Retold Stories, Untold Histories concentrates on how challenging questions concerning the nature of historical representation, the formation of national/ethnic identities, and creative agendas are addressed in the diverse and inspiring writings of Maxine Hong Kingston and Leslie Marmon Silko. The rationale behind juxtaposing two writers coming from diverse cultural contexts originates in the fact that both Kingston and Silko share the experience of historical and cultural marginalization and, more importantly, devise similar methods of rendering it in creative writing. Writing from the perspective of two distinct marginalized groups, Kingston and Silko share the view that the official version of national history may be seen as a narrative of misrepresentation and the exclusion of people who either greatly contributed to the building of the country or occupied the territory of the present United States long before its creation. In their texts, both writers engage in a polemic against a history that, using its legitimizing power as a scientific discipline, produces and perpetuates stereotypical images of Chinese and Native Americans, and, more importantly, eliminates the two groups from the process of constructing the national narratives of origins that monitor and control the borders of what constitutes American identity. Despite apparent differences in cultural and historical contexts, Kingston and Silko share an enthusiasm for employing unconventional tools and sources for offering creative reconstructions of a past which had been silenced or repressed.

Throughout history, creative writers have often tackled topical subjects as a means to engage and influence public discourse. American authors—those born in the States and those who became naturalized citizens—have consistently found ways to be critical of the more painful pieces of the country’s past yet have done so with the patriotic purpose of strengthening the nation’s community and future. In History and Hope in American Literature: Models of Critical Patriotism, Ben Railton argues that it is only through an in-depth engagement with history—especially its darkest and most agonizing elements—that one can come to a genuine form of patriotism that employs constructive criticism as a tool for civic engagement. The author argues that it is through such critical patriotism that one can imagine and move toward a hopeful, shared future for all Americans. Railton highlights twelve works of American literature that focus on troubling periods in American history, including John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath,David Bradley’s The Chaneysville Incident, Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Dave Eggers’s What Is the What. From African and Native American histories to the Depression and the AIDS epidemic, Caribbean and Rwandan refugees and immigrants to global climate change, these works help readers confront, understand, and transcend the most sorrowful histories and issues. In so doing, the authors of these books offer hard-won hope that can help point people in the direction of a more perfect union. History and Hope in American Literature will be of interest to students and practitioners of American literature and history.

This book explores Native American literary responses to biomedical discourses and biomedicalization processes as they circulate in social and cultural contexts. Native American communities resist reductivism of biomedicine that excludes Indigenous (and non-Western) epistemologies and instead draw attention to how illness, healing, treatment, and genetic research are socially constructed and dependent on inherently racialist thinking. This volume highlights how interventions into the hegemony of biomedicine are vigorously addressed in Native American literature. The book covers tuberculosis and diabetes epidemics, the emergence of Native American DNA, discoveries in biotechnology, and the problematics of a biomedical model of psychiatry. The book analyzes work by Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, LeAnne Howe, Linda Hogan, Heid E. Erdrich, Elissa Washuta and Frances Washburn. The book will appeal to scholars of Native American and Indigenous Studies, as well as to others with an interest in literature and medicine.

The defining, behind-the-scenes chronicle of one of the most extraordinary, beloved, and dominant pop cultural entities in America’s history -- Marvel Comics – and the outsized personalities who made Marvel including Martin Goodman, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby. “Sean Howe’s history of Marvel makes a compulsively readable, riotous and heartbreaking version of my favorite story, that of how a bunch of weirdoes changed the world…That it’s all true is just frosting on the cake.” —Jonathan Lethem For the first time, Marvel Comics tells the stories of the men who made Marvel: Martin Goodman, the self-made publisher who forayed into comics after a get-rich-quick tip in 1939, Stan Lee, the energetic editor who would shepherd the company through thick and thin for decades and Jack Kirby, the WWII veteran who would co-create Captain America in 1940 and, twenty years later, developed with Lee the bulk of the company’s marquee characters in a three-year frenzy. Incorporating more than one hundred original interviews with those who worked behind the scenes at Marvel over a seventy-year-span, Marvel Comics packs anecdotes and analysis into a gripping narrative of how a small group of people on the cusp of failure created one of the most enduring pop cultural forces in contemporary America.

