The 50th Anniversary of the Watergate Scandal

This year is the 50th Anniversary of the Watergate Scandal, when Richard Nixon and his administration tried to cover up the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington D.C. Watergate Building. We’re sharing a few books about the history of the scandal and Richard Nixon, a key player in the cover up.

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A letter to professors from Corban Addison, author of Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial

I went to law school in part because I read A Civil Action in college. Jonathan Harr’s masterful tale of a toxic tort lawsuit inspired in me a fascination with the courtroom and a desire to fight for the rights of people who have suffered injustice. When I finished that book twenty years ago, I

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What is a “Classic?” Educator’s Guide Now Available

In honor of their 75th anniversary, Penguin Classics has partnered with #DisruptTexts, a renowned education organization that works to create a more inclusive, representative and equitable language arts curriculum for K-12 students. Facilitated by Penguin Random House (PRH) Education, this partnership includes a number of new initiatives focused on connecting with, and supporting, educators through

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Stewardesses Rebel! How the “mascots” of the labor movement became militant union leaders

by Nell McShane Wulfhart Stewardesses aren’t the first workers that come to mind when you think of the labor movement. But behind that smiling, compliant, conventionally attractive image lies a group of militant unionists who led an unheralded workplace revolution that changed American history. In the beginning of the 1960s, the airplane cabin might have

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Confessions of the Flesh, the fourth volume in Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality

By Caitlin Landuyt, Editor, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group   I am being haunted by the ghost of Michel Foucault. Each time I think I’ve read or studied him for the last time, something conspires to bring him back into my life. My last foray into his philosophy was in grad school, where I was getting

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Read Kyle T. Mays’ Author Note for An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

Beginning with pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism, Afro-Indigenous historian, Kyle T. Mays argues that the foundations of the US are rooted in antiblackness and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue into the present. He explores how Black and Indigenous peoples have always resisted and struggled

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NOW AVAILABLE: Books from The 1619 Project

The 1619 Project is The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning reframing of American history that placed slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. The project, which was initially launched in August of 2019, offered a revealing new origin story for the United States, one that helped explain not only the persistence of

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On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Read an Exerpt from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s New Book Not “A Nation of Immigrants”

Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. In this bold new book, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish the US’s history of settler

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Books for LGBTQIA+ History Month

October is LGBTQIA+ History Month, dedicated to celebrating the diversity and history of the community. We are celebrating with books that shed light on the history of the community, with stories from inspiring individuals to the struggle for LGBTQIA+ rights to significant events that influenced LGBTQIA+ culture going forward. Delve into our list of recommended

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FROM THE PAGE: Bessie Smith

Excerpted from Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend by Jackie Kay   There are some people whose voices ring out across the centuries, who, even after they have gone, possess a strange ability to still be effortlessly here. Bessie’s voice has that quality. Unsettled most of her life, she still unsettles. Try

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Read an Excerpt from Andy Robinson’s Gold, Oil, and Avocados

The 21st century began optimistically in Latin America. Left-leaning leaders armed with programs to reduce poverty and reclaim national wealth were seeing results—but as the aughts gave way to the teens, they began to fall like dominos. Where did the dreams of this “pink tide” go? Look no further than the original culprits of Latin

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Read an Excerpt from Ruby Hamad’s White Tears/Brown Scars

Called “powerful and provocative” by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the New York Times bestselling How to be an Antiracist, White Tears/Brown Scars reveals how white feminism has been used as a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women, and women of color. Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought

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