Collection: Politics

To save ancient Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean's Eleven in this "fast-paced narrative that is...part intellectual history, part geopolitical tract, and part out-and-out thriller" (The Washington Post) from the author of The Falcon Thief.In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: preserve this crucial part of the world's patrimony in a gorgeous library. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door. "Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey...Joshua Hammer writes with verve and expertise" (The New York Times Book Review) about how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world's greatest smugglers by saving the texts from sure destruction. With bravery and patience, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali. His heroic heist "has all the elements of a classic adventure novel" (The Seattle Times), and is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty of their culture. His the story is one of a man who, through extreme circumstances, discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it.

An expanded edition of the first practical, nonjudgmental handbook for dealing with microaggressions, featuring examples, sample scripts, action plans, a new discussion and activity guide, and up-to-date suggestions for creating a culture of belonging in the workplace.

Overt discrimination is relatively easy to spot. But the less obvious but more common actions that make people feel left out or stigmatized in our workplaces, commonly called microaggressions, can be hard to identify and even harder to deal with.

The author use a clearer, more accurate term: subtle acts of exclusion (SAE). After all, people generally aren't trying to be aggressive--usually they're trying to say something nice, learn more about a person, or be funny. Bring accused of aggression shuts the conversation down, when you want to open it up.

This book features examples, tools, sample scripts, and action plans to help readers prevent subtle acts of aggression from happening, or deal with them when they do. Updated throughout, this second edition features:

• A greatly expanded chapter on "intentional acts of inclusion"--actions for creating a sense of belonging.
• A discussion and activity guide ideal for book clubs and training sessions
• A new concluding chapter, Hope for Humanity

Whether in the form of stereotypes, assumptions, backhanded compliments, or objectification, SAEs are damaging to our coworkers, friends, and acquaintances. This book is your friendly, accessible, non-judgemental guide to creating a welcoming workplace.

The best-selling look at how American cities can promote racial equity, end redlining, and reverse the damaging health- and wealth-related effects of segregation.

Winner of the IPPY Book Award Current Events II by the Independent Publisher

The world gasped in April 2015 as Baltimore erupted and Black Lives Matter activists, incensed by Freddie Gray's brutal death in police custody, shut down highways and marched on city streets. In The Black Butterfly--a reference to the fact that Baltimore's majority-Black population spreads out like a butterfly's wings on both sides of the coveted strip of real estate running down the center of the city--Lawrence T. Brown reveals that ongoing historical trauma caused by a combination of policies, practices, systems, and budgets is at the root of uprisings and crises in hypersegregated cities around the country.

Putting Baltimore under a microscope, Brown looks closely at the causes of segregation, many of which exist in current legislation and regulatory policy despite the common belief that overtly racist policies are a thing of the past. Drawing on social science research, policy analysis, and archival materials, Brown reveals the long history of racial segregation's impact on health, from toxic pollution to police brutality. Beginning with an analysis of the current political moment, Brown delves into how Baltimore's history influenced actions in sister cities such as St. Louis and Cleveland, as well as Baltimore's adoption of increasingly oppressive techniques from cities such as Chicago.

But there is reason to hope. Throughout the book, Brown offers a clear five-step plan for activists, nonprofits, and public officials to achieve racial equity. Not content to simply describe and decry urban problems, Brown offers up a wide range of innovative solutions to help heal and restore redlined Black neighborhoods, including municipal reparations. Persuasively arguing that, since urban apartheid was intentionally erected, it can be intentionally dismantled, The Black Butterfly demonstrates that America cannot reflect that Black lives matter until we see how Black neighborhoods matter.

A storm of illiberalism, building in the United States for years, unleashed its destructive force in the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021. The attack on American democracy and images of mob violence led many to recoil, thinking "That's not us." But now we must think again, for Steven Hahn shows in his startling new history that illiberalism has deep roots in our past. To those who believe that the ideals announced in the Declaration of Independence set us apart as a nation, Hahn shows that Americans have long been animated by competing values, equally deep-seated, in which the illiberal will of the community overrides individual rights, and often protects itself by excluding perceived threats, whether on grounds of race, religion, gender, economic status, or ideology.

Driven by popular movements and implemented through courts and legislation, illiberalism is part of the American bedrock. The United States was born a republic of loosely connected states and localities that demanded control of their domestic institutions, including slavery. As white settlement expanded west and immigration exploded in eastern cities, the democracy of the 1830s fueled expulsions of Blacks, Native Americans, Catholics, Mormons, and abolitionists. After the Civil War, southern states denied new constitutional guarantees of civil rights and enforced racial exclusions in everyday life. Illiberalism was modernized during the Progressive movement through advocates of eugenics who aimed to reduce the numbers of racial and ethnic minorities as well as the poor. The turmoil of the 1960s enabled George Wallace to tap local fears of unrest and build support outside the South, a politics adopted by Richard Nixon in 1968. Today, with illiberalism shaping elections and policy debates over guns, education, and abortion, it is urgent to understand its long history, and how that history bears on the present crisis.

