My Most Recent Reads - June, 2015

June was a slow month bu that was to be expected since because I was taking two courses while also working.  That kept me pretty busy with reading many articles and writing papers.  However, I did manage to squeeze out a couple books included reading a physical book in additional to several audiobooks.  I only have one recommendation for this month, but it's a very timely one!


Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities by Craig Steven Wilder

Book Cover - Ebony and Ivory - Race Slavery and the Trouble History of American's Universities
Wilder takes on the historical and economic connections between slavery and many of the founding higher educational institutes in the United States from the 1600s to the 1800s.  Within it, he traces the direct and indirect ways that such institutions participated, promoted, and benefited from slavery.  It is a dry read at times, but a very telling one indeed.  When we have discussions about race and racism and the long-lasting effects, we often look directly to the African American community, but we rarely recognize that beyond the negative effects on this population, it's clear that white institutions such as higher education flourished and became richer as a direct result of participating in slavery in various ways.  Wilder paints this in vivid detail leaving no doubt that the Ivy Walls were held together in part with blood from slaves.  It's a challenging view to accept and realize just how deeply entrenched slavery was in our society and how the animosity created through it still permeate our society.  I'm speaking now in light of the massacre at the historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina--though I have little doubt that by the time you read this--there will be some other more recent and racially-laden event.    

Here's my ongoing list of books read this year on GoodReads.  Also, here 2015's reading reflections thus far:


BOOKS
  • How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing by Paul Silvia
AUDIOBOOKS
  • Galileo by Bertolt Brecht
  • So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
  • Higher Education in America by Derek Bok
  • Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham
  • Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers by Nick Offerman
  • Camping with Henry and Tom by Mark St. Germain
  • The Credeaux Canvas by Keith Bunin
  • The Smartest Book in the World: A Lexicon of Literacy, A Rancorous Reportage, A Concise Curriculum of Cool by Greg Proops
  • Monologue: What Makes America Laugh Before Bed by Jon Macks
  • Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities by Craig Steven Wilder
  • Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
  • Fired!: Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, and Dismissed by Annabelle Gurwitch
  • It's Not a Fair World by Harry Shearer

GRAPHIC NOVELS
  • The Unwritten, Vol. 11: Apocalypse by Mike Carey

So what have you been reading lately?  What would you recommend?


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