Collection: History

Considered by many to be a founder of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra-aka Herman Blount-was a composer, keyboardist, bandleader, philosopher, entrepreneur, poet, and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial from Saturn....

A sweeping global history that looks beyond European urban centers to show how slavery, colonialism, and war propelled the development of modern medicine. Most stories...

Discover the exhilarating diversity of the African continent in storyteller Atinuke's kaleidoscopic nonfiction guide to the people, flora, and fauna of all fifty-five countries.  ...

Butch Queens Up in Pumpsexamines Ballroom culture, in which inner-city LGBT individuals dress, dance, and vogue to compete for prizes and trophies. Participants are affiliated...

A colossal, panoramic, much-needed appraisal of the visual cultures of Afro-Atlantic territories across six centuries Afro-Atlantic Histories brings together a selection of more than 400 works...

The first intersectional history of the Black and Native American struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding of who was Indigenous...

A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution--from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of...

A new interpretation of the life of the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture  Among the defining figures of the Age of Revolution, Toussaint Louverture is the...

In Left of Karl Marx, Carole Boyce Davies assesses the activism, writing, and legacy of Claudia Jones (1915-1964), a pioneering Afro-Caribbean radical intellectual, dedicated communist, and...

The African diaspora--a direct result of the transatlantic slave trade and Western colonialism--has generated a wide array of artistic achievements, from blues and reggae to...

  A stunning collection of stoic portraits and intimate ephemera from the lives of Black Civil War soldiers   Though both the Union and Confederate...

Each day after school, Mohammed El-Kurd's grandmother welcomed him at the door of his home with a bouquet of jasmine. Her name was Rifqa--she was...

From the late eighteenth century through the end of the Civil War, Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians bought, sold, and owned Africans and African Americans as...

Thriving stand-up comic and actress Yvonne Orji--best known as Issa Rae's BFF on the HBO series, Insecure--shares the secrets to living the life of your dreams....

Florida native Zora Neale Hurston's early twentieth-century ethnographic research and writing emphasizes the essentials of food in Florida through simple dishes and recipes. It considers...

Jefferson's candor, and the courage and rigor of her critic's mind, recall a number of America's greatest thinkers. --Tracy K. Smith, The New York Times Book...

The twentieth anniversary edition of one of the most controversial books ever published on race and language is now more relevant than ever in this...

A previously unpublished collection of Rodney's essays on Marxism, spanning his engagement with of Black Power, Ujamaa Villages, and the everyday people who put an...

I have sat on a little oil drum, rusty and in the midst of garbage, and some black brothers and I have grounded together. -...

A collection of The New Yorker's groundbreaking writing on race in America--including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and...