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Best History eBooks of Race & Ethnicity

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. A Look Inside The Warmth of Other Suns The author's father as a Tuskegee Airman George Starling as a young manThe author's mother at Meridian Hill The author’s mother at Howard University with friends A migrant man studying a mapA migrant man packing his suitcaseIda Mae Brandon Gladney as a young womanRobert Joseph Pershing Foster as a young physician Starred Review.
Reviews
"Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper writer, has now come back to write a fascinating and sweeping book on what she calls ""the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century." Of course we all know the tale of the "Dust Bowl" and the "Okies", as captured by Steinbeck in words, by Dorothea Lange in photographs, and even in song by Woody Guthrie. The title of this book is taken from Richard Wright's "Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth": "I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and, perhaps, to bloom." Our families became friends, as also "Miz Edna's" husband had served in New Guinea with my father (as a cook, however, remember the WWII Army was still segregated) ."
"It does a commendable job of presenting the sweep of history while also telling individual stories of those who left brutal conditions for better lives elsewhere."
"I am awed by the sacrifice and courage displayed by my mother who made the decision to leave her family in Alabama to give us a chance to realize our greatest potential by driving north to start a new life."
"This collection of stories takes the reader through the history of the black migration from the South to the North and lays out in clear terms the challenges blacks faced and provides a foundational understanding of the challenges blacks continue to face in America today."
"This book was well articulated by a very pleasant-voice lady."
"I knew very little about this period in our history, and as a result of this book, I've sought out more information."
"This book, by focusing on the stories few individuals citizens, transcendentally captures both the unspeakable tragedy of Jim Crow, and the remarkable faith and sheer fortitude of those making the journey north (I'll never forget Ida Mae!!)."
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Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
An eye-opening account of life inside North Korea—a closed world of increasing global importance—hailed as a “tour de force of meticulous reporting” ( The New York Review of Books ). NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST In this landmark addition to the literature of totalitarianism, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il (the father of Kim Jong-un), and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life. She takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and through meticulous and sensitive reporting we see her subjects fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we witness their profound, life-altering disillusionment with the government and their realization that, rather than providing them with lives of abundance, their country has betrayed them. Her subjects are instantly relatable—they fall in love, raise families—but as their country grows increasingly isolated, totalitarian, and repressive, and is ravaged by unemployment and famine, they risk everything to leave. Her chilling impressions of a dreary, muffled, and depleted land are juxtaposed with a uniquely to-the-point history of how North Korea became an industrialized Communist nation supported by the Soviet Union and China and ruled by Kim Il Sung, then collapsed catastrophically into poverty, darkness, and starvation under the dictator’s son, Kim Jong Il. Mi-ran explains that even though her “tainted blood” (her father was a South Korean POW) kept her apart from the man she loved, she managed to become a teacher, only to watch her starving students waste away.
Reviews
"We learn about a young man left an orphan whose father had been Party member, a pediatrician whose greatest dream was to be allowed to join the Party, a housewife with 2 young children and an abusive husband, a young woman and her "forbidden" boyfriend, a factory worker who had absolute loyalty to the regime, and several more. This book also covers the operation of the government and its regimentation over people's lives from a historical viewpoint, how this all changed (slightly for the better) during the starvation years of the 90's, and the newer changes (for the worse) under Kim Jong-un."
"Astonishing reveal of the harsh reality of life during the 1980's in North Korea under that strict propagandist regime."
"It follows a number of individuals lives while living in North Korea."
"I was completely rivited by this book!"
"While I am an author myself, I don't know the author and no one asked me to review this."
"The constant propaganda, brainwashing, fear of being turned in by a neighbor, wife or son, the limits and downright bans on their freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom of economy, freedom to choose their own paths, and the absolute desert of information about the outside world is a staunch warning to everyone, including we Americans, who see the seedlings of many of these bans and controls and limits and increased surveillance and the drying up of information."