For much of the 20th century, the Soviet Union was veiled behind an Iron Curtain of secrecy and oppression orchestrated by the Communist party and intelligence services like the KGB. While the public knew of the KGB as a spy agency abroad, few glimpsed its extensive surveillance and suppression of dissent within Soviet borders. This book documents accounts of KGB assassination teams, infiltration operations, staged provocations, planted propaganda, and the capture of double agents abroad. But it also uncovers widespread interference in culture, media, religion, and daily life behind the Soviet border. The aim is not just to recount historical events but to offer an inside story that goes beyond the superficial understanding of covert operations. It is an exploration of the motivations, the betrayals, and the sacrifices made by those who operated in the shadows, shaping the course of history with every classified mission.

Before the Vikings, before the Anglo-Saxons, before the Roman Empire, the Celts dominated central and western Europe. Today we might think of the Celts only inhabiting parts of the far west of Europe –Ireland, Great Britain, France and Spain –but these were the extremities in which their culture lasted longest. In fact, they had originated in Central Europe and settled as far afield as present day Turkey, Poland and Italy. From their emergence as an Iron Age people around 800 BC to the early centuries AD, Celts reveals the truth behind the stories of naked warriors, ritual beheadings, druids, magic and accusations of human sacrifice. The book examines the different tribes, the Hallstatt and La Tène periods, as well as Celtic survival in western Europe, the Gallic Wars, military life, spiritual life, slavery, sexuality and Celtic art.

The Unknown History of Jewish Women—On Learning and Illiteracy: On Slavery and Liberty is a comprehensive study on the history of Jewish women, which discusses their absence from the Jewish Hebrew library of the "People of the Book" and interprets their social condition in relation to their imposed ignorance and exclusion from public literacy. The book begins with a chapter on communal education for Jewish boys, which was compulsory and free of charge for the first ten years in all traditional Jewish communities. The discussion continues with the striking absence of any communal Jewish education for girls until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and the implications of this fact for twentieth-century immigration to Israel (1949-1959) The following chapters discuss the social, cultural and legal contexts of this reality of female illiteracy in the Jewish community—a community that placed a supreme value on male education. The discussion focuses on the patriarchal order and the postulations, rules, norms, sanctions and mythologies that, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, laid the religious foundations of this discriminatory reality.

In "REBUILDING SANATAN" the reader embarks on a transformative journey through the corridors of time, unveiling the rich tapestry of Hinduism's hidden history and the collective amnesia that has long plagued its followers. This eye-opening narrative is a call to action, urging Hindus to reconnect with their roots, rekindle their pride in their culture, and reawaken the spiritual essence that lies within. It uncovers a past often overshadowed by biases, colonial narratives, and misconceptions, revealing the profound contributions of Hinduism to the world in areas of science, philosophy, and spirituality. "Afraid to Remember, Eager to Forget" is a recurring theme in the book, exploring how Hindus have been systematically conditioned to downplay their own culture and adopt an inferiority complex. It discusses the impact of colonialism, biased historical accounts, and a skewed educational system that has perpetuated this self-deprecation. Through powerful examples and historical anecdotes, the author illustrates how these influences have eroded the self-esteem of many Hindus. The narrative takes a turn towards empowerment, presenting a roadmap for change. It argues that reawakening Hinduism begins at the individual level. Through introspection and self-awareness, each person can discover the depth of their own culture and spirituality. The book highlights the importance of education, offering practical steps to bridge the gap between mainstream knowledge and the true history of Hinduism. It encourages readers to explore their heritage, traditions, and spiritual practices, fostering a sense of pride and connection. "REBUILDING SANATAN" emphasizes the importance of dialogue and open-mindedness. It promotes interfaith harmony and dispels misconceptions that perpetuate division. By acknowledging the shared values and wisdom within Hinduism, the book promotes unity among diverse communities. The narrative is enriched with inspiring stories of individuals who have reclaimed their Hindu heritage, igniting a sense of purpose and pride. The book highlights initiatives that have successfully challenged stereotypes and prejudices, ultimately creating a more inclusive and accepting society. Throughout the pages of "REBUILDING SANATAN" the author strikes a delicate balance between historical analysis, introspection, and hope. The message is clear: the reawakening of Hinduism is not an insurmountable task. By embracing the true history of their culture, Hindus can empower themselves and uplift the entire community. The book serves as a rallying cry for readers to explore their roots, embrace their heritage, and, in doing so, strengthen the foundation of Hinduism for future generations. In a world where knowledge is power, "REBUILDING SANATAN" is an enlightening guide for Hindus seeking to reclaim their heritage, rekindle their self-worth, and revitalize their connection to the spiritual essence that has always defined their culture.

