Race Relations Books

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Barack Obama

Amazon Price: $8.97 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 131 new & used starting at $8.02

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 332 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A True American Story 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This was a very enjoyable read. I could not put it down. Not often are top political figures this transparent and offer such a naked glimpse into their personal thoughts and experiences.

Great book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is an excellent read and it allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of President-Elect, Barack Obama. After reading this book, I gained a deeper understanding of him as a youth, a young man, a son and grandson. I also gained a greater understanding of his values, his beliefs and his purpose. It is a great book.

Editorial Review:

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

The Freedom Writers Diary : How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

Freedom Writers, Zlata Filipovic

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Main Street Books Amazon Marketplace: 119 new & used starting at $5.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Contemporary Methods -> Multicultural
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 141 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Straight from the front line of urban America, the inspiring story of one fiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students.


As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”

With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.

With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students.

The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers.

The Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition

James McBride

Amazon Price: $10.78 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Riverhead Trade Amazon Marketplace: 166 new & used starting at $3.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Better than expected 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I think this story trancends race. It's really just a story of a mother who made choices and gave her all in an extremely trying environement. I was moved. I read this after reading Miracle at St. Anna which was great!

Double standards 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Lets imagine that a Jewish author writes a book that features all the well known evil racist stereotypes of Afro-Americans. Everyone would be up in arms (justifiably) and condemn the book. Here we have a book penned by an Afro-American that contains many anti-Semitic stereotypes supposedly related to the author by his mother who pathologically rejected her Jewish roots, and everyone praises the book. I am both puzzled and offended. In addition if his mother had used the same child rearing practices 20 years later her children would have been sent to foster homes.

First rate memoir 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I started to write first rate mixed-race memoir, but hell, this is just plain first rate writing no matter how you slice it. As one of 12 kids in desperately poor conditions, McBride survived and triumphed, as apparently did all 11 of his siblings. And they owe much of this to their mother, who did her best for them. This is a "double memoir," being the story of both the author and his mother, a Jewish immigrant who survived an abusive and nearly loveless childhood, but finally found love - twice - and somehow successfully raised all those kids, the products of two good matches with men who took their parenting responsibilities seriously. I wonder if Barack Obama has read this book. There are undoubtedly personal and racial identity problems here to which he could relate. If I could call him up, I'd certainly recommend it to him. I'm also recommending it to another author I know, Stella Suberman, who wrote the warm memoir of growing up Jewish in the south, THE JEW STORE. But hey, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know a little more about the nature of being a human being. - Tim Bazzett, author of Reed City Boy

The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers

Harry Bernstein

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $5.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Authors
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> Jewish
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“There are places that I have never forgotten. A little cobbled street in a smoky mill town in the North of England has haunted me for the greater part of my life. It was inevitable that I should write about it and the people who lived on both sides of its ‘Invisible Wall.’ ”

The narrow street where Harry Bernstein grew up, in a small English mill town, was seemingly unremarkable. It was identical to countless other streets in countless other working-class neighborhoods of the early 1900s, except for the “invisible wall” that ran down its center, dividing Jewish families on one side from Christian families on the other. Only a few feet of cobblestones separated Jews from Gentiles, but socially, it they were miles apart.

On the eve of World War I, Harry’s family struggles to make ends meet. His father earns little money at the Jewish tailoring shop and brings home even less, preferring to spend his wages drinking and gambling. Harry’s mother, devoted to her children and fiercely resilient, survives on her dreams: new shoes that might secure Harry’s admission to a fancy school; that her daughter might marry the local rabbi; that the entire family might one day be whisked off to the paradise of America.

Then Harry’s older sister, Lily, does the unthinkable: She falls in love with Arthur, a Christian boy from across the street.

When Harry unwittingly discovers their secret affair, he must choose between the morals he’s been taught all his life, his loyalty to his selfless mother, and what he knows to be true in his own heart.

