For over two centuries, critics and the black community have tended to approach African-American literature as simply one more front in the important war against racism, valuing slave narratives and t
"Henry Louis Gates, Jr. s Tradition and the Black Atlantic is both a vibrant romp down the rabbit hole of cultural studies and an examination of the disciplines roots and role in contemporary thought.
In 1773, the slave Phillis Wheatley literally wrote her way to freedom. The first person of African descent to publish a book of poems in English, she was emancipated by her owners in recognition of
The imaginative literature of African and Afro-American authors writing in Western languages has long been seen as standing outside the Western literary canon. In fact, however, black literature not o
From one of our premier writers, scholars, and public intellectuals: a surprising, inspiring, often boldly infuriating, highly instructive and entertaining compendium of curiosities regarding African
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s original, groundbreaking study explores the relationship between the African and African-American vernacular traditions and black literature, elaborating a new critical approa
Multiculturalism. It has been the subject of cover stories in Time and Newsweek, as well as numerous articles in newspapers and magazines around America. It has sparked heated jeremiads by George Will
The Companion Volume to the PBS Television SeriesWonders of the African World is an exuberant, visually stunning journey across Africa and through the history of its glorious but forgotten civilizatio
"Faces of America adds compelling evidence that the American story of race is a far more complicated affair than the conventional wisdom of the past would have us believe. Science, history, and genea
Who are we, and where do we come from? The fundamental drive to answer these questions is at the heart ofFinding Your Roots, the companion book to the hit PBS documentary series. As scholar Henry Loui
"This is a book of stories," writes Henry Louis Gates, "and all might be described as 'narratives of ascent.'" As some remarkable men talk about their lives, many p
A profound new rendering of the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counter-revolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images
More than thirty-five years after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., Americans wonder just how much of his dream has come true. Now renowned scholar and New York Times bestselling author Professor
