Art Activism

A witty, candid story of a daring young man who made his way to the heights of American journalism and public life, from a New Hampshire weekly through his foreign correspondent years in Europe, to the apex of his career at the Washington Post, whose Watergate coverage gave journalism its finest hours.

A fascinating history of the rise and fall of influential Gilded Age magazine McClure's and the two unlikely outsiders at its helm - as well as a timely, full-throated defense of investigative journalism in America. Tracing McClure's from its meteoric rise to its spectacularly swift and dramatic combustion, Citizen Reporters is a thrillingly told, deeply researched biography of a powerhouse magazine that forever changed American life. It's also a timely case study that demonstrates the crucial importance of journalists who are unafraid to speak truth to power.

Barbara Boxer has made her mark, combining compassionate advocacy with scrappiness in a political career spanning more than three decades. Now, retiring from the Senate, she continues the work to which she's dedicated 30 years in Congress. Her memoir, The Art of Tough, shares her provocative and touching recollections of service, and cements her commitment to the fight for women, families, quality, environmental protection, all in a peaceful world.

The quiet power of kindness can change the way we view one another, our communities, and even ourselves. Lady Gaga embodies this mission, and through her work, brings more kindness into our world every single day. Meet young changemakers who found their inner strength, who prevailed in the face of bullies, who started their own social movements, who decided to break through the mental health stigma and share how they felt, who created safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, and who have embraced kindness by helping others without the expectation of anything in return.

This is the inspiring life and legacy of vocal artist and civil rights icon Paul Robeson - one of the most important public figures in the 20th century - adapted for young adults by the acclaimed Robeson biographer. Featuring a foreword by multiple award-winning author Jason Reynolds, Paul Robeson: No One Can Silence Me will introduce listeners in middle and high school to the inspiring and complicated life of one of America’s most fascinating figures, whose story of artistry, heroism, conviction, and conflict is newly relevant today.

West Winging It: An Unpresidential Memoir is the personal story of Pat Cunnane and his journey from outsider to insider, from his dreary job at a warehouse to his dream job at the White House. Pat pulls the drapes back on the most famous and exclusive building in the United States, telling the story of the real West Wing with compelling and quirky portraits of the people who populate the place, from the president to the press corps.

The arduous, often unpredictable journey to the US presidency has attracted some of the most unique characters in history. With "unusual" presidential candidates grabbing headlines for the foreseeable future, Contenders shines a welcome spotlight on individuals who felt inspired to offer their uncommon perspectives and special talents to lead the nation.

In The Hearsts: Father and Son, William Randolph Hearst, Jr., and co-author Jack Casserly tell the extraordinary story of an American family from the gold-diggings of California to the present Hearst media empire. They also profile a cavalcade of reporters and columnists who became the stars of the Hearst newspapers, and portray the colorful New York nightlife of the 1930s and 1940s.

Dorothy L. Sayers is now famous for her Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane detective series, but she was equally well known during her life for an essay asking “Are Women Human?” Women’s rights were expanding rapidly during Sayers’s lifetime; she and her friends were some of the first women to receive degrees from Oxford. Yet, as historian Mo Moulton reveals, it was clear from the many professional and personal obstacles they faced that society was not ready to concede that women were indeed fully human.

In a series of poignant vignettes, a preeminent historian makes a compelling case for Machiavelli as an unjustly maligned figure with valuable political insights that resonate as strongly today as they did in his time.

Throughout the course of history, civilization has been blessed by strong-minded men and women who have impacted our world in extraordinary ways. Their imprint upon humanity is beyond dispute. And many would contend that they were no less than the result of Divine Providence - a gift of God to the human race. The Mark of a Giant examines the lives and contributions of seven men and women who changed the world: Abraham of Ur, Pericles, the Apostle Paul, Sir Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa.

Robert Coles first met Dorothy Day over 35 years ago when, as a medical student, he worked in one of her Catholic Worker soup kitchens. He remained close to this inspiring and controversial woman until her death in 1980. His book, an intellectual and psychological portrait, confronts candidly the central puzzles of her life.

For five weeks, the world waited for news about Danny Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan. And then came the broadcast of his shocking murder. The complete account of his abduction, the intense effort to rescue him, and the aftermath are told here in astonishing detail, and with courage and insight by his surviving wife, Mariane.

Did you ever think about where your jeans come from? How about the people who made your T-shirt, or what happens to the clothes you grow out of when you're done wearing them? The fabrics clothes are made of, the way they are designed and sewn and shipped around the world, and the way we consume them and get rid of them - every step in this process has a big impact on our environment, on the people who work in clothing factories, and on our cultures.

Had Upton Sinclair not written a single book after The Jungle, he would still be famous. But Sinclair was a mere 25 years old when he wrote The Jungle, and over the next 65 years, he wrote nearly 80 more books and won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He was also a filmmaker, labor activist, women’s rights advocate, and health pioneer on a grand scale. This new biography of Sinclair underscores his place in the American story as a social, political, and cultural force, a man who more than any other disrupted and documented his era in the name of social justice.

A small-town Florida teenager discovers punk rock through a loaned mix tape, and punk music and culture slowly takes over all aspects of his life. His new passion causes him to form a band, track down out-of-print records he loves and reissue them, open a record store, start a record distribution operation as a public service, mentor a host of young musicians, and befriend all manner of punk luminaries along the way. Slowly his life's pursuit pushes him to the point of personal ruination and, ultimately, redemption.

Driven by his single mother's dreams for his survival and success, Kevin Powell became the first in his family to attend a university, where he became a student leader keenly aware of widespread social injustice. But the struggle to define himself and break out of poverty continued into adulthood, with traumatic periods of homelessness and despair. As a young star journalist with Vibe magazine, Powell interviewed luminaries such as Tupac Shakur, writing influential chronicles of the evolution of hip-hop from his eyewitness view.

Take a tour of some of the most extraordinary thinkers in history with ‘500 Quotes from Great Minds´. Packed with cherry-picked thoughts, reflections, and observations, it offers inspiring insights into almost every aspect of life, from love and death to art and politics. A superb addition to any coffee table, ‘500 Quotes from Great Minds´ is ideal for those who need a bit of extra motivation. Born in Paris, Charles Baudelaire (1821 – 1867) was one of the most highly-regarded poets of the 19th century.

There is a point in everybody's life at which a tough decision will have to be made - a hard call. For inspiration and direction, we can look to the remarkable individuals in John McCain and Mark Salter's book, which dramatically describes the anatomy of a great decision.

Confined in a cell four meters long, imprisoned on absurd, Kafkaesque charges, novelist Ahmet Altan is one of many writers persecuted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's oppressive regime. In this extraordinary memoir, written from his prison cell, Altan reflects upon his sentence, on a life whittled down to a courtyard covered by bars, and on the hope and solace a writer's mind can provide, even in the darkest places.