“Not since Angela Davis’s 2003 book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, has a scholar so persuasively challenged our conventional understanding of the criminal legal system.” —Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr., Washington Post From one of our top historians, a groundbreaking story of policing and “riots” that shatters our understanding of the post–civil rights era. What began in spring 2020 as local protests in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police quickly exploded into a massive nationwide movement. Millions of mostly young people defiantly flooded into the nation’s streets, demanding an end to police brutality and to the broader, systemic repression of Black people and other people of color. To many observers, the protests appeared to be without precedent in their scale and persistence. Yet, as the acclaimed historian Elizabeth Hinton demonstrates in America on Fire, the events of 2020 had clear precursors—and any attempt to understand our current crisis requires a reckoning with the recent past. Even in the aftermath of Donald Trump, many Americans consider the decades since the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s as a story of progress toward greater inclusiveness and equality. Hinton’s sweeping narrative uncovers an altogether different history, taking us on a troubling journey from Detroit in 1967 and Miami in 1980 to Los Angeles in 1992 and beyond to chart the persistence of structural racism and one of its primary consequences, the so-called urban riot. Hinton offers a critical corrective: the word riot was nothing less than a racist trope applied to events that can only be properly understood as rebellions—explosions of collective resistance to an unequal and violent order. As she suggests, if rebellion and the conditions that precipitated it never disappeared, the optimistic story of a post–Jim Crow United States no longer holds. Black rebellion, America on Fire powerfully illustrates, was born in response to poverty and exclusion, but most immediately in reaction to police violence. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson launched the “War on Crime,” sending militarized police forces into impoverished Black neighborhoods. Facing increasing surveillance and brutality, residents threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at officers, plundered local businesses, and vandalized exploitative institutions. Hinton draws on exclusive sources to uncover a previously hidden geography of violence in smaller American cities, from York, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, to Stockton, California. The central lesson from these eruptions—that police violence invariably leads to community violence—continues to escape policymakers, who respond by further criminalizing entire groups instead of addressing underlying socioeconomic causes. The results are the hugely expanded policing and prison regimes that shape the lives of so many Americans today. Presenting a new framework for understanding our nation’s enduring strife, America on Fire is also a warning: rebellions will surely continue unless police are no longer called on to manage the consequences of dismal conditions beyond their control, and until an oppressive system is finally remade on the principles of justice and equality.

An Untold History is the story of the growth of a city and a people as they seek a better way of life. Nuada is the Celtic warrior and leader of this city, a man who grew restless with the tribal ways and ventured out for other lands. Through his dependence on his creator, Creatrix, and teamwork with other leaders, Nuada helps his city prosper and become a safe haven for people from various lands. An Untold History gives the reader a close-up view of what it took to create a city in the time of the Celts.