Unforgettable Books
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Bayard Rustin: A Legacy of Protest and Politics: A Legacy of Protest and Politics
2024 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice Reviews Celebrates the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, the civil rights leader behind the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom While we can all recall images of Martin Luther King Jr. giving his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of a massive crowd at Lincoln Memorial, few of us remember the man who organized this watershed nonviolent protest in eight short weeks: Bayard Rustin. This was far from Rustin's first foray into the fight for civil rights. As a world-traveling pacifist, he brought Gandhi's protest techniques to the forefront of US civil rights demonstrations, helped build the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led the fight for economic justice, and played a deeply influential role in the life of Dr. King by helping to mold him into an international symbol of nonviolent resistance. Rustin's legacy touches many areas of contemporary life--from civil resistance to violent uprisings, democracy to socialism, and criminal justice reform to war resistance. Despite these achievements, Rustin was often relegated to the background. He was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. With expansive, searching, and sometimes critical essays from a range of esteemed writers--including Rustin's own partner, Walter Naegle--this volume draws a full picture of Bayard Rustin: a gay, pacifist, socialist political radical who changed the course of US history and set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from LGBTQ+ Pride to Black Lives Matter.
$30.00
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Mary Cassatt Between Paris and New York: The Making of a Transatlantic Legacy: The Making of a Transatlantic Legacy
"You'll never look at Cassatt the same way again."--A Hyperallergic Favorite Art Book of 2025"An authoritative, beautifully illustrated study."--Kirkus ReviewsFinalist for the Marfield Book PrizeThe first comprehensive study of Cassatt's life, work, and legacy through the prism of a transatlantic framework. This book re-envisions Mary Cassatt in the context of her transatlantic network, friendships, exhibitions, politics, and legacy. Rather than defining her as either an American artist or a French impressionist, author Ruth E. Iskin argues that we can best understand Cassatt through the complexity of her multiple identifications as an American patriot, a committed French impressionist, and a suffragist. Contextualizing Cassatt's feminist outlook within the intense pro- and anti-suffrage debates in the United States, Iskin shows how these impacted her artistic representations of motherhood, fatherhood, and older women. Mary Cassatt between Paris and New York also argues for the historical importance of her work as an advisor to American collectors, and demonstrates the role of museums in shaping her legacy, highlighting the combined impact of gender, national, and transnational dynamics.
$49.95
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Life and Death at Cape Disappointment: Becoming a Surfman on the Columbia River Bar: Becoming a Surfman on the Columbia River Bar
The ocean is one of the few untamed places on earth--unpredictable and unsympathetic to the lives lost there. For this reason, people remain fascinated by its tides, currents, and mysteries. Life and Death at Cape Disappointment is Christopher J. D'Amelio's first-hand account of life as a surfman at one of the Coast Guard's most dangerous stations.Cape Disappointment is one of the most notorious Coast Guard units on the Pacific Coast. Its area of responsibility is referred to as the "Graveyard of the Pacific." This book focuses on five of the most significant search and rescue cases during D'Amelio's tour and how such work affected him and his colleagues mentally and physically. It's armchair entertainment for those enthralled by the ocean.
$19.95
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My Legs Were Praying: A Biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel
A Spirituality & Practice "Best Spiritual Book of 2025"Succinct, inspiring biography of a bridge-building Jewish leader, supplemented by 15 black-and-white photographsOn March 21, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights organizers led 8,000 protesters on a 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery. They invited a distinguished group of national religious figures to join them in the front lines. One of these was Abraham Joshua Heschel--a gifted Jewish scholar, teacher, and speaker, whose recent book, The Prophets (1962)--a detailed study of the ancient biblical champions of justice and mercy--was a source of great inspiration to Dr. King and others.As Heschel walked arm-in-arm with his colleagues, he was easy to spot in the crowd: He was a short, stocky man with flowing white hair, a bushy beard, who wore a dark yarmulke (Jewish head covering). Like the prophets of old, Heschel believed that standing up for others--particularly the most vulnerable members of society--is a sacred obligation. He later wrote, the religious person must seek to hold God and humankind "in one thought at one time," suffering "harm done to others," making "compassion" one's "greatest passion."Heschel first learned these essential values as a child in Eastern Europe. This little book is his story.
