Autobiography & Biography

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Bad Faith

Andrew Feffer

Andrew Feffer

Bad Faith recounts the history of the Rapp-Coudert investigation into communist subversion in the public schools and municipal colleges of New York City, lasting from 1940 to 1942. This study explores how prominent depression-era liberals, as they joined in accusing Communists of “bad faith” and branded them enemies of American democracy, anticipated and made McCarthyism possible.

ISBN: 9780823281152

Sacred Shelter

Susan Greenfield

Edited by Susan Greenfield

Thirteen formerly homeless New Yorkers tell their life stories, describing their joys as well as torments, their broken-heartedness and faith. At a time when national homelessness is on the rise, and when the discriminatory and punitive social conditions that create it are getting worse, Sacred Shelter celebrates the personal dignity of each and every individual and insists on our communal need to listen to each other.

ISBN: 9780823281190

Maurice Blanchot

Maurice Blanchot

Christophe Bident, John McKeane

Christophe Bident

Translated by John McKeane

Maurice Blanchot: a Critical Biography attempts a critical and theoretical biography by drawing on unpublished documents and interviews with those close to the writer. It tracks the life and work of one of the most important novelists and critics of the twentieth century, who influenced many writers, artists, and philosophers, not least those of French theory.

ISBN: 9780823281756

Boss of Black Brooklyn

Boss of Black Brooklyn

Ron Howell

Ron Howell

Boss of Black Brooklyn presents a riveting and untold story about the struggles and achievements of the first black person to hold public office in Brooklyn. Bertram L. Baker immigrated to...

ISBN: 9780823280995

In the Shadow of Genius

In the Shadow of Genius

Barbara G. Mensch

Named a Gift Book for the Discerning New Yorker by The New York TimesIn the Shadow of Genius is the newest book by photographer and author Barbara Mensch....

ISBN: 9780823280452

Oh Capitano!

Rudolph J. Vecoli, Francesco Durante, Donna R. Gabaccia, Elizabeth O. Venditto

Rudolph J. Vecoli and Francesco Durante

Edited by Donna R. Gabaccia

Translated by Elizabeth O. Venditto

The story of Celso Cesare Moreno who traveled the world lying, scheming, and building an extensive patron/client network to expand western trade and imperialism in Asia, traffick migrant workers and children in the Atlantic, influence the fate of Hawaii, and meddle in international affairs during a critical era of imperial expansion.

ISBN: 9780823279876

Counter Institution

Counter Institution

Nandini Bagchee

Nandini Bagchee

Counter Institution is a history of three re-purposed buildings in the Lower East Side--Peace Pentagon, ABC No Rio, and El Bohio--that have been used by activists as their headquarters to launch various actions over the past forty years.

ISBN: 9780823279265

Out of the Ordinary

Out of the Ordinary

Michael Dillon/Lobzang Jivaka, Jacob Lau, Cameron Partridge, Susan Stryker

Michael Dillon/Lobzang Jivaka

Edited by Jacob Lau and Cameron Partridge

Out of the Ordinary is the memoir of Dr. Michael Dillon / Lobzang Jivaka (1915-1962) who transitioned from female to male between 1939 and 1949, became a ship’s surgeon in the (British) Merchant Navy, and was a monastic novice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition when he died unexpectedly in 1962.

ISBN: 9780823280391

Neighborhood Success Stories

Neighborhood Success Stories

Carol Lamberg, Gale A. Brewer, Ruben Diaz Jr.

Carol Lamberg

This book illustrates examples of successful community development on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and in the Bronx, using seven different methods of finance, only one of which is still available today. The buildings were developed between 1975 and 1997.

ISBN: 9780823279203

The House of Early Sorrows

The House of Early Sorrows

Louise DeSalvo

Louise DeSalvo

A stunning collection of one writer’s beginnings. DeSalvo reframes and revises memoiristic essays that were the seeds of longer collections, to reveal her true power as a memoirist: the ability to dig ever deeper for personal and political truths that illuminate what it means to be a woman, a child of Italian immigrants, a writer, and a scholar.

ISBN: 9780823279302

Pure Act

Michael N. McGregor

Michael N. McGregor

A biography of experimental poet and spiritual seeker Robert Lax, who inspired Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac and many others. Using information and stories drawn from journal entries, letters, interviews and the author’s personal recollections, the book chronicles the development of Lax’s distinctive poetic style and a spontaneous, spiritual approach to life he called pure act.

ISBN: 9780823276820

A Shot Story

David Borkowski

David Borkowski

David Borkowski was nearly shot to death during a botched robbery when he was 15. Soon before turning 40, he obtained a Ph.D. in Literature and Rhetoric from the CUNY Graduate School. He is now a Professor of English. A Shot Story describes that journey.

