Book Excerpts

King of the North by Jeanne Theoharis

Read an Excerpt from King of the North

In the powerful, myth-shattering book King of the North, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Jeanne Theoharis argues that Martin Luther King Jr.'s time outside of the South was at the heart of his campaign for racial justice. In this bold retelling, King emerges as a figure who not only led a revolutionary movement, but engaged in nationwide struggles to fight against racism, poverty, and war alongside his intellectual and political guide, Coretta Scott King.

Read an Excerpt from Bad Law

In Bad Law, Elie Mystal, the New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to a brilliant takedown of ten of the worst laws shaping American life and causing misery to millions—from gun manufacturer immunity to attacks on reproductive rights.

Read the introduction to Labor's Partisans

Read the introduction to Labors Partisans: Essential Writings on the Union Movement from the 1950s to Today, edited by top American labor historians Nelson Lichtenstein and Samir Sonti.
 

Read an Excerpt from The Price They Paid

Read an excerpt from The Price They Paid: Slavery, Shipwrecks, and Reparations Before the Civil War by Jeff Forret, recipient of the Frederick Douglass Prize.

Read an Excerpt from A Second Chance

Read an excerpt from A Second Chance: A Federal Judge Decides Who Deserves It by Judge Frederic Block. In a rare glimpse behind the bench, Judge Block recounts the cases of six incarcerated people who have done heinous things but have nevertheless petitioned him for their release. He then explains the criteria the First Step Act has spelled out for his consideration. And, in a novel twist, he asks the reader, “What would you do?”
 

Read an Excerpt from The Miracle of the Black Leg

Read an excerpt from The Miracle of the Black Leg: Notes on Race, Human Bodies, and the Spirit of the Law by the renowned Nation columnist—aka the Mad Law Professor—Patricia J. Williams. Tackling questions of identity, bioethics, race, surveillance, and more, the book begins with a jaw-dropping rumination on a centuries-old painting featuring a white man with a Black man’s leg surgically attached (with the expired Black leg-donor in the foreground).
 

Read an Excerpt from The Fear of Too Much Justice

Read an excerpt from The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts by renowned death penalty lawyer Stephen B. Bright and legal scholar James Kwak.

Read the Introduction to Charging Forward

Read an Excerpt from Won't Lose This Dream

Read an excerpt from Won't Lose This Dream: How an Upstart Urban University Rewrote the Rules of a Broken System by award-winning journalist Andrew Gumbel.

Read an Excerpt from Poverty For Profit

Read an excerpt from Poverty for Profit: How Corporations Get Rich off America’s Poor by veteran journalist Anne Kim. A devastating investigation into the “corporate poverty complex," a vast web of hidden industries and entrenched private-sector interests that profit from the bureaucracies regulating the lives of the poor.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Book Excerpts