$18.95
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The Heart That Fed: A Father, a Son, and the Long Shadow of War: A Father, a Son, and the Long Shadow of War
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TOP 10 BEST BOOK OF 2024 A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST NEW COMIC OF 2024 FOR ADULTS A brilliant, "powerful" (Booklist) graphic memoir, and a loving son's exploration of his tumultuous relationship with his father, told through the lens of the Vietnam War and its lasting effects long after returning home. As a college dropout amid the tumult of the 1960s and the Vietnam War, David Sciacchitano enlisted in the Air Force and volunteered to be sent overseas. An aircraft mechanic away from the front lines, David nevertheless experienced the chaos of war during the Tet Offensive and the 1975 evacuation. Although David returned home from the war with no physical injuries, it would be as if a part of him was forever left behind. Set against one of the most polarizing events of the 20th century, The Heart That Fed is a beautifully illustrated and moving story of trauma and love--"a complex and empathetic portrait of war and its consequences" (Publishers Weekly, starred review)--told by a son seeking to understand a father now changed by PTSD and the horrors of war.
$29.99
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When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt: Six Queens of Egypt
This riveting narrative explores the lives of six remarkable female pharaohs, from Hatshepsut to Cleopatra--women who ruled with real power--and shines a piercing light on our own perceptions of women in power today. Female rulers are a rare phenomenon--but thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, women reigned supreme. Regularly, repeatedly, and with impunity, queens like Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra controlled the totalitarian state as power-brokers and rulers. But throughout human history, women in positions of power were more often used as political pawns in a male-dominated society. What was so special about ancient Egypt that provided women this kind of access to the highest political office? What was it about these women that allowed them to transcend patriarchal obstacles? What did Egypt gain from its liberal reliance on female leadership, and could today's world learn from its example? Celebrated Egyptologist Kara Cooney delivers a fascinating tale of female power, exploring the reasons why it has seldom been allowed through the ages, and why we should care.
$28.00
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We Now Belong to Ourselves: J.L. Edmonds, the Black Press, and Black Citizenship in America: J.L. Edmonds, the Black Press, and Black Citizenship in America
Weaving together poetry, personal narrative, and never-before-seen documents from the Jefferson Lewis Edmonds' family archive, Arianne Edmonds provides a wide-ranging look at how the Black Press of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries defined Black citizenship after Reconstruction, fostered networks of resistance, and set in motion critical social justice narratives that are still relevant today. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Black press provided a blueprint to help Black Americans transition from slavery and find opportunities to advance and define African American citizenship. Among the vanguard of the Black press was Jefferson Lewis Edmonds, founder and editor of The Liberator newspaper. His Los Angeles-based newspaper championed for women's rights, land and business ownership, education, and civic engagement, while condemning lynchings and other violent acts against African Americans. It encouraged readers to move westward and build new communities, and it printed stories about weddings and graduations as a testament to the lives and moments not chronicled in the White-owned press. Edmonds took this fierce perspective in his career as a journalist, for he himself was born into slavery and dedicated his life to creating pathways of liberation for those who came after him. Across the pages of his newspaper, Edmonds painted a different perspective on Black life in America and championed for his community--from highlighting the important work of his contemporaries, including Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, to helping local readers find love in the personal ads section. The Liberator, along with a chorus of Black newspapers at the turn of the century, educated an entire generation on how to guard their rights and take claim of their new American citizenship. Written by Jefferson Lewis Edmonds' great-great granddaughter, We Now Belong to Ourselves chronicles how Edmonds and other pioneering Black publishers documented the shifting tides in the advancement of Black liberation. Arianne Edmonds argues that the Black press was central in transforming Black Americans' communication patterns, constructing national resistance networks, and defining Black citizenship after Reconstruction--a vision, mission, and spirit that persists today through Black online social movements. Weaving together poetry, personal narrative, newspaper clips, and documents from the Edmonds family archive, We Now Belong to Ourselves illustrates how Edmonds used his platform to center Black joy, Black triumph, and radical Black acceptance.
$29.99
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Constitution of the United States of America, with the Bill of Rights and all of the Amendments; The Declaration of Independence; and the Articles of
The most important documents of the United States of America are collected in this easy-to-read volume, which includes the Constitution of the United States of America, with the Bill of Rights and all of the Amendments; The Declaration of Independence; and the Articles of Confederation. Every United States citizen should have a copy of this important book.
