Race, Rights, and Reconstruction
In The Accident of Color, Daniel Brook tells the revealing story of the mixed-race elite in Charleston and New Orleans during the 19th century. Brook will appear at Novel in Memphis on June 27 at 6:00 p.m.
The Ball is Your Heart
In this interview, which first appeared at Chapter 16 in 2015, Kwame Alexander reflects on basketball, music, political consciousness, and the challenges and rewards of writing. Alexander will appear at the Benjamin L. Hooks Library in Memphis on April 22 and at Lipscomb University in Nashville on April 23.
Europe’s Exodus
In The Great Departure, Tara Zahra chronicles the complicated meanings of European migration to the United States. The MacArthur Fellow will speak on March 14 at the University of Memphis.
A Park for the People
In Overton Park: A People’s History, Brooks Lamb, a 2017 graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, recounts the long and vibrant history of the park at the heart of Midtown Memphis.
How We Got Into This Mess
In Fault Lines, Princeton University historian Kevin M. Kruse, a Nashville native—along with his co-author and Princeton colleague, Julian E. Zelizer—has written a lively and insightful look at American history since 1974, with a particular emphasis on explaining our current partisan political culture.
Crime and Punishment (and Race)
In Locking Up Our Own, James Forman Jr. intertwines policy and personal experience in a powerful account of crime and race in Washington D.C. Forman will discuss the book upon accepting the annual book award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis on January 31.