A wonderfully charming memoir written when the author was ninety-three, The Invisible Wall vibrantly brings to life an all-but-forgotten time and place. It is a moving tale of working-class life, and of the boundaries that can be overcome by love.


From the Hardcover edition.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

Jimmy Carter

Amazon Price: $10.81 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 91 new & used starting at $2.69

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Israel
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Palestine
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 695 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The crowning achievement of Jimmy Carter's presidency was the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, and he has continued his public and private diplomacy ever since, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of work for peace, human rights, and international development. He has been a tireless author since then as well, writing bestselling books on his childhood, his faith, and American history and politics, but in Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, he has returned to the Middle East and to the question of Israel's peace with its neighbors--in particular, how Israeli sovereignty and security can coexist permanently and peacefully with Palestinian nationhood.

It's a rare honor to ask questions of a former president, and we are grateful that President Carter was able to take the time in between his work with his wife, Rosalynn, for the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity and his many writing projects to speak with us about his hopes for the region and his thoughts on the book.

A big thank you to President Carter for granting our request for an interview.

---

An Interview with President Jimmy Carter

Q: What has been the importance of your own faith in your continued interest in peace in the Middle East?
A: As a Christian, I worship the Prince of Peace. One of my preeminent commitments has been to bring peace to the people who live in the Holy Land. I made my best efforts as president and still have this as a high priority.

Q: A common theme in your years of Middle East diplomacy has been that leaders on both sides have often been more open to discussion and change in private than in public. Do you think that's still the case?
A: Yes. This is why private and intense negotiations can be successful. More accurately, however, my premise has been that the general public (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) are more eager for peace than their political leaders. For instance, a recent poll done by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem showed that 58% of Israelis and 81% of the Palestinians favor a comprehensive settlement similar to the Roadmap for Peace or the Saudi proposal adopted by all 23 Arab nations and recently promoted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Tragically, there have been no substantive peace talks during the past six years.

Q: How have the war in Iraq and the increased strength of Iran (and the declarations of their leaders against Israel) changed the conditions of the Israel-Palestine question?
A: Other existing or threatened conflicts in the region greatly increase the importance of Israel's having peace agreements with its neighbors, to minimize overall Arab animosity toward both Israel and the United States and reduce the threat of a broader conflict.

Q: Your use of the term "apartheid" has been a lightning rod in the response to your book. Could you explain your choice? Were you surprised by the reaction?
A: The book is about Palestine, the occupied territories, and not about Israel. Forced segregation in the West Bank and terrible oppression of the Palestinians create a situation accurately described by the word. I made it plain in the text that this abuse is not based on racism, but on the desire of a minority of Israelis to confiscate and colonize Palestinian land. This violates the basic humanitarian premises on which the nation of Israel was founded. My surprise is that most critics of the book have ignored the facts about Palestinian persecution and its proposals for future peace and resorted to personal attacks on the author. No one could visit the occupied territories and deny that the book is accurate.

Q: You write in the book that "the peace process does not have a life of its own; it is not self-sustaining." What would you recommend that the next American president do to revive it?
A: I would not want to wait two more years. It is encouraging that President George W. Bush has announced that peace in the Holy Land will be a high priority for his administration during the next two years. On her January trip to the region, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for early U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. She has recommended the 2002 offer of the Arab nations as a foundation for peace: full recognition of Israel based on a return to its internationally recognized borders. This offer is compatible with official U.S. Government policy, previous agreements approved by Israeli governments in 1978 and 1993, and with the International Quartet's "roadmap for peace." My book proposes that, through negotiated land swaps, this "green line" border be modified to permit a substantial number of Israelis settlers to remain in Palestine. With strong U.S. pressure, backed by the U.N., Russia, and the European Community, Israelis and Palestinians would have to come to the negotiating table.

