History / Social Themes


  
  • Our recent storms didn't start in 2020 or 2016. They started decades ago in the 1960s - a whirlwind of threatened nuclear catastrophe, then police dogs and rednecks terrorizing civil rights marchers down south, then Vietnamese children fleeing from napalm flames. Then draft notices to go to Vietnam to "fight commies." A small town boy started by supporting rightist Goldwater against the "peace candidate" Johnson, but rapidly changed in the face of the civil rights and anti-war movements, and started a quest that hasn't ended yet.This book tells Dee Knight's story of "waking up" to the truth about the US war in Vietnam, then refusing the draft and going to Canada where he lived for six years. It relates the years-long campaign for amnesty, in which Knight was a leader. After war resisters won a partial amnesty, Knight continued campaigning against US wars up to the present day. A reviewer adds: Like many others who became politicized during the US war on the Vietnamese, Knight continued his political work after the war finally ended in 1975. In addition to his work for complete and total amnesty, Knight became involved in various anti-imperialist work, from Nicaragua to Iran. In fact, he spent several months in Nicaragua as a member of the organization TecNica. This organization was involved in numerous locally-based water filtration and electricity production projects and was made up of many international volunteers hoping to help out the Sandinista revolutionary government. During this time, the government was also fighting a war against US-funded mercenaries known for their brutal and bloody killings of civilians. In a chapter titled “A Love Song to Nicaragua,” Knight describes his work and the nature of a nation in the early years of a revolutionary government. The subsequent chapters in this text tell the story of Knight’s continued political involvement and is hopes for a better world. Each chapter ends with a reflection on the meaning of the events in the chapter and their role in the larger picture of social change with the goal of a socialist world as its outcome. In addition, My Whirlwind Lives includes a number of appendices: documents from the draft resistance movement, the amnesty campaign and a reflection on the Green New Deal, among others. This is a personal testimony from a human who has dedicated his life to a more just world. The narrative is conversational and thoughtful. --Reviewer: Ron Jacobs
  • In Jaxon and Kevin’s Black History Trip Downtown, the second book in this educational book series, Jaxon shares his magical adventure with his cousin Kevin. They venture into town to meet Black inventors and scientists who are responsible for many of the things we encounter every day.
  • Leaving Dahomey is set in 1840 in the ancient West Afrikan Kingdom of Dahomey. Our story centers around the people in their everyday lives and occupations, the applique workers, the calabash makers, pottery makers, storytellers, makers of verse, the needleworkers/designers, the smiths, and the cultivators. The story follows a year in the life of a fifteen-year-old hammock-borne, Adeoha Adetoye, and her connection to a Vodun prophecy of a magical oracle that will appear in time.
  • Every family has a story. Every story, eventually, must be told.

    For most of their lives, Julian Perel and his sister, Paula, lived in a house cast in silence, witnesses to a father struggling with a devastating secret too painful to share. Though their father took his demons to the grave, his past refuses to rest.

    As adults, brother and sister struggle to find their voices. A scientist governed by numbers and logic, Julian now lives an ordered life of routine and seclusion. In contrast, Paula has entered the world as eagerly as Julian retracts from it. An aspiring opera singer, she is always moving, buoyant with sound.

    Yet both their lives begin to change on a Wednesday, miercoles, the day that sounds like miracles.

    Before embarking on a European opera tour, Paula asks her housekeeper, Sola, to stay at her place--and to look after Julian in the apartment above. Sola, too, has a story.

    As Paula uncovers pieces of her father's early life in Budapest and the horrifying truth of his past, Julian bears witness to Sola's story--revelations that help all three learn how to both surrender and revere the shadows that have followed them for so long.

    The Speed of Light is a powerful novel about three unforgettable souls who overcome the tragedies of the past to reconnect with one another and the world around them. Elizabeth Rosner has created a beautifully interwoven story of love and redemption that proves the pain of the untold story is far greater than even the most difficult truth.

  • One Hundred Years of Exile: A Romanov's Search for Her Father's Russia
  • The Book of Timothy: The Devil, My Brother, and Me [A Memoir]
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