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The Injustice of Place

A sweeping and surprising new understanding of extreme poverty in America from the authors of the acclaimed $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America.  "This book forces you to see American poverty in a whole new light." (Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America and Evicted)  Three of the nation's top scholars ­- known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America - turn their attention from the country's poorest people to its poorest places. Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, they discover that America's most disadvantaged communities are not the big cities that get the most notice. Instead, nearly all are rural. Little if any attention has been paid to these places or to the people who make their lives there. This revelation set in motion a five-year journey across Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the Deep South, and South Texas. Immersing themselves in these communities, poring over centuries of local history, attending parades and festivals, the authors trace the legacies of the deepest poverty in America--including inequalities shaping people's health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families. 

The Catholic Case Against War

The Catholic Case against War demonstrates how the Catholic mantra "Never again war!" reflects a set of powerfully realistic teachings on war and peace. Over the last five decades, the Catholic Church has emerged as a powerful critic of war and as an advocate for its alternatives. At the same time, researchers of armed conflict have produced a considerable body of scholarship on war and its prevention. The Catholic Case against War compares these seemingly disparate lines of thought and finds a remarkable harmony between the two. Drawing on years of Vatican documents and papal statements, political scientist David Carroll Cochran clearly presents the key elements of the Church's case against war. Far from a naïve, optimistic call for peace, these teachings are consistent with the empirical research on the realities of contemporary warfare. The result is a look not only at the explicit moral case against war developed by the Vatican but also at its remarkable realism and relevance to world conflict today.

The Militant Song Movement in Latin America

Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s underwent a profound and often violent process of social change. From the Cuban Revolution to the massive guerrilla movements in Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Colombia, and most of Central America, the idea of social change was in the air. While many aspects of this topic has been explored, the cultural--and especially musical--dimension of this movement, so vital in order to comprehend the extent of its emotional appeal, has not been fully documented.  In this collection of essays,  the history of the militant song movement in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina is examined. 

On Fire

Klien makes the case for a Green New Deal--explaining how bold climate action can be a blueprint for a just and thriving society.  On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal gathers for the first time more than a decade of her impassioned writing, and pairs it with new material on the staggeringly high stakes of our immediate political and economic choices. These long-form essays show Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the climate crisis not only as a profound political challenge but as a spiritual and imaginative one, as well. On Fire captures the burning urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a rising political movement demanding a catalytic Green New Deal.

Smashing Statues

An urgent and fractious national debate over public monuments has erupted in America. Some people risk imprisonment to tear down long-ignored hunks of marble; others form armed patrols to defend them. Why do we care so much about statues? And who gets to decide which ones should stay up and which should come down? Erin L. Thompson, the country's leading expert in the tangled aesthetic, legal, political, and social issues involved in such battles brings much-needed clarity in Smashing Statues. She traces the turbulent history of American monuments and its abundant ironies, starting with the enslaved man who helped make the statue of Freedom atop the US Capitol, and explores the surprising motivations behind such contemporary flashpoints as the toppling of a statue of Columbus at the Minnesota State Capitol. 

Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear

 In this poetry debut Mosab Abu Toha writes about his life under siege in Gaza, first as a child, and then as a young father. . These poems emerge directly from the experience of growing up and living in constant lockdown, and often under direct attack. Like Gaza itself, they are filled with rubble and the ever-present menace of surveillance drones policing a people unwelcome in their own land, and they are also suffused with the smell of tea, roses in bloom, and the view of the sea at sunset. Children are born, families continue traditions, students attend university, and libraries rise from the ruins as Palestinians go on about their lives, creating beauty and finding new ways to survive. Accompanied by an in-depth interview in which Abu Toha discusses life in Gaza, his family origins, and how he came to poetry. 

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Mark Graceffo
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