"Rescuing an icon from the edge of oblivion is no easy task; making room for him in the collective memory is harder still. But revealing his profound influence on our social and cultural institutions today requires insight and imagination. Larry Tye has both."—San Francisco Chronicle

“Mount Vernon boasts stories that number in the hundreds, but one of its most dramatic tales has been left untold until now.  In Scott Casper’s compelling narrative we see sectional crisis, Civil War, emancipation, and Reconstruction through the eyes of Sarah Johnson and the hundreds of other African Americans who lived and labored at the fabled shrine.  The Mount Vernon that belonged to them as much as to Washington and his heirs now testifies to the signal importance of our nation’s African American past.”—Mary Kelley, Ruth Bordin Collegiate Professor of History, University of Michigan, and author of Learning to Stand and Speak

“Lewis takes on this tumultuous journey in a fact-based account of the movement’s moral and political dilemmas . . . His view of the student movement working in the shadow of the iconic Martin Luther King is both insightful and alarming . . . The extent of Lewis’s research makes this an excellent tool and especially fertile ground for screenwriters, politicians, and anyone interested in this polarizing period of history.” —Sheli Ellsworth, San Francisco Book Review

"Was the American Constitution as originally ratified a proslavery document? In this unflinching, deeply intelligent, and persuasive work, David Waldstreicher answers yes. Sure to spark interest and debate, Slavery's Constitution is an immensely engaging and valuable contribution to the literature on the founding of the American nation."—Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of law at New York Law School and winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History

"Masur's skill at teasing the symbolic resonance from the photo's structure and composition is impressive, as is his treatment of the flag as national icon. He displays his real skill as a historian, however, in his remarkably clear and fair-minded synopses of tangled racial histories . . . His sketch of precisely how the Boston school crisis develops is a small model of detailed economy and essential context."—Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

"For anyone interested in viewing America's traumatic Civil War from the perspective of ordinary individuals who found themselves in the Union and Confederate armies, Robert E. Bonner's The Soldier's Pen: Firsthand Impressions of the Civil War will be a very rewarding experience. This expertly edited collection of letters and drawings mailed to the families and friends of sixteen 'typical' but quite diverse citizen-soldiers conveys a deeply human dimension to America's most dehumanizing war."—David Brion Davis, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World

"[The Speech] offers answers that are a lot more complex than the unvarnished praise Obama's oration has gotten so far . . . A rich landscape of opinion on the state of race and Obama's singular relationship to it. Last year, we simply couldn't see these arguments in the heat of the campaign; now they're coming into focus."—Los Angeles Times

“Byron Pitts’ book should be required reading for anyone who has been told 'You can’t do it.' Faced with obstacles and challenges that many would find insurmountable, Byron through his remarkable faith and the support of his family refused to accept what all too many resign themselves to today, a life left unfilled, with promise, dreams and aspirations sadly left on the doorsteps of our future. Faith without works is dead; Byron’s faith is far from dead!"—T.D. Jakes, author and chief pastor of The Potter's House

"As an introduction to the subject, this book is outstanding . . . The civil rights movement challenges historians to chronicle the transformations that occurred over three decades [and] few have accomplished this task more satisfactorily than Harvard Sitkoff . . . The Struggle for Black Equality stunningly conveys the passion and anguish of the civil rights movement for those too young to remember and to those who prefer not to forget. From Brown to Bakke, Martin Luther King, Jr., to Malcolm X, and Montgomery to Memphis, the author vividly portrays the many currents flowing into the river of black protest—the individual and social, local and national, practical and philosophical. He skillfully charts the ebb and flow of Afro-American militancy alternating between optimism and despair, and concludes that a third Reconstruction must arise to remedy the economic and institutional ills carried over from the past. Readers will not find 'value-free' history in the pages of Sitkoff's book, for the author seeks to engage his audience, hoping to shatter its complacency. In doing so, he refrains from preaching, and while he never equivocates in his judgments, he carefully presents a balanced treatment."—Steven F. Lawson, University of South Florida, The Public Historian