Members of a Tahitian family cannot escape one another in Titaua Peu’s novel "Pina". Nine-year-old Pina’s life, already darkened by abuse and poverty, becomes even harsher when an accident turns her drunken father Auguste into a... Read More

In her latest book, Leslie Kern deconstructs various myths about gentrification, revealing the harm that they cause—on top of gentrification itself. For middle- and upper-class white people, gentrification–when poor urban areas are... Read More

In "The Cuban Sandwich", Andrew T. Huse, Bárbara C. Cruz, and Jeff Houck give the titular dish a well-deserved spotlight. The Cuban sandwich, or Cubano, has been a favorite in both Cuba and the United States for over a century.... Read More

In "Formidable", Elisabeth Griffith relates how American women have approached political activism in the last century. The Nineteenth Amendment is the book’s starting point: it granted certain American women the right to vote in 1920.... Read More

Arianne Zwartjes reckons with her unwitting, unwilling role in historical global power struggles in "These Dark Skies". Growing up as a white American, Zwartjes never had to think much about her privileged position on the world stage.... Read More

In "The Continuing Storm", Kai Erikson and Lori Peek discuss the short- and long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina on its most vulnerable victims. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August of 2005, it inflicted devastating... Read More

Victoria Shepherd recounts some of European history’s most memorable psychological cases in "A History of Delusions". Everyone feels sad, confused, or victimized from time to time, Shepherd suggests. But for an unlucky few, those... Read More

Paul Miller-Melamed examines the origins of World War I in his historical survey "Misfire". Popular history suggests that World War I began when a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June of 1914.... Read More