Harvey Cox

The Harvard Divinity School professor recounts meetings with Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Marxist men and women, and what they have taught him about the relationship between Christianity and other great religious traditions of the world.

"A warm and informative book."
—The New York Times Book Review

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James Baldwin

Originally published in 1955, James Baldwin's first nonfiction book has become a classic. These searing essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and Americans abroad remain as powerful today as when they were written.

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Cornel West

"[A] compelling blend of philosophy, sociology and political commentary...One can only applaud the ferocious moral vision and astute intellect on display in these pages."

—The New York Times

 

Cornel West is "the preeminent African-American intellectual of our generation."

—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

 

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Cornel West

Maya Angelou, Bill Bradley, Harry Belafonte, Patricia Williams, Wynton Marsalis, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, James Washington, James Forbes, and Haki Madhubuti talk to Cornel West about their political awareness, art and politics, and the possibility of hope among African-Americans today.

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The unknown story of the flamboyant musical prodigy Sister Rosetta Tharpe, America's first rock guitar diva. Long before "women in rock" became a media catchphrase, Rosetta Tharpe proved in spectacular fashion that women could rock. Born in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, in 1915, she was gospel's first superstar and the preeminent crossover figure of its "golden age" (1945-1965). Everyone who saw her perform said she could "make that guitar talk." Shout, Sister, Shout! is the first biography of this trailblazing performer who influenced scores of popular musicians, from Elvis Presley and Little Richard to Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt.
Gayle F. Wald is a professor at George Washington University.

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Trudier Harris

One of our foremost scholars of African-American literature offers a collection of poignant autobiographical essays on being Southern. Trudier Harris will tell you that African Americans who consider themselves Southern are about as rare as summer snow. But Harris has always embraced the South, and in Summer Snow she explores her experiences as a black Southerner and how it has shaped her into the writer and intellectual she has become.

Trudier Harris grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She is currently the J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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Miriam DeCosta-Willis; editor

"A unique look at the life of an independent, unmarried African-American woman coping with financial hardships, romantic entanglements, sexism and racism. A substantial contribution to African-American studies."

—Publishers Weekly

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Noliwe M. Rooks

The untold story of why and how white philanthropy helped create African American studies.

"In this concise, compelling volume, Rooks...recreates the social and political contexts of the discipline's history, paying particular attention to its past reliance on white philanthropy and involvement."
—Publishers Weekly

"Rooks is a serious scholar and insider of African American Studies, and this book is full of deep insight and sharp analysis."

—Cornel West

Noliwe M. Rooks is associate director of African American Studies at Princeton University.

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Lynda Morgenroth

Boston Firsts is about everything (well, almost!) that happened first in Boston and changed life elsewhere: from the first lighthouse and public library to the first madam and ready-made suit. Boston-based journalist and essayist Lynda Morgenroth has written forty original essays on the city's long history of innovation, from the colonial era to the present.

Lynda Morgenroth is the author of Boston Neighborhoods and a longtime Boston Globe contributor.

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