"Anarchists have much to learn from Indigenous struggles for decolonization. [A] thought-provoking collection" Lesley J. Wood, Professor, York University, Toronto

"Vigorously affirming anarchism's plurality, the authors make a powerful case for the reconfiguration of anticolonial struggle" Ruth Kinna, Professor, Loughborough University

As early as the end of the nineteenth century, anarchists such as Peter Kropotkin and Élisée Reclus became interested in Indigenous peoples, many of whom they saw as societies without a state or private property, living a form of communism. Thinkers such as David Graeber and John Holloway have continued this tradition of engagement with the practices of Indigenous societies, while Indigenous activists coined the term 'anarcho-indigenism', in reference to a long history of (often imperfect) collaboration between anarchists and Indigenous activists, over land rights and environmental issues, including recent high profile anti-pipeline campaigns.

Anarcho-Indigenism is a dialogue between anarchism and Indigenous politics. In interviews, the contributors reveal what Indigenous thought and traditions and anarchism have in common, without denying the scars left by colonialism. They ultimately offer a vision of the world that combines anti-colonialism, feminism, ecology, anti-capitalism and anti-statism.

Francis Dupuis-Déri is a Professor of Political Science and a member of the Institut de Recherches et d'études Féministes at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is the author of several books such as Who's Afraid of the Black Blocs?. Benjamin Pillet is a translator and community organizer, with a PhD in Political Thought from the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Through the lens of a child and based on true events, Back Road to Progress is a historical documentation of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and its impact on one Black family's decision to engage in the facilitation of the end to public school segregation in a southeastern rural town in Virginia in 1962.

An essential resource for outdoor enthusiasts in California.

With his vibrant photographs and lively writing, Matt Ritter takes the reader on a journey through the Golden State's iconic landscapes and abundant plant life.

This definitive guide includes:

• Over 300 pages with more than 500 species described and photographed
  
• More than 1,000 full-color photographs and 150 species range maps
• Detailed descriptions and fascinating natural history stories
• California tree identification flowchart
• Wildflower identification color guide
• Detailed glossary and comprehensive index

A portion of the proceeds from each book supports the California Native Plant Society and The Wildlands Conservancy. The book features a foreword by Jerry Brown, former Governor of California.

A major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union--showing how Gorbachev's misguided reforms led to its demise

"A deeply informed account of how the Soviet Union fell apart."--Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times

"[A] masterly analysis."--Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal

In 1945 the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong with five thousand nuclear-tipped missiles and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the twentieth century.

Thirty years on, Vladislav Zubok offers a major reinterpretation of the final years of the USSR, refuting the notion that the breakup of the Soviet order was inevitable. Instead, Zubok reveals how Gorbachev's misguided reforms, intended to modernize and democratize the Soviet Union, deprived the government of resources and empowered separatism. Collapse sheds new light on Russian democratic populism, the Baltic struggle for independence, the crisis of Soviet finances--and the fragility of authoritarian state power.

Twenty-first century social movements come to life through speeches, essays, and other documents of activism, protest, and social change.

Gathering more than 100 texts from social movements that have shaped the 21st century, this powerful book includes contributions from Angela Y. Davis, Nick Estes, Colin Kaepernick, Rebecca Solnit, Christian Smalls, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Howard Zinn, Rev. William Barber, Bree Newsome, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Tarana J. Burke, Dream Defenders, Sins Invalid, Mariame Kaba, Naomi Klein, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Linda Sarsour, Chelsea E. Manning, Chrishaun "CeCe" McDonald, Julian Brave NoiseCat, H. Melt, and others.

Inspired by the original Voices of a People's History of the United States, the book features speeches, essays, poems, and calls to action from Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Indigenous struggles, immigrant rights activists, the environmental movement, disability justice organizers, and frontline workers during the global pandemic who spoke out against the life-threatening conditions of their labor. Together, their words remind us that history is made not only by the rich and powerful, but by ordinary people taking collective action.

The seventh addition to this New York Times bestselling series spotlights Helen Keller and shows kids that obstacles can create heroes (Cover may vary)

When Helen Keller was very young, she got a rare disease that made her deaf and blind. Suddenly, she couldn't see or hear at all, and it was hard for her to communicate with anyone. But when she was six years old, she met someone who change her life forever: her teacher, Annie Sullivan. With Miss Sullivan's help, Helen learned how to speak sign language and read Braille. Armed with the ability to express herself, Helen grew up to become a social activist, leading the fight for disabled people and so many other causes.

This friendly, fun biography series inspired the PBS Kids TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. One great role model at a time, these books encourage kids to dream big. Included in each book are:

- A timeline of key events in the hero's history
- Photos that bring the story more fully to life
- Comic-book-style illustrations that are irresistibly adorable
- Childhood moments that influenced the hero
- Facts that make great conversation-starters
- A virtue this person embodies: Helen Keller's resourcefulness was key to her success.

You'll want to collect each book in this dynamic, informative series!

The 20th-anniversary edition of Kelley's influential history of 20th-century Black radicalism, with new reflections on current movements and their impact on the author, and a foreword by poet Aja Monet

First published in 2002, Freedom Dreams is a staple in the study of the Black radical tradition. Unearthing the thrilling history of grassroots movements and renegade intellectuals and artists, Kelley recovers the dreams of the future worlds Black radicals struggled to achieve.

