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Uncle : race, nostalgia, and the politics of loyalty / by Thompson, Cheryl,1977-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Jackie Robinson, President Barack Obama, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, O. J. Simpson, and Christopher Darden have all been accused of being an Uncle Tom during their careers. How, why, and with what consequences for our society did Uncle Tom morph first into a servile old man and then into a racial epithet hurled at African American men deemed, by other Black people, to have betrayed their race? Uncle Tom, the eponymous figure in Harriet Beecher Stowe's sentimental anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, was a loyal Christian who died a martyr's death. But soon after the best-selling novel appeared, theatre troupes across North America and Europe transformed Stowe's story into minstrel shows featuring white men in blackface. In Uncle, Cheryl Thompson traces Tom's journey from literary character to racial trope. She exposes the relentless reworking of Uncle Tom into a nostalgic, racial metaphor with the power to shape how we see Black men, a distortion visible in everything from Uncle Ben and Rastus the Cream of Wheat chef to the first interracial dance partners in Hollywood, Shirley Temple and Bill ‘Bojangles' Robinson. In a post-truth North America, where nostalgia is used as a political tool to rewrite history, Uncle makes the case for why understanding the production of racial stereotypes matters more than ever before."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896.; Uncle Tom (Fictitious character); African Americans in mass media.; African Americans in popular culture.; African Americans; Stereotypes (Social psychology);
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Dangerous memory : coming of age in the decade of greed / by Angus, Charlie,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The 1980s is remembered with nostalgia as a harmless decade of big hair, colourful clothes, and catchy pop songs. It was anything but. In Dangerous Memory, Charlie Angus undertakes a major rethink of the cultural and political shifts of an era that unleashed an unprecedented looting of the economy, the environment, and the common good that continue to haunt North Americans today. But the 1980s was also a time of resistance, creativity, and hope. In a world that stood on the brink of global annihilation, millions of ordinary people stepped up to save the planet and fight for human rights. As an idealistic eighteen-year-old, Charlie Angus quit school to play in a punk band and work with the homeless and refugees in Toronto's east end. Expertly weaving his story within the larger narrative of the times, Angus traces today's economic, environmental, and social problems to their roots in the 1980s. Planting the seeds of change, he challenges us to take action to confront widespread injustice and massive systemic inequity to create a better world"--
Subjects: Angus, Charlie, 1962-; Environmental justice.; Equality.; Nineteen eighties.; Social action.; Social justice.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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In Putin's footsteps : searching for the soul of an empire across Russia's eleven time zones / by Khrushcheva, Nina L.,1962-author.; Tayler, Jeffrey,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In Putin's Footsteps is Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler's unique combination of travelogue, current affairs, and history, showing how Russia's dimensions have shaped its identity and culture through the decades. With exclusive insider status as Nikita Khrushchev's great grand-daughter, and an ex-pat living and reporting on Russia and the Soviet Union since 1983, Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler offer a poignant exploration of the largest country on earth through their recreation of Vladimir Putin's fabled New Year's Eve speech planned across all eleven time zones. After taking over from Yeltsin in 1999, and then being elected president in a landslide, Putin traveled to almost two dozen countries and a quarter of Russia's eighty-nine regions to connect with ordinary Russians. His travels inspired the idea of a rousing New Year's Eve address delivered every hour at midnight throughout Russia's eleven time zones. The idea was beautiful, but quickly abandoned as an impossible feat. He correctly intuited, however, that the success of his presidency would rest on how the country's outback citizens viewed their place on the world stage. Today more than ever, Putin is even more determined to present Russia as a formidable nation. We need to understand why Russia has for centuries been an adversary of the West. Its size, nuclear arsenal, arms industry, and scientific community (including cyber-experts), guarantees its influence"--
