Through stories, cartoons, interviews, disses, parodies and original research, Bomb the Suburbs challenges the suburban mind-set wherever it is found, in suburbs and corporate headquarters, but also in cities, housing projects and hip-hop itself, debating key questions within the urban black community. Aimed at hip-hop insiders and outsiders alike to elevate hip-hop, pop culture and ourselves to a higher standard of art, ethics, intellect, strategy, adventure and honesty, this humorous, incisive treatise from the author of No More Prisons. With b/w illustrations throughout.

“A book for middle-aging youth activists who are still passionate about fighting for a revolutionary new society . . . Billy Wimsatt has grown up.” —CounterPunch As a potty-mouthed graffiti writer from the South Side of Chicago, William Upski Wimsatt electrified the literary and hip-hop world with two of the most successful underground classic books in a generation, Bomb the Suburbs (1994) and No More Prisons (1999), which, combined, sold more than ninety thousand copies. In Please Don’t Bomb the Suburbs, Wimsatt weaves a first-person tour of America’s cultural and political movements from 1985–2010. It’s a story about love, growing up, a generation coming of age, and a vision for the movement young people will create in the new decade. With humor, storytelling, and historical insight, Wimsatt lays out a provocative vision for the next twenty-five years of personal and historical transformation. Never heard of Billy Wimsatt before? Your life just got better. “Longtime political organizer, activist, graffiti artist, and progressive, Wimsatt delivers a wake-up call for the millennial generation two years after his seminal Bomb the Suburbs.” —Publishers Weekly “Wimsatt’s level of sincerity and enthusiasm is refreshing and bracing, and the book stands as a reminder that anybody who wants to help improve the world can find plenty of ways to get busy, and also have a great time doing it.” —Literary Kicks

A truly remarkable collection of activist writings across all topics and perspectives, all while recounting a personal evolution from idealistic urban wanderer to community organizer, from graffiti writer to renowned essayist. Author William Upski Wimsatt delivers stories, strategies, suggestions, straight talk, and conversations with maverick activists. He advocates youth taking charge of their own education, whether it's in or out of school, and promotes the power of young people engaging in philanthropy. A truly original treatise from the paradigm-flipping theorist of youth activism, No More Prisons goes beyond pinpointing problems to hone in on solutions, and declares that today's youth is poised to surpass the activist efforts of the 1960s generation.

Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today’s fractured America. Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called “a very important book” and Putnam, “the de Tocqueville of our generation.” Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans’ changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it’s with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the “social capital” that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection—as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation. At the time of its publication, Putnam’s then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.

Should graffiti writers organize to tear up the cities, or should they really be bombing the 'burbs? That's the question posed by William Upski Wimsatt in his seminal foray into the world of hip-hop, rap, and street art, and the culture and politics that surround it. Taking on a broad range of topics, including suburban sprawl, racial identity, and youth activism, Wimsatt (a graffiti artist himself) uses a kaleidoscopic approach that combines stories, cartoons, interviews, disses, parodies, and original research to challenge the suburban mindset wherever it's found: suburbs and corporate headquarters, inner cities and housing projects, even in hip-hop itself. Funny, provocative, and painfully honest, Bomb the Suburbs encourages readers to expand their social boundaries and explore the vibrant, chaotic world that exists beyond their comfort zones.

The bizarre, true story of a robbery gone wrong and the explosive murder that shocked the nation—as seen on Netflix’s docuseries Evil Genius. For the first time, two of the people who followed the story from the beginning—Jerry Clark, the lead FBI Special Agent who cracked what became known as the Pizza Bomber case, and investigative reporter Ed Palattella—tell the complete story of what happened on August 28, 2003. In the suburbs of Erie, Pennsylvania, a pizza delivery man named Brian Wells was accosted by several men who locked a time bomb around his neck. They then ordered him to rob a bank. After delivering the money, he would receive clues to help him disarm the bomb. It was one of the most ingenious bank robbery schemes in history, known as Collarbomb by the FBI. It did not go according to plan. Wells, picked up by police shortly after the robbery, never found the clues he needed. Investigating the crime after his grisly death, the FBI soon discovered that Wells was not, in fact, an innocent victim. He was merely the first co-conspirator to fall in a bizarre trail of death following the crime... INCLUDES PHOTOS

Eight scholars examine the range of cultural expressions of atomic energy from the 1940s to the early twenty-first century, including comic books, nuclear landscapes, mushroom-cloud postcards, the Los Alamos suburbs, uranium-themed board games, future atomic waste facilities, and atomic-themed films such as 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'The Atomic Kid'. Despite the growing interest in atomic culture and history, the body of relevant scholarship is relatively sparse. Atomic Culture opens new doors into the field by providing a substantive, engaging, and historically based consideration of the topic that will appeal to students and scholars of the Atomic Age as well as general readers.