"The most powerful political tool of the modern presidency is control of the message and the image. The Greeks called it 'rhetoric,' Gilded Age politicians called it 'publicity,' and some today might call it 'lying,' but spin is a built-in feature of American democracy. Presidents deploy it to engage, persuade, and mobilize the people--in whom power ultimately resides. Presidential historian David Greenberg recounts the development of the White House...

Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men -- bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can...

A look at why the worst economy since the 1930s has brought about the revival of conservatism.

"In the tradition of J.D. Vance, Sarah Smarsh, and Amy Goldstein, BARNSTORMING OHIO is an on-the-ground look at the diverse challenges facing Ohio, and its national significance as the state that has historically sided with the presidential election winner more than any other -- from award-winning lifelong Ohioan author and writer David Giffels, dubbed by the New York Times as "the Bard of Akron.""--

"Illegal Immigrants/Model Minorities thinks through two figures-the Chinese illegal immigrant and the Chinese model minority-during the Cold War. Reading the two together sheds light on how the discussion of Chinese Americans in both literature and archival materials grapples with these constructs and creates competing usages of and perspectives on Chinese American history"--

From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a group of highly courageous correspondents covered America's war against Japan. Based on a wealth of previously untapped primary sources, War Beat, Pacific, provides the first comprehensive account of what these reporters witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front's perception of some of the most pivotal battles in American history. In a dramatic and fast-paced...

Tells the story of the 14-year-old ill-fated Archduchess of Austria and later Queen of France. Marie Antoinette has became one of the most misunderstood and abused woman in history, from her birth in Imperial Austria. And how the young woman must grow up in front of the entire country of France.

"Albert Einstein's face is still one of the most recognizable in the world and he's widely considered to be the first modern-day celebrity. While many of his discoveries continue to define our daily lives, it's not just his genius that continues to shape our world. Today, more people know Einstein as an icon rather than a theorist-decades after his death, he's a celebrity with a massive online following. The Einstein Effect shows all the ways his...

"Black Snake" tells the story of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline through the influential activism of four women from Standing Rock and Fort Berthold Reservations"--