Focusing on the insights of activists, from the Revolutionary Action Movement to the insurgent poetics of Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, Kelley chronicles the quest for a homeland, the hope that communism offered, the politics of surrealism, the transformative potential of Black feminism, and the long dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow.

In this edition, Kelley includes a new introduction reflecting on how movements of the past 20 years have expanded his own vision of freedom to include mutual care, disability justice, abolition, and decolonization, and a new epilogue exploring the visionary organizing of today's freedom dreamers.

This classic history of the power of the Black radical imagination is as timely as when it was first published.

In 1804 Thomas Jefferson decided to study the gospels to see if he could distill the essence of Jesus' teachings into a concise book that could be quickly read and easily understood. This volume is the result, offering valuable insights into the teachings of Jesus Christ and into the mind and beliefs of Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson used a razor to cut the sections where Jesus was teaching out and then he pasted them all together into a coherent narrative. In a sense this book is a precursor to the red letter editions of the bible emphasizing the teaching of Jesus.

During Israel's lengthy 2014 assault on Gaza, voices worldwide rose in stunned protest. Using numerous creative means, Palestinians and their allies bore witness to the Israeli attacks--and to the siege that has strangled Gaza ever since. Gaza Unsilenced foregrounds the words and images with which Gaza Palestinians recorded the pain, losses, and dislocations of the attacks, the continuing punishment of the siege, and their community's resilience and dignity.

The book includes original contributions from the editors themselves along with essays, reportage, images, and poetry from Gaza and elsewhere. Contributors include: Ali Abunimah, Ramzi Baroud, Diana Buttu, Belal Dabour, Chris Hedges, Rashid Khalidi, and Eman Mohammed.

In Dispatches from Pluto, adventure writer Richard Grant takes on "the most American place on Earth"--the enigmatic, beautiful, often derided Mississippi Delta.

Richard Grant and his girlfriend were living in a shoebox apartment in New York City when they decided on a whim to buy an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta. Dispatches from Pluto--winner of the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize--is their journey of discovery into this strange and wonderful American place. Imagine A Year In Provence with alligators and assassins, or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with hunting scenes and swamp-to-table dining.

On a remote, isolated strip of land, three miles beyond the tiny community of Pluto, Richard and his girlfriend, Mariah, embark on a new life. They learn to hunt, grow their own food, and fend off alligators, snakes, and varmints galore. They befriend an array of unforgettable local characters--blues legend T-Model Ford, cookbook maven Martha Foose, catfish farmers, eccentric millionaires, and the actor Morgan Freeman. Grant brings an adept, empathetic eye to the fascinating people he meets, capturing the rich, extraordinary culture of the Delta, while tracking its utterly bizarre and criminal extremes. Reporting from all angles as only an outsider can, Grant also delves deeply into the Delta's lingering racial tensions. He finds that de facto segregation continues. Yet even as he observes major structural problems, he encounters many close, loving, and interdependent relationships between black and white families--and good reasons for hope.

Dispatches from Pluto is a book as unique as the Delta itself. It's lively, entertaining, and funny, containing a travel writer's flair for in-depth reporting alongside insightful reflections on poverty, community, and race. It's also a love story, as the nomadic Grant learns to settle down. He falls not just for his girlfriend but for the beguiling place they now call home. Mississippi, Grant concludes, is the best-kept secret in America.

Contemporary and compassionate teachings for building true workplace diversity

In order to create an inclusive working environment, it is important for companies to understand the experiences that diverse employees face in the workplace. Diversity in the Workplace is a guided tour of what it means to be a minority in today's labor force.

Containing 25 real-life interviews, including stories of trailblazers fighting inequality, you'll be exposed to a slice of life you may not have been privy to. This book explores real world issues in a modern workday dynamic for members of marginalized communities and managers looking to equalize an imbalance.

Diversity in the Workplace includes:

• Exploring intersectionality-Learn about the diversity identities shaping disparity at work: Race, Gender, LGBTQ+, Age & Ability, and Religion & Culture.
• Key takeaways-Each section is followed by summaries that encourage reflection and action.
• Deep dive-Learn tips on how to have progressive conversations with colleagues, and build awareness with key terms such as "unconscious bias."

Move toward a more fair and bias-conscious future with Diversity in the Workplace.

The Racial Contract puts classic Western social contract theory, deadpan, to extraordinary radical use. With a sweeping look at the European expansionism and racism of the last five hundred years, Charles W. Mills demonstrates how this peculiar and unacknowledged "contract" has shaped a system of global European domination: how it brings into existence "whites" and "non-whites," full persons and sub-persons, how it influences white moral theory and moral psychology; and how this system is imposed on non-whites through ideological conditioning and violence. The Racial Contract argues that the society we live in is a continuing white supremacist state.

As this 25th anniversary edition--featuring a foreword by Tommy Shelbie and a new preface by the author--makes clear, the still-urgent The Racial Contract continues to inspire, provoke, and influence thinking about the intersection of the racist underpinnings of political philosophy.