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Killers of the Flower Moon: Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NON-FICTION ‘ A riveting true story of greed, serial murder and racial injustice’ JON KRAKAUER ‘ A fiercely entertaining mystery. story and a wrenching exploration of evil’ KATE ATKINSON ‘ A fascinating account of a tragic and forgotten chapter in the history of the American West’ JOHN GRISHAM. In desperation, its young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. As other tribal lands were parceled out in an effort by the government to encourage dissolution and assimilation of both lands and culture, the Osage negotiated to maintain the mineral rights for their corner of Oklahoma, creating a kind of “underground reservation.” It proved a savvy move; soon countless oil rigs punctured the dusty landscape, making the Osage very rich. It has everything, but at scale: Execution-style shootings, poisonings, and exploding houses drove the body count to over two dozen, while private eyes and undercover operatives scoured the territory for clues. Even as legendary and infamous oil barons vied for the most lucrative leases, J. Edgar Hoover’s investigation – which he would leverage to enhance both the prestige and power of his fledgling FBI - began to overtake even the town’s most respected leaders. Most sobering, though, is how the tale is at once unsurprising and unbelievable, full of the arrogance, audacity, and inhumanity that continues to reverberate through today’s headlines.
Reviews
"This story needed to be told, and it fascinating the amount of detail that went into describing the horrors of that period of time. One aspect that had it been included, would have really helped solidify some of the information is a time line with events and people."
"This is one of the best true crime historical accounts I've ever read."
"You should read it."
"Having been a huge horse racing fan when I was a teenager, I knew about the wealth of the Osage Nation in the 1920s. I had no idea how rich the Osage really were, and I certainly didn't have a clue that the government didn't trust them with all that money. It had to madden many whites that, although they'd shoved the Osage onto a piece of land they deemed unfit for themselves, oil would be discovered and the Osage would turn out to be the wealthiest people in the world. The one way they had of trying to horn in on this wealth was by declaring that the Osage were not fit to use their own money wisely."
"The author captures an era of lawlessness and greed in frontier life and shares a piece of history that almost remained untold."
"It is appalling the way the government & our ancestors treated Indians."
"Excellent history about the beginning of the FBI, set in an unbelievable story and place about the original case which led to the start of J Edgar Hoover's long leadership in the FBI as well as a realization of big oil kingdom's place in the treatment of the American Indian."
"This was history that was never mentioned in any US history textbooks or others."
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Best U.S. Immigrant History

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. A Look Inside The Warmth of Other Suns The author's father as a Tuskegee Airman George Starling as a young manThe author's mother at Meridian Hill The author’s mother at Howard University with friends A migrant man studying a mapA migrant man packing his suitcaseIda Mae Brandon Gladney as a young womanRobert Joseph Pershing Foster as a young physician Starred Review.
Reviews
"As the stories of desperation, ambition and flight unfold, the reader can see just how many ways the American Dream was yanked away, hidden or otherwise made inaccessible to one generation after another. Instead, he ended up an overworked denizen of substandard housing, with broken knees and bad kidneys from all the years of picking oranges and tangerines then stacking and unloading luggage on railroad runs along the eastern seaboard. Meanwhile, his New York-born-and-raised children -- not privy to the "village" atmosphere of family and child-rearing of George's native Southland -- were left to fend for themselves in the impersonal, take-a-number concrete jungle of an overpopulated city and, with limited options, spent their energies on getting into, or ducking, trouble."
"Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper writer, has now come back to write a fascinating and sweeping book on what she calls ""the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century." Of course we all know the tale of the "Dust Bowl" and the "Okies", as captured by Steinbeck in words, by Dorothea Lange in photographs, and even in song by Woody Guthrie. The title of this book is taken from Richard Wright's "Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth": "I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns, and, perhaps, to bloom." Our families became friends, as also "Miz Edna's" husband had served in New Guinea with my father (as a cook, however, remember the WWII Army was still segregated) ."
"I have always wondered about the much harder lives of black migrants who followed a similar path. It cannot have been easy to write a book like this without descending either into sentimentality or righteous anger. My family left for economic reasons, but I don't think it's an accident that the Southern economy of that time was so bad."
"This book was a long read, but in the end, it provided an enlightening perspective on the migration of people from the southern states to the north from the early to late 20th century."