Subjects: Khrushcheva, Nina L., 1962-; Tayler, Jeffrey; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1952-; Regionalism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The bookshop : a history of the American bookstore / by Friss, Evan,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-385) and index."An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop, we see those stakes: what has been, and what might be lost. Evan Friss's history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, catalogs, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many -- not just as a merchant, but as a gathering place for likeminded people who cherish books. The story begins with Benjamin Franklin's first bookstore in Philadelphia, and takes us to a range of booksellers including The Strand, Chicago's Marshall Field & Co., Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus. The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentrics, and a history of how books have been marketed and sold over the course of more than two centuries -- including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who appeared to sign books at Marshall Field's in 1944. The Bookshop is a book every bookstore will want to carry, as there has never been a more affectionate and engaging celebration of this beloved institution"--
Subjects: Booksellers and bookselling; Bookstores.; Bookstores;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Raising them right : the untold story of America's ultraconservative youth movement and its plot for power / by Spencer, Kyle,1970-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In the wake of the Obama presidency, a group of young charismatic conservatives catapulted onto the American political and cultural scenes, eager to thwart nationwide pushes for greater equity and inclusion. They dreamed of a cultural revolution-online and off-that would offer a forceful alternative to the progressive politics that were dominating American college campuses. In Raising Them Right, a gripping, character-driven read and investigative tour de force, Kyle Spencer chronicles the people and organizations working to lure millions of unsuspecting young American voters into the far-right fold-revealing their highly successful efforts to harness social media in alarming ways and capitalize on the democratization of celebrity culture. These power-hungry new faces may look and sound like antiestablishment renegades, but they are actually part of a tightly organized and heavily funded ultraconservative initiative to transform American youth culture and popularize fringe ideas. There is Charlie Kirk, the swashbuckling Trump insider and founder of the right-wing youth activist group Turning Point USA, who dreams of taking back the country's soul from weak-kneed liberals and becoming a national powerbroker in his own right. There is the acid-tongued Candace Owens, a Black ultraconservative talk-show host and Fox News regular who is seeking to bring Black America to the GOP and her own celebritydom into the national forefront. And there is the young, rough-and-tumble libertarian Cliff Maloney, who built the Koch-affiliated organization Young Americans for Liberty into a political force to be reckoned with, while solidifying his own power and pull inside conservative circles. Chock-full of original reporting and unprecedented access, Raising Them Right isa striking prism through which to view the extraordinary shifts that have taken place in the American political sphere over the last decade. It establishes Kyle Spencer as the premier authority on a new generation of young conservative communicators who are merging politics and pop culture, social media and social lives, to bring cruel economic philosophies, skeletal government, and dangerous antidemocratic ideals into the mainstream. Theirs is a crusade that is just beginning"--
Subjects: Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ); Campaign funds; Christianity and politics; Identity politics; Political action committees; Radicalism; Right and left (Political science); Right-wing extremists; Youth; Youth;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Go-Go City. by George, Samuel,film director.; Bertelsmann Foundation Documentary Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by Bertelsmann Foundation Documentary Films in 2021.For decades, Washington DC has stood as a beacon for Black culture and community. Yet a breakneck wave of gentrification threatens to erase this history. GO-GO CITY dives into this rich tapestry, as well as the forces of gentrification that stand to mute it. The film interweaves scenes of massive 2020 protests against racial inequality that filled the neighborhoods of the nation’s capital. Follow along as displaced communities rally around the city’s beloved Go-Go music to retake the streets.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Enthnology.; Social sciences.; Human rights.; Sociology.; Documentary films.; Ethnicity.; Current affairs.; African Americans.; Political participation.; Communities.; Gentrification.;
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The end of reality : how four billionaires are selling a fantasy future of the metaverse, mars, and crypto / by Taplin, Jonathan T.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."At a time when the crises of income inequality, climate, and democracy, are compounding to create epic wealth disparity and the prospect of a second American civil war, four billionaires are hyping schemes that are designed to divert our attention away from issues that really matter. Each scheme -- the metaverse, cryptocurrency, space travel, and transhumanism -- is an existential threat in moral, political, and economic terms. In The End of Reality, Jonathan Taplin provides perceptive insight into the personal backgrounds and cultural power of these billionaires -- Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Andreesen ("The Four") -- and shows how their tech monopolies have brought middle-class wage stagnation, the hollowing out of many American towns, a radical increase in income inequality, and unbounded public acrimony. Meanwhile, the enormous amount of taxpayer money to be funneled into the dystopian ventures of "The Four", the benefits of which will accrue to billionaires, exacerbate these disturbing trends. The End of Reality is both scathing critique and reform agenda that replaces the warped worldview of The Four with a vision of regenerative economics that seeks to build a sustainable society with healthy growth and full employment"--
