These essays--from scholars in history, sociology, film, and media studies--interrogate Roots, assessing the ways that the book and its dramatization recast representations of slavery, labor, and the black family; reflected on the promise of freedom and civil rights; and engaged discourses of race, gender, violence, and power.

United Association for Labor Education Best Book Award The American Dream of reaching success through sheer sweat and determination rings false for countless members of the working classes. This volume shows that many of the difficulties facing workers today have deep roots in the history of the exploitation of labor in the South. Contributors make the case that the problems that have long beset southern labor, including the legacy of slavery, low wages, lack of collective bargaining rights, and repression of organized unions, have become the problems of workers across the country. Spanning nearly all of U.S. history, the essays in this collection range from West Virginia to Florida to Texas. They examine vagrancy laws in the early republic, inmate labor at state penitentiaries, mine workers and union membership, and strikes and the often-violent strikebreaking that followed. They also look at pesticide exposure among farmworkers, labor activism during the civil rights movement, and foreign-owned auto factories in the rural South. They distinguish between different struggles experienced by women and men, as well as by African American, Latino, and white workers. The broad chronological sweep and comprehensive nature of Reconsidering Southern Labor History set this volume apart from any other collection on the topic in the past forty years. Presenting the latest trends in the study of the working-class South by a new generation of scholars, this volume is a surprising revelation of the historical forces behind the labor inequalities inherent today. Contributors: David M. Anderson | Deborah Beckel | Thomas Brown | Dana M. Caldemeyer | Adam Carson | Theresa Case | Erin L. Conlin | Brett J. Derbes | Maria Angela Diaz | Alan Draper | Matthew Hild | Joseph E. Hower | T.R.C. Hutton | Stuart MacKay | Andrew C. McKevitt | Keri Leigh Merritt | Bethany Moreton | Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan | Michael Sistrom | Joseph M. Thompson | Linda Tvrdy

Pragmatism is America's most distinctive philosophy. Generally it has been understood as a development of European thought in response to the "American wilderness." A closer examination, however, reveals that the roots and central commitments of pragmatism are indigenous to North America. Native Pragmatism recovers this history and thus provides the means to re-conceive the scope and potential of American philosophy. Pragmatism has been at best only partially understood by those who focus on its European antecedents. This book casts new light on pragmatism's complex origins and demands a rethinking of African American and feminist thought in the context of the American philosophical tradition. Scott L. Pratt demonstrates that pragmatism and its development involved the work of many thinkers previously overlooked in the history of philosophy.

This wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection—the first of its kind—invites us to reconsider the politics and scope of the Roots phenomenon of the 1970s. Alex Haley’s 1976 book was a publishing sensation, selling over a million copies in its first year and winning a National Book Award and a special Pulitzer Prize. The 1977 television adaptation was more than a blockbuster miniseries—it was a galvanizing national event, drawing a record-shattering viewership, earning thirty-eight Emmy nominations, and changing overnight the discourse on race, civil rights, and slavery. These essays—from emerging and established scholars in history, sociology, film, and media studies—interrogate Roots, assessing the ways that the book and its dramatization recast representations of slavery, labor, and the black family; reflected on the promise of freedom and civil rights; and engaged discourses of race, gender, violence, and power in the United States and abroad. Taken together, the essays ask us to reconsider the limitations and possibilities of this work, which, although dogged by controversy, must be understood as one of the most extraordinary media events of the late twentieth century, a cultural touchstone of enduring significance. Contributors: Norvella P. Carter, Warren Chalklen, Elise Chatelain, Robert K. Chester, Clare Corbould, C. Richard King, David J. Leonard, Delia Mellis, Francesca Morgan, Tyler D. Parry, Martin Stollery, Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, Bhekuyise Zungu

A major new biography of the fourth president of the United States by New York Times bestselling author Lynne Cheney Lin-Manuel Miranda's play "Hamilton" has reignited interest in the founding fathers; it features James Madison among its vibrant cast of characters. This majestic new biography of James Madison explores the astonishing story of a man of vaunted modesty who audaciously changed the world. Among the Founding Fathers, Madison was a true genius of the early republic. Outwardly reserved, Madison was the intellectual driving force behind the Constitution and crucial to its ratification. His visionary political philosophy and rationale for the union of states—so eloquently presented in The Federalist papers—helped shape the country Americans live in today. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Madison would found the first political party in the country’s history—the Democratic Republicans. As Jefferson’s secretary of state, he managed the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the United States. As president, Madison led the country in its first war under the Constitution, the War of 1812. Without precedent to guide him, he would demonstrate that a republic could defend its honor and independence—and remain a republic still.

Christian environmentalism's dominant traditions have for too long avoided decolonial thought's critical gaze. Reconsider the Lilies introduces readers to the ways environmental issues are shaped by dynamics of racism and colonialism and orients readers to Christian approaches to environmentalism. By recounting the history of environmental justice, Thompson shows how even well-intentioned Christian environmentalism incorporates racist and colonialist assumptions. Challenging Christian environmentalism's colonial roots requires incorporating the insights of decolonial thought toward a more pluralist, pragmatic approach to environmentalism, one that learns from communities struggling against environmental injustice in the face of ecological collapse. Reconsider the Lilies focuses on different conceptions of justice and structural sin and offers a constructive cosmic Christology that traces Christ's presence in the concrete relationships that exist among all living things. But for this Christ-centered conception of ecological community to be decolonial, it must focus less on doctrine and ideology, and more on incarnation and embodiment. It must welcome a broad range of knowledge and expression. Environmental theology can be decolonized. Ecological communities can be restored through healing broken relationships and power disparities by equalizing access to ecological power.

Introduction / David K. Yoo and Eiichiro Azuma -- Part I. Migration flows -- Filipinos, Pacific Islanders, and the American empire / Keith L. Camacho -- Towards a hemispheric Asian American history / Jason Oliver Chang -- South Asian America: histories, cultures, politics / Sunaina Maira -- Asians, native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in Hawai'i: people, place, culture / John P. Rosa -- Southeast Asian Americans / Chia Youyee Vang -- East Asian immigrants / K. Scott Wong -- Asian Canadian history / Henry Yu -- Part II. Time passages -- Internment and World War II history / Eiichiro Azuma -- Reconsidering Asian exclusion in the United States / Kornel S. Chang -- The Cold War / Madeline Y. Hsu -- The Asian American movement / Daryl Joji Maeda -- Part III. Variations on themes -- A history of Asian international adoption in the United States / Catherine Ceniza Choy -- Confronting the racial state of violence: how Asian American history can reorient the study of race / Moon-Ho Jung -- Theory and history / Lon Kurashige -- Empire and war in Asian American history / Simeon Man -- Queer Asian American historiography / Amy Sueyoshi -- The study of Asian American families / Xiaojian Zhao -- Part IV. Engaging historical fields -- Asian American economic and labor history / Sucheng Chan -- Asian Americans, politics, and history / Gordon H. Chang -- Asian American intellectual history / Augusto Espiritu -- Asian American religious history / Helen Jin Kim, Timothy Tseng, and David K. Yoo -- Race, space, and place in Asian American urban history / Scott Kurashige -- From Asia to the United States, around the world, and back again: new directions in Asian American immigration history / Erika Lee -- Public history and Asian Americans / Franklin Odo -- Asian American legal history / Greg Robinson -- Asian American education history / Eileen H. Tamura -- Not adding and stirring: women's, gender, and sexuality history and the transformation of Asian America / Adrienne Ann Winans and Judy Tzu-Chun Wu