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Best Discrimination Constitutional Law

Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption
He was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of the US’s criminal justice system. ‘Unfairness in the justice system is a major theme of our age … This book brings new life to the story by placing it in two affecting contexts: Stevenson's life work and the deep strain of racial injustice in American life … You don't have to read too long to start cheering for this man. Just Mercy will make you upset and it will make you hopeful … Bryan Stevenson has been angry about [the criminal justice system] for years, and we are all the better for it.’ The New York Times. When Stevenson was a 23-year-old Harvard law student, he started an internship in Georgia where his first assignment was to deliver a message to a man living on death row. This is a title for the many young adults who have a parent or loved one in the prison system and the many others who are interested in social justice, the law, and the death penalty. [It] demonstrates, as powerfully as any book on criminal justice that I’ve ever read, the extent to which brutality, unfairness, and racial bias continue to infect criminal law in the United States. But at the same time that [Bryan] Stevenson tells an utterly damning story of deep-seated and widespread injustice, he also recounts instances of human compassion, understanding, mercy, and justice that offer hope. Just Mercy is a remarkable amalgam, at once a searing indictment of American criminal justice and a stirring testament to the salvation that fighting for the vulnerable sometimes yields.” —David Cole, The New York Review of Books “A searing, moving and infuriating memoir . This book brings new life to the story by placing it in two affecting contexts: [Bryan] Stevenson’s life work and the deep strain of racial injustice in American life. Against tremendous odds, Stevenson has worked to free scores of people from wrongful or excessive punishment, arguing five times before the Supreme Court. Stevenson has been angry about [the criminal justice system] for years, and we are all the better for it.” —Ted Conover, The New York Times Book Review “Inspiring . “As deeply moving, poignant and powerful a book as has been, and maybe ever can be, written about the death penalty.” —The Financial Times “Brilliant.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer. Bryan Stevenson, however, is very much alive and doing God’s work fighting for the poor, the oppressed, the voiceless, the vulnerable, the outcast, and those with no hope. Just Mercy is his inspiring and powerful story.” —John Grisham “Bryan Stevenson is one of my personal heroes, perhaps the most inspiring and influential crusader for justice alive today, and Just Mercy is extraordinary. Bryan Stevenson is a real-life, modern-day Atticus Finch who, through his work in redeeming innocent people condemned to death, has sought to redeem the country itself. It is inspiring and suspenseful—a revelation.” —Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns “Words such as important and compelling may have lost their force through overuse, but reading this book will restore their meaning, along with one’s hopes for humanity.” —Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Mountains Beyond Mountains “Bryan Stevenson is America’s young Nelson Mandela, a brilliant lawyer fighting with courage and conviction to guarantee justice for all. Just Mercy should be read by people of conscience in every civilized country in the world to discover what happens when revenge and retribution replace justice and mercy.
Reviews
"My tendency is to put things into "liberal" and "conservative" buckets and this one seemingly fit into the liberal bucket and I am a professed conservative."
"I have a new hero . Bryan Stevenson. This is a great book."
"This is a system that condemns children to life imprisonment without parole, that makes petty theft a crime as serious as murder, and that has declared war on hundreds of thousands of people with substance abuse problems by imprisoning them and denying them help. JUST MERCY explores a number of devastating cases, including children as young as fourteen facing life imprisonment, and scores of people on death row - mostly poor, and mostly black - who have been unfairly convicted. But the central focus is on Walter McMillan, a black man sentenced to death for the murder of a prominent young white woman. Ours is no longer a country that sees compassion as a virtue; instead, we write harsher and harsher laws that demand longer and longer sentences for those we consider undesirables. It's rare these days to meet someone who truly dedicates himself to those least able to help themselves, especially someone who isn't after media attention or self-promotion."
"He is a witness in the stories, a helper, an overwhelmed human who makes sure his clients and the system are the focus of his stories, so we, the readers, can begin to understand what really happens in the legal system, from the behavior of police to the biases of justices with unchecked power, and the witnesses that are the wrong color to be heard."