Subjects: Economics; Equality; Metaverse;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Believing : our thirty-year journey to end gender violence / by Hill, Anita,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the woman who gave the landmark testimony against Clarence Thomas as a sexual menace, a new manifesto about the origins and course of gender violence in our society; a combination of memoir, personal accounts, law, and social analysis, and a powerful call to arms from one of our most prominent and poised survivors. In 1991, Anita Hill began something that's still unfinished work. The issues of gender violence, touching on sex, race, age, and power, are as urgent today as they were when she first testified. Believing is a story of America's three decades long reckoning with gender violence, one that offers insights into its roots, and paths to creating dialogue and substantive change. It is a call to action that offers guidance based on what this brave, committed fighter has learned from a lifetime of advocacy and her search for solutions to a problem that is still tearing America apart. We once thought gender-based violence--from casual harassment to rape and murder--was an individual problem that affected a few; we now know it's cultural and endemic, and happens to our acquaintances, colleagues, friends and family members, and it can be physical, emotional and verbal. Women of color experience sexual harassment at higher rates than White women. Street harassment is ubiquitous and can escalate to violence. Transgender and nonbinary people are particularly vulnerable. Anita Hill draws on her years as a teacher, legal scholar, and advocate, and on the experiences of the thousands of individuals who have told her their stories, to trace the pipeline of behavior that follows individuals from place to place: from home to school to work and back home. In measured, clear, blunt terms, she demonstrates the impact it has on every aspect of our lives, including our physical and mental wellbeing, housing stability, political participation, economy and community safety, and how our descriptive language undermines progress toward solutions. And she is uncompromising in her demands that our laws and our leaders must address the issue concretely and immediately"--
Subjects: Abused women; Sexual abuse victims; Sexual harassment of women; Violence; Women; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Good Guys : A Novel. by Bala, Sharon.;
Claire Talbot is the publicist at Children of the World, an NGO that funds international aid projects. When a journalist digs into their operations and reveals a shocking crime, Claire and her colleagues must reckon with their complicity and all the ways their work abroad has harmed the very people they set out to save. Sharon Bala lives in St. John's, NL. From the author of 'The Boat People'.Library Bound Incorporated
Subjects: FICTION / Cultural Heritage; FICTION / Family Life / General; FICTION / Literary; FICTION / Political;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Milk! : a 10,000-year food fracas / by Kurlansky, Mark,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.According to the Greek creation myth, we are so much spilt milk: a splatter of the goddess Hera's breast milk became our galaxy, the Milky Way. But while mother's milk may be the essence of nourishment, it is the milk of other mammals that humans have cultivated ever since the domestication of animals more than ten thousand years ago, originally as a source of cheese, yogurt, kefir, and all manner of edible innovations that rendered lactose digestible, and then, when genetic mutation made some of us lactose-tolerant, milk itself. Before the industrial revolution, it was common for families to keep dairy cows and produce their own milk. But during the nineteenth century mass production and urbanization made milk safety a leading issue of the day, with milk-borne illnesses a common cause of death. Pasteurization slowly became a legislative matter. And today milk is a test case in the most pressing issues in food politics, from industrial farming and animal rights to GMOs, the locavore movement, and advocates for raw milk, who controversially reject pasteurization. Profoundly intertwined with human civilization, milk has a compelling and a surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky is the perfect person to tell it. Tracing the liquid's diverse history from antiquity to the present, he details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics, and economics.
Subjects: Dairy products; Dairy products industry; Milk;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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