ISBN: 9780823278749

Paul Hanly Furfey

Paul Hanly Furfey

Nicholas K. Rademacher

Nicholas K. Rademacher

Recounts and analyzes Paul Hanly Furfey’s contribution to Catholic social thought and practice in the fields of sociology, social work, and higher education across the twentieth-century in his roles as priest, scholar, educator, and social reformer.

ISBN: 9780823276776

Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free

Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free

Alexander Jefferson, Lewis H. Carlson

Alexander Jefferson

With Lewis H. Carlson

Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free is a rare gift detailing the experience of Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson, who was one of 32 Tuskegee Airmen from the 332nd Fighter Group to be shot down defending...

ISBN: 9780823274383

Mario Cuomo

William O'Shaughnessy

William O'Shaughnessy

Governor Mario Cuomo’s life and accomplishments are part of the public record, but in Mario Cuomo: Remembrances of a Remarkable Man, William O’Shaughnessy gives readers an exclusive and a deeply...

ISBN: 9780823274260

Red Apple

Phillip Deery

Phillip Deery

Through five case histories, the book provides a snapshot of political persecution in mid-twentieth century America.

ISBN: 9780823271795

Before the Fires

Before the Fires

Mark D. Naison, Bob Gumbs

Mark D. Naison and Bob Gumbs

People associate the South Bronx with gangs, violence, drugs, crime, burned-out buildings, and poverty. This is the message that has been driven into their heads over the years by the media. As Howard...

ISBN: 9780823273539

The Amazing Adventures of Bob Brown

The Amazing Adventures of Bob Brown

Craig Saper

Craig Saper

Biography of Robert Carlton “Bob” Brown, avant-garde publisher, poet and reading machine inventor, bestselling pulp fiction and Hollywood movie treatment writer, cookbook author with Cora and Rose Brown, advertiser copyrighter, editorial board member of the Masses, curator of A Museum of Social Change, and much more.

ISBN: 9780823271467

In Your Eyes I See My Words

In Your Eyes I See My Words

Pope Francis Bergoglio Jorge Mario, Ph.D. Herrera Marina A., Antonio Spadaro, Patrick J. Ryan

Pope Francis Bergoglio Jorge Mario

Edited by Antonio Spadaro

Translated by Ph.D. Herrera Marina A.

Pope Francis was a first in many ways: the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit, the first Francis, the first child of immigrants from old world, nurtured and transformed by the new world,...

ISBN: 9780823285600

Teaching While Black

Teaching While Black

Pamela Lewis

Pamela Lewis

Chronicles the experiences of a black female teaching in public schools in the South Bronx in the era of No Child Left Behind and the Common Core. Addressing “high stakes” that go beyond tests, Teaching While Black examines how and what one must teach poor students of color.

ISBN: 9780823271412

America’s Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself)

America’s Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself)

Stephanie N. Brehm

Stephanie N. Brehm

This book investigates the religious identity and authority of Stephen Colbert and his character Stephen Colbert. By exploring Colbert’s position as a lay catechist and televised comedian, this book examines how Catholicism shapes Colbert’s experiences, and how Colbert and his persona nuance American Catholicism and the polarized American religious landscape.

ISBN: 9780823285303

Radio Active

William O'Shaughnessy

William O'Shaughnessy

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ISBN: 9780823286706

Cytomegalovirus

Cytomegalovirus

Hervé Guibert, David Caron, Todd Meyers, Clara Orban

Hervé Guibert

Translated by Clara Orban

Afterword by Todd Meyers

Cytomegalovirus is a lucid and spare autobiographical narrative by Hervé Guibert (1955-1991) of the everyday moments of his hospitalization due to complications of AIDS. In one of his last works, the acclaimed writer presents his struggle with the disease in terms that are unsentimental and deeply human.

ISBN: 9780823268573

Chasing Ghosts

Louise DeSalvo

Louise DeSalvo

“Chasing Ghosts” describes how the daughter of a World War II veteran comes to understand her emotionally wounded father through his stories about his childhood, naval service in the late 1930s, and wartime experiences, and through the research she undertakes to understand her father’s life in the context of history.

ISBN: 9780823268849

From Slave Ship to Harvard

From Slave Ship to Harvard

James H. Johnston

James H. Johnston

A true story of six generations of an African American family in Maryland. Based on paintings, photographs, books, diaries, court records, legal documents, and oral histories, the book traces Yarrow Mamout and his in-laws, the Turners, from the colonial period through the Civil War to Harvard and finally the present day.

ISBN: 9780823239511