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Best Constitutional Law

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
National Book Critics Circle Award Winner New York Times Bestseller. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year. A Boston Globe Best Book of 2016. A Chicago Review of Books Best Nonfiction Book of 2016. From the Civil War to our combustible present, acclaimed historian Carol Anderson reframes our continuing conversation about race, chronicling the powerful forces opposed to black progress in America. A sobering primer on the myriad ways African American resilience and triumph over enslavement, Jim Crow and intolerance have been relentlessly defied by the very institutions entrusted to uphold our democracy." "White Rage is a riveting and disturbing history that begins with Reconstruction and lays bare the efforts of whites in the South and North alike to prevent emancipated black people from achieving economic independence, civil and political rights, personal safety, and economic opportunity." "White Rage belongs in a place of honor on the shelf next to other seminal books about the African-American experience such as James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time , Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns , and Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow ." "[A] powerful survey of American history as seen in the violent white reactions to black progress, from Reconstruction to the great migration to the current political landscape." "Anderson has shown, with her well-sourced (she has several hundred detailed footnotes) and readable book, why the fights over race and access to the perquisites of American citizenship grind on . White Rage lends perspective and insight for those of us who are willing to confront, study and learn from the present situation in this country." Though stretching a stand-alone essay into an extended study doesn’t work very often, White Rage operates efficiently and elegantly, offering readers new intelligence about American experience. Like a meticulous prosecutor assembling her case, Anderson lays out a profoundly upsetting vision of an America driven to waves of reactionary white anger whenever it’s confronted with black achievement." Reading through all the frightfully inventive ways in which America makes racial inequality a matter of law (and order) has a dizzying effect: like watching a quick-cut montage of social injustice spanning nearly half a millennium." "[F]or readers who want to understand the sense of grievance and pain that many African Americans feel today, White Rage offers a clearly written and well-thought-out overview of an aspect of U.S. history with which the country is still struggling to come to terms." "Anderson’s mosaic of white outrage deserves contemplation by anyone interested in understanding U.S. race relations, past and present." We are tethered to history, and with White Rage , Anderson adeptly highlights both that past and the tenacious grip race holds on the present. "White Rage is a harrowing account of our national history during the century and a half since the Civil War--even more troubling for what it exposes about our present, our deep and abiding racial divide. - Natasha Trethewey, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for NATIVE GUARD and Two-term Poet Laureate of the United States. - David Von Drehle, author of RISE TO GREATNESS: ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND AMERICA'S MOST PERILOUS YEAR.
Reviews
"It grew out of a 2014 Washington Post oped article Professor Carol Anderson of the Emory History Department wrote in response to the Ferguson, Missouri protests but also has root in her revulsion for the racially motivated attacks on the character and policies of President Obama. I accept her central argument that Black economic and political advances since the Civil War have prompted systematic politically motivated backlash. Professor Anderson’s best chapters are on the Great Migration and resistance to the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision repudiating the legal doctrine of separate but equal segregation. Booth heard Lincoln lay out this proposal, told a compatriot it meant Black equality and vowed to “put him over.” We can’t know what Lincoln would have done in the face of persistent resistance to emancipation and Reconstruction but I believe it would have resembled the Civil Rights measures the Republican Congress passed. It does not distinguish between the cautious and unimaginative Waite Court (1874-88) and the hostile Fuller Court (1888-1910) which repudiated every opinion the Waite Court issued that could—with vigorous DOJ prosecution—have protected at least federal voting rights It lets the Court serve as a scapegoat for increasing Northern voter resistance to vigorous Army and DOJ suppression of terrorism. Anderson also neglected the 1890 failure of a Republican Senate majority to pass voting rights enforcement legislation the House crafted to build on Waite Court Fifteenth Amendment opinions."
"The book indicts both northern and southern states, which complicates the grade-school stereotype of a racist white South and an innocent, non-racist white North."
"A well-researched and deeply disturbing book about how states and the federal government have pursued an intentional, comprehensive and ultimately devastatingly effective effort to disenfranchise African Americans from, literally, almost the day after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. “…white rage has undermined democracy, warped the Constitution, weakened the nation’s ability to compete economically, squandered billions of dollars on baseless incarcerations, rendered an entire region sick, poor and woefully undereducated, and left cities nothing less than devastated."