1/18/2007

Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur

Halima Bashir, Damien Lewis

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: One World/Ballantine Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $14.91

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Like the single white eyelash that graces her row of dark lashes–seen by her people as a mark of good fortune–Halima Bashir’s story stands out. Tears of the Desert is the first memoir ever written by a woman caught up in the war in Darfur. It is a survivor’s tale of a conflicted country, a resilient people, and the uncompromising spirit of a young woman who refused to be silenced.

Born into the Zaghawa tribe in the Sudanese desert, Halima was doted on by her father, a cattle herder, and kept in line by her formidable grandmother. A politically astute man, Halima’s father saw to it that his daughter received a good education away from their rural surroundings. Halima excelled in her studies and exams, surpassing even the privileged Arab girls who looked down their noses at the black Africans. With her love of learning and her father’s support, Halima went on to study medicine, and at twenty-four became her village’s first formal doctor.

Yet not even the symbol of good luck that dotted her eye could protect her from the encroaching conflict that would consume her land. Janjaweed Arab militias started savagely assaulting the Zaghawa, often with the backing of the Sudanese military. Then, in early 2004, the Janjaweed attacked Bashir’s village and surrounding areas, raping forty-two schoolgirls and their teachers. Bashir, who treated the traumatized victims, some as young as eight years old, could no longer remain quiet. But breaking her silence ignited a horrifying turn of events.

In this harrowing and heartbreaking account, Halima Bashir sheds light on the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives being eradicated by what is fast becoming one of the most terrifying genocides of the twenty-first century. Raw and riveting, Tears of the Desert is more than just a memoir–it is Halima Bashir’s global call to action.

Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America

James Webb

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Broadway Amazon Marketplace: 58 new & used starting at $5.96

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Ireland -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 142 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

More than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to the Scots, whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the border between England and Scotland, and later in the bitter settlements of England’s Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland. Between 250,000 and 400,000 Scots-Irish migrated to America in the eighteenth century, traveling in groups of families and bringing with them not only long experience as rebels and outcasts but also unparalleled skills as frontiersmen and guerrilla fighters. Their cultural identity reflected acute individualism, dislike of aristocracy and a military tradition, and, over time, the Scots-Irish defined the attitudes and values of the military, of working class America, and even of the peculiarly populist form of American democracy itself.

Born Fighting is the first book to chronicle the full journey of this remarkable cultural group, and the profound, but unrecognized, role it has played in the shaping of America. Written with the storytelling verve that has earned his works such acclaim as “captivating . . . unforgettable” (the Wall Street Journal on Lost Soliders), Scots-Irishman James Webb, Vietnam combat veteran and former Naval Secretary, traces the history of his people, beginning nearly two thousand years ago at Hadrian’s Wall, when the nation of Scotland was formed north of the Wall through armed conflict in contrast to England’s formation to the south through commerce and trade. Webb recounts the Scots’ odyssey—their clashes with the English in Scotland and then in Ulster, their retreat from one war-ravaged land to another. Through engrossing chronicles of the challenges the Scots-Irish faced, Webb vividly portrays how they developed the qualities that helped settle the American frontier and define the American character.

Born Fighting shows that the Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and they have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy (only 5 percent of whom owned slaves, and who fought against what they viewed as an invading army). It illustrates how the Scots-Irish redefined American politics, creating the populist movement and giving the country a dozen presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. And it explores how the Scots-Irish culture of isolation, hard luck, stubbornness, and mistrust of the nation’s elite formed and still dominates blue-collar America, the military services, the Bible Belt, and country music.

Both a distinguished work of cultural history and a human drama that speaks straight to the heart of contemporary America, Born Fighting reintroduces America to its most powerful, patriotic, and individualistic cultural group—one too often ignored or taken for granted.

The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave

Kashif Malik Hassan-El

Amazon Price: $4.95 List Price: $4.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Frontline Distribution International Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $1.77

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Discrimination & Racism
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Race Relations -> America

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A Must Read 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This book should bread by every young black male in the United States. Some have proclaimed that it is false but the information is essential to the growth of black males. It sheds light on some of the condition that we face in this country.

