History & Politics

True stories of income inequality told with the style and readability of a great novel. Desmond, a Harvard-trained sociologist, lived in low-income neighborhoods for three years, recording the lives of people in the slums of Milwaukee, as they struggled (and failed) to keep a roof over their heads. It ends happily, with thoughtful solutions to ensure that everyone has a place to call home. Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize. - Jason

Published in 2016, this slim but powerful volume continues to hold relevance to expand your understanding of race, equality, and paths forward. Jeff Chang writes with clear and fluid prose with rigorously sourced facts to excavate and historically contextualize artifacts of our culture: political correctness to #BlackLivesMatter, Donald Trump, and Beyonce. I started this book thinking I already knew what it had to teach; I closed it humbled and much better educated. - Jocelyn

Elaine Mokhtefi’s Algiers, Third World Capital is a staggering portrait of a life spent in revolution. From her beginnings with the Algerian National Liberation Front to her work with the international wing of the Black Panther Party, Mokhtefi chronicles her extraordinary life in elegant, engaging prose. Featuring a slew of heavy-hitters, like Frantz Fanon and Eldridge Cleaver, Algiers is a must-read for any student of anticolonialism, antiracism, and revolutionary history. - Travis

In 2019, Patrick Keefe made some noise with the release of Say Nothing, a deep dive into the volatile history of Northern Ireland’s Irish Republican Army in the late 1990s. Loved by critics and Bookshop staff, Say Nothing firmly placed Keefe on my list of authors whose work I must read absolutely all of. Now Keefe turns his keen eye and journalistic insight to the Sackler family, exploring three generations of a modern American dynasty whose fortunes skyrocketed from their development and exploitation of OxyContin. I couldn’t be more excited for this book! — Tori

This immersive historical narrative transports you to the landscape, language, politics, and dueling moralities of 1722 Pennsylvania. Historian Nicole Eustace breathes life into the people named in primary sources about the murder of Seneca hunter Sawantaeny. Eustace’s deft modern analysis contrasts colonial self-righteousness with the actual principles and justice traditions of the Indigenous nations they attempted to placate. A compelling perspective on overlooked history that feels all the more crucial as we engage in an overdue debate about “justice” itself. — Jocelyn

Professor Olivette Otele’s celebrated expertise is in full display in this intersectional historic exploration. With her characteristic rigorous analysis, drawn from a wide breadth of sources, Otele details the evolution of the idea of race and the lives and circumstances of Black individuals across Europe and time. African Europeans joyously concludes with stories of those currently working to define their own identities and claim recognition and justice. For any scholar looking to disrupt an erroneously monochromatic view or to deepen their understanding of history’s true diversity. — Jocelyn

A combination of It Can’t Happen Here horror story of American dystopia and an epic struggle from Italy to Germany—including many Medal of Honor–minting battles and heroism—Facing the Mountain would make a movie to rival D-Day spectaculars. Japanese Americans’ lives were upended by Roosevelt’s order that they be sent to concentration camps in the desert. Brown’s book is a tour through the lives of Japanese Americans in this time: ROTC high school kids; those who resisted internment and the draft; those who went to war to defend American ideals and their familial values; those who never came back from the war; and those who did who had still another battle to fight. — Dave

One hundred years ago, a white mob violently erased a prosperous Black community from Tulsa’s streets in an event that has, over the century, been called a riot, a disaster, a pogrom, and now, finally, a race massacre. With great empathy and objectivity, Ellsworth chronicles the history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, from the conspiracy of silence about it to recently unearthed evidence, and then looks toward realizing a better future through pursuit of truth. — Tori

Nathan Raab finds amazing—and sometimes terrible—things. A British officer’s report from St. Helena announcing the death of Napoléon. Andrew Jackson’s letter to the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, inviting them to what would become the Trail of Tears. A love letter from MLK in the Albany City Jail. A forged land survey, not by George Washington. The missing tapes from Air Force One after the JFK assassination. And a letter from Susan B. Anthony explaining that no, she did not want to buy photographs of famous men of the 1800s. If you understand why half a piece of moldy paper with the signature torn off could be worth the world, then this book is for you. — Dave

With Stacey Abrams’s legendary efforts on voter rights and registration and her historic turnout of voters in 2020, it is inevitable she’d be asked two questions: How did we get here? How did you do it? This book works to answer both in a comprehensive and accessible tour through voter suppression past and present, Abrams’s specific tactics, her guiding philosophies, and why the right to vote matters. As expected, an illuminating and inspiring read from one of our most effective and sincere leaders today. — Jocelyn