$14.99 $9.99
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The Fifth Diamond
This is the story of Irene Zisblatt, Auschwitz and after. Her autobiography moves from Irene's childhood in Hungary through her terrifying coming-of-age as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps and her life in America. It is a story of compassion and hope between two young girls whose bizarre fate brought them together, whose love for each other inspired their survival, and whose friendship tragically ended with liberation in the forests of Germany. The lack of bitterness with which Irene tells her experience, along with her straight-forward style, adds power to what is essentially a testament to the triumph of the human spirit. Faced with the dehumanizing ordeal of life in Auschwitz-Birkenau, she found that by believing strongly that her horrors were temporary, she could cling to the hope that she could survive and be human again. It has take Mrs. Zisblatt fifty years to recount the terror of her experience. We should be grateful for her courage to relive these events in order to write this book. Irene is grateful to this country for giving her the opportunity to begin life anew. She is not embittered or filled with hatred and it is her goal to educate children in order to rid the world of prejudice, intolerance, and indifference.
$15.00
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Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias: Scivias
"...these translations thus supersede former ones...if the introductions, translations, and other apparatus of the rest of the series are of the same high quality, the series will be indispensable for most libraries." Library Journal Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias translated by Mother Columbia Hart and Jane Bishop introduced by Barbara J. Newman prefaced by Caroline Walker Bynum I saw a great mountain the color of iron, and enthroned on it. One of such great glory that it blinded my sight. On each side of him there extended a soft shadow, like a wing of wondrous breadth and length. Before him, at the foot of the mountain, stood an image full of eyes on all sides, in which, because of those eyes, I could discern no human form. Hildegard of Bingen(1098-1179) Hildegard of Bingen, twelfth-century German nun, mystic, prophet and political moralist, was widely consulted as an oracle and wrote prolifically on doctrinal matters, as well as on secular matters like medicine, She publicly preached monastic reform, founded two nunneries, and was embroiled in the politics surrounding popes and anti-popes. Scivias, her major religious work, consists of twenty-six visions, which are first se down literally as she saw them, and are the explained exegetically. A few of the topic covered in the visions are the charity of Christ, the nature of the universe, the kingdom of God, the fall of man, sanctification, and the end of the world. Special emphasis is given to the sacraments of marriage and the Eucharist, in response to the Cathar heresy. As a group the visions form a theological summa of Christian doctrine. At the end of the Scivias are hymns of praise and a short play, probably an early draft of Ordo virtutum, the first known morality play. Hildegard is remarkable for being able to unite " vision with doctrine, religion with science, charismatic jubilation with prophetic indignation, and longing for social order with quest for social justice." This volume elucidates the life of medieval women, and is a striking example of a special form of Christian spirituality. +
$34.95
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Our Southern Highlanders: A History and Narrative of Adventure in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, and a Study of Life Among the Mountaineers
Travel author Horace Kephart discusses the culture of Appalachia he observed while living in a mountain cabin for several months at the start of the 20th century. This edition contains all of his original photographs.An honest and eye-opening account of the old Appalachian culture, Our Southern Highlanders attests to rugged yet proud communities well-adapted to the rough terrain. We discover a people who have carved out an existence through sheer grit and persistence; the hardships of mountain life are evident in the worn faces and attire. Though the region is secluded, the inhabitants are by no means cut off - trade is regular, and many locals are descended from Irish, Scots and English immigrants to North America.Recording conversations and photographing the most noteworthy sights of his stay, Kephart strives to portray the Appalachian region fairly. Although known for his travel writing - a craft usually aimed to encourage and inform potential visitors to a given place - Our Southern Highlanders carries an investigative and journalistic element.After its release, critics were surprised at how Kephart portrayed the Appalachian way of life in a realistic and honest fashion - in decades prior, the culture had received negative treatment by writers unfamiliar and disaproving. However, Kephart was criticized for focusing overly on the more sensationalist aspects of mountain life - the making of moonshine, for instance, features heavily with stills photographed.
$11.98
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The Beginner's Guide to Cemetery Sleuthing: Scavenger Hunt & Workbook: Scavenger Hunt & Workbook
Make your next outdoor adventure a historic one! Let's go to a cemetery. Bring your curiosity and this workbook with you as you walk through those hallowed gates. Get ready to seek out images and symbols-such as death's-heads, soul effigies, beehives, willow trees, and more. Take your time to search, scribble, and sketch. Next, bring this book to the archives to explore the life stories of the local dead. Prepare to discover something old, learn something new, and have fun doing it. This book includes: - 11 unique scavenger hunt pages: seek out animals and plants, secret society symbols, epitaphs, and more.- 1 Cemetery Year Logbook: plan and record your cemetery adventures.- 1 Local History Challenge: pursue the paper record.- 8 pages for notes and sketches.- 20+ interactive pages- 100+ symbols and abbreviations explained.
$17.99
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