Willie Lynch letter/the making of a slave 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Very important to the education of all. Willie Lynch letter has been questionned as to its actual authenticy, but no matter because the content is historically correct and the attitudes remain to this day. That is unfortunate, however, it's value to all Americans changing their attitudes and behaviour have great global implications.

Willie Lynch Letter 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

The Willie Lynch letter is an interesting dig into the psychological control of slaves by slave masters. I am not sure of the validity of this letter, but it is an important part of studying American slavery. The book is a short read that can be easily read in one short sitting.

Editorial Review:

The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave is a study of slave making. It discribes the rationale and the results of Anglo Saxon's ideas and methods of insuring the master/slave relationship.

White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son

Tim Wise

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Soft Skull Press Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $7.71

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Discrimination & Racism
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Race Relations -> America
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Race Relations -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A terrific exploration of race in America 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Tim Wise's name is well-known and I have read many of his essays over the years. So as I was about to read this book, it's safe to say I had some expectations for it. The verdict: it surpassed them. In the first few pages, the book seems a bit aimless, and at various points in the book his language is a little off-putting (by that, I mean his very free use of words like F-bombs). But after the first few pages, and getting past the occasional language obstacle, he shines with it.

He proves very adept at illustrating how ever-present race is in everyday life, and I don't make this point lightly. I already felt I had a good understanding of this, but some of his examples prove that wrong and show that it's present even in places I didn't think that was the case. He shares stories from his family as well as life outside of home that all drive home his points well.

Most of all, as is the case in his essays, Wise gets real about race as it concerns White people. He pulls no punches, evident in several parts of the book. He makes it clear more than once that merely "being a good person", for lack of a better phrase, will never be enough to make a significant dent in racism. He points out that for White people doing this work, the rewards are not what one might expect - don't expect to be on the cover of a major magazine or the top story on the six o'clock news, and don't expect to be loved by all the way athletes and entertainers are worshiped in America. And he does a great job of showing how racism hurts White people, examples including how privilege can put us in danger or rob us of our self-determination, and in perhaps an extreme example, how it can lead the poorest of Whites to support politicians and policies that don't help them at all but profess to be anti-Black - the latter being the reason they support the politician or policy.

This is a challenging book. It certainly was for me, and I haven't been a passive observer on this subject matter during my life. It made me examine myself and my thoughts on this subject, yet it also in some points affirmed that if nothing else, I may be on the right track, as there were certainly parts I identified with. It's also realistic in that the overall picture it paints is that for many reasons, fighting the rampant White privilege in America is not easy at all.

All in all, this book is well worth reading, especially for a White person who wants to do something positive on race.

Editorial Review:

Racial privilege shapes the lives of white Americans in every facet of life, from employment and education to housing and criminal justice. Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise shows that racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits those who are "white like him" — whether or not they’re actively racist. Using stories instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a compelling narrative that assesses the magnitude of racial privilege and is at once readable and scholarly, analytical yet accessible.

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King

Amazon Price: $16.29 List Price: $23.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperOne Amazon Marketplace: 93 new & used starting at $7.51

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> African Americans -> History
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"We've got some difficult days ahead," civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., told a crowd gathered at Memphis's Clayborn Temple on April 3, 1968. "But it really doesn't matter to me now because I've been to the mountaintop. . . . And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land."

These prohetic words, uttered the day before his assassination, challenged those he left behind to see that his "promised land" of racial equality became a reality; a reality to which King devoted the last twelve years of his life.

These words and other are commemorated here in the only major one-volume collection of this seminal twentieth-century American prophet's writings, speeches, interviews, and autobiographical reflections. A Testament of Hope contains Martin Luther King, Jr.'s essential thoughts on nonviolence, social policy, integration, black nationalism, the ethics of love and hope, and more.