Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Aram Goudsouzian

For Lives That Matter

Ibram X. Kendi discusses Stamped From the Beginning, winner of the National Book Award

In Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Ibram Kendi offers a panoramic, penetrating vision of a disturbing theme in the nation’s past. 

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The Senator in the Delta

Smyrna native Ellen B. Meacham chronicles Robert F. Kennedy’s crusade against poverty

In Delta Epiphany, Ellen B. Meacham chronicles Robert F. Kennedy’s 1967 visit to the Mississippi Delta, which spurred his efforts to eradicate hunger in America. Meacham will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 27.

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A Martyr’s Redemption

Joseph Rosenbloom talks with Chapter 16 about the final days of Martin Luther King Jr.

On April 3, Martin Luther King Jr. arrived in Memphis to lead a nonviolent march in support of striking sanitation workers. The next day, he was murdered. In Redemption, Joseph Rosenbloom describes those thirty-one hours with rich detail and compelling analysis. Rosenbloom will speak at Novel in Memphis on April 23 and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 26.

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A Fragile Juggernaut

Nashville nonfiction author Jefferson Cowie reinterprets the New Deal and its legacy

Jefferson Cowie’s The Great Exception challenges our understanding of the New Deal and its implications for today. The Nashville-based nonfiction author will deliver the Belle McWilliams Lecture in American History at the University of Memphis on February 15.

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American Carnage

A conservative expert on the presidency weighs in on Donald Trump’s first year

In Trump’s First Year, Rhodes College professor Michael Nelson dispassionately dissects the leadership style of the controversial 45th president. Nelson will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on January 21.

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