropology" (Stanford UP, 2019)

17 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Anderson’s From Boas to Black Power: Racism, Liberalism and American Anthropology (Stanford University Press) is at once a story about US anthr...

Jerry Gershenhorn, "Louis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle" (UNC Press, 2018)

15 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

James West speaks with Jerry Gershenhorn, Julius L. Chambers Professor of History at North Carolina Central University, about Louis Austin and the C...

Peniel E. Joseph, "The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr." (Basic, 2020)

09 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How do the political afterlives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. continue to shape American democracy? How does a common myth of opposition di...

Richard Gergel, "Unexampled Courage" (Sarah Crichton Books, 2019)

08 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring (Sara...

Matthew Pettway, "Cuban Literature in the Age of Black Insurrection: Manzano, Plácido, and Afro-Latino Religion" (UP of Mississippi, 2019)

07 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Juan Francisco Manzano and Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido) were perhaps the most important and innovative Cuban writers of African descen...

Nicole Myers Turner, "Soul Liberty: The Evolution of Black Religious Politics in Postemancipation Virginia" (UNC Press, 2020)

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In her nuanced case study of postemanciaption Virginia, Nicole Myers Turner, (Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University) challenges ...

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, "The Age of Phillis" (Wesleyan UP, 2020)

02 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jennifer J. Davis speaks with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, about The Age of Phillis (Wesleyan UP, 202...

Joshua M. Myers, "We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989" (NYU Press, 2019)

02 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989 (NYU Press, 2019) is the first history of the 1989 Howard Unive...

Edward J. Robinson, "Hard-Fighting Soldiers: A History of African American Churches of Christ" (U Tennessee Press, 2019)

01 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book Hard-Fighting Soldiers: A History of African American Churches of Christ (University of Tennessee Press, 2019), Edward J. Robinson pro...

Zerlina Maxwell, "The End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide" (Hachette, 2020)

29 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After working on two presidential campaigns (for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton), MSNBC political analyst and SiriusXM host Zerlina Maxwell gained f...

Tsedale Melaku, "You Don’t Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2019)

29 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What kind of discrimination do Black women face in the legal profession? Tsedale Melaku explores this question and more in her new book: You Don’t L...

François Clemmons, "Officer Clemmons: A Memoir" (Catapult, 2020)

26 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Officer Clemmons: A Memoir (Catapult, 2020), François Clemmons tells the story of how he became the first ever African-American recurring characte...

Greg Garrett, "A Long, Long Way: Hollywood’s Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation" (Oxford UP, 2020)

24 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In his powerful new book, A Long, Long Way: Hollywood’s Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation (Oxford University Press, 2020), Greg Garr...

Michael Goldfield, "The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s" (Oxford UP, 2020)

24 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The golden key to understanding the last 75 years of American political development, the eminent labor relations scholar Michael Goldfield argues, lie...

A. de la Fuente and A. J. Gross, "Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

24 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How did Africans become 'blacks' in the Americas? Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana (Cambridge Un...

Robert T. Chase, "We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America" (UNC Press, 2020)

24 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Siobhan talks with Robert T. Chase about his book, We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postw...

Steven J. L. Taylor, "Exiles, Entrepreneurs, and Educators: African Americans in Ghana" (SUNY Press, 2019)

24 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

African Americans have a long history of emigration. In Exiles, Entrepreneurs, and Educators: African Americans in Ghana, Steven J. L. Taylor explores...

Shana Redmond, "Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robeson" (Duke UP, 2020)

23 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robeson (Duke University Press, 2020), Shana Redmond explores the ways in which Paul Robeson, silence...

Clifford Mason, "Macbeth in Harlem: Black Theater in America from the Beginning to Raisin in the Sun" (Rutgers UP, 2020)

22 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Macbeth in Harlem: Black Theater in America from the Beginning to Raisin in the Sun (Rutgers University Press, 2020) by Clifford Mason, celebrated act...

Monika Gosin, "The Racial Politics of Division: Interethnic Struggles For Legitimacy in Multicultural Miami" (Cornell UP, 2019)

22 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Over recent years, scholarship centering Afrolatinidad has pushed the bounds of the field towards greater forms of racial and ethnic understanding. Dr...

R. Farrugia and K. D. Hay, "Women Rapping Revolution: Hip Hop and Community Building in Detroit" (U California Press, 2020)

17 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode of the New Books Network, Lee Pierce (s/t) interviews Rebekah Farrugia and Kellie D. Hay of Oakland University on their new book Women...

Aaron Kamugisha, "Beyond Coloniality: Citizenship and Freedom in the Caribbean Intellectual Tradition" (Indiana UP, 2019)

16 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Aaron Kamugisha reads CLR James and Sylvia Wynter to glean from them ways to navigate the “beyond” of coloniality. In his new book Beyond Colonia...

Sherrow O. Pinder et al., "Black Political Thought: From David Walker to the Present" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

16 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Black Political Thought: From David Walker to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2020) is a nuanced and long-needed anthology interrogates the “...

Kabria Baumgartner, "In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America" (NYU Press, 2019)

16 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America (NYU Press, 2019) is an intellectual and cultural history of the ...

Jill Strauss, "Slavery's Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation" (Rutgers UP, 2019)

16 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Race remains a potent and divisive force in our society. Whether it is the shooting of minority people by the police, the mass incarceration of people...

Lynn M. Thomas, "Beneath the Surface: A Transnational History of Skin Lighteners" (Duke UP, 2020)

15 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

By 2024, global sales of skin lighteners are projected to reach more than $30 billion. Despite the planetary scale of its use, skin lightening remains...

Paige Glotzer, "How the Suburbs Were Segregated: Developers and the Business of Exclusionary Housing, 1890-1960" (Columbia UP, 2020)

15 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Paige Glotzer is the author of How the Suburbs Were Segregated: Developers and the Business of Exclusionary Housing, 1890-1960, published by Columbia ...

Edward Onaci, "Free The Land: The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State" (UNC Press, 2020)

11 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On March 31, 1968, over 500 Black nationalists convened in Detroit to begin the process of securing independence from the United States. Many conclude...

Neil Roberts on How Ideas Become Books in Africana and AfroAm Studies

09 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Where do good ideas come from? How does an idea go from creation to a research project? How is historical research done? And how does research find it...

H. Moore and J. Tracy, "No Fascist USA!" (City Lights, 2020)

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

No Fascist USA!: The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today’s Social Movements (City Lights Publishing, 2020) by Hilary Moore and Jame...

Joshua Bennett, "Being Property Once Myself: Blackness and the End of Man" (Harvard UP, 2020) 

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout US history, black people have been configured as sociolegal nonpersons, a subgenre of the human. Being Property Once Myself: Blackness and ...

Scott Seider and Daren Graves, "Schooling for Critical Consciousness" (Harvard Education, 2020)

05 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Scott Seider from Boston College and Dr. Daren Graves from Simmons University on their new book, Schooling for Criti...