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Best History eBooks of Gay & Gender Studies

Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History
Called "disgraceful," "third-rate," and "not nice" by Donald Trump, NBC News correspondent Katy Tur reported on—and took flak from—the most captivating and volatile presidential candidate in American history. Katy Tur lived out of a suitcase for a year and a half, following Trump around the country, powered by packets of peanut butter and kept clean with dry shampoo. She visited forty states with the candidate, made more than 3,800 live television reports, and tried to endure a gazillion loops of Elton John’s "Tiny Dancer"—a Trump rally playlist staple. is her darkly comic, fascinatingly bizarre, and often scary story of how America sent a former reality show host to the White House. “A cross between The Boys on the Bus and Miss Lonelyhearts” ( New York Review of Books ). “By the end of ‘Unbelievable’ it’s clear how wrong they all were in thinking they could run over “little Katy” (Trump’s snide name for Tur.). The chapters switch between key points in the campaign and Election Day, enhancing the feel of chaos that must have been a big part of covering the Trump campaign.” ( Associated Press ). Called “Disgraceful,” “third-rate,” and “not nice” by Donald Trump, NBC News correspondent Katy Tur reported on—and took flak from—the most captivating and volatile presidential candidate in American history. Tur lived out of a suitcase for a year and a half, following Trump around the country, powered by packets of peanut butter and kept clean with dry shampoo. She visited forty states with the candidate, made more than 3,800 live television reports, and tried to endure a gazillion loops of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”—a Trump rally playlist staple. Through all the long nights, wild scoops, naked chauvinism, dodgy staffers, and fevered debates, no one had a better view than Tur. Unbelievable is her darkly comic, fascinatingly bizarre, and often scary story of how America sent a former reality show host to the White House.
Reviews
"I can't put this down and had to write a 5-star revuew before I was done, because I wanted to counter all the trolls who clearly haven't read it and are just trashing the author. Here it leavens the horror show of the Trump campaign which she is somewhat reluctantly drawn into covering when she has a good job in London and a charming boyfriend in Paris."
"I know I have wondered - what would it have been like to really see Trump on the campaign trail? Tur explains how she ended up covering Trump, and what it was like to follow him, day in and day out, for the length of his campaign."
"I liked many things about this book except the way it was organized."
"As an embedded reporter for NBC during the Trump campaign, Ms. Tur had a front row seat to the weirdest presidential election in the history of this country."
"This is a quick, funny, light read that gives you a great idea of what goes through a correspondent's mind, though the events that unfolded are hopefully a once-in-history thing."
"I'm so gad I read this rich, entertaining and detailed book about Katy Tur's 500 days on the road covering the Trump campaign."
"This felt like I was sitting down with an old friend over a bottle of wine while she told me about her amazing year on the road."
"I’ve followed Katy following TRump since day 1."
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Best Social History eBooks of Labor & Workforce

The End of Jobs: Money, Meaning and Freedom Without the 9-to-5
#1 Bestseller in Business and Money, Small Business, Entrepreneurship and International Economics A Top 3 'Start Your Own Business' Book -Inc Magazine. — Why a 20th century world view to career search questions like “What career is right for me?” and “How do I find a career?” could be the source of your frustration (and a better way to think about it). — Taylor’s 67 must-read business books and the best entrepreneur books to fuel your entrepreneurial career. — Access to a private community to discuss the book and get support from a community of like-minded individuals to inspire, motivate, and assist each other in seeking out apprenticeships, your career search and other elements around “how to find a career” and other career guidance questions like “what career is right for me?”. Early Stage Entrepreneurs - If you’re already involved in small business entrepreneurship, but doubting yourself and wondering if you made a smart choice to abandon the traditional career path? Taylor spent the last three years meeting with hundreds of entrepreneurs from Los Angeles to Vietnam, Brazil to New York, and worked with dozens of them, in industries from cat furniture to dating, helping them to grow their businesses. Based on hundreds of interactions and and dozens of recent books and studies, he wrote The End of Jobs to show others how they could invest in entrepreneurship to create more freedom, meaning, and wealth in their lives.
Reviews
"3 years ago I picked up Tim Ferriss' "4 Hour Work Week” - the bible of the first wave of nomadic online entrepreneurs. The End of Jobs presents an even more compelling argument on how the traditional education, career and asset accumulation script is failing. It's the necessary balance of age-old philosophical theories, real-world examples of successful entrepreneurs, and nitty-gritty strategies and tactics that can create a catalyst for change: not only the WHY, but the HOW and WHEN (i.e. right now)!"
"This book was suggested by a Facebook buddy."
"While we have largely accepted technological disruption of blue-collar work (albeit reluctantly), Pearson explains that many white collar careers are ripe for disruption by technology, global competition and other factors."
"I'd give 3 stars if you've already read a lot books on the subject, 4 stars if you're new to it."
"I really like Taylor's book I have listened to it four times now and I really think he is on to something."
"This book is uplifting and practical, providing templates from Taylor's website and strategies for you to employ today, in 2015, to bring yourself into the new world that we live in."
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