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In the summer of 1978, twenty-one-year-old Paul Wilson jumps at the chance to join two local icons on a dream surf trip to Mexico, unaware their ultimate destination lies in the heart of cartel country. Having no earthly idea of where he’ll get the money, and determined to prove his mettle, he does the only thing he can think of: He robs a supermarket. If karma needed more reasons to doom the trip, he soon learns one of his companions is a convicted killer on the run, the other an unscrupulous cad. Soon enough, mere survival takes precedence over surfing.
Over the last few decades, we’ve started to see books coming out that emphasize different histories of the United States. I’m gonna say it right now; a lot of these are published by Beacon Press, because Beacon does some good good work. Here on this 10th of July, let’s check these out:
A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross. This came out this year and is by two awesome academics. They tell the story of Black women in America from “the first African women who arrived in what became the United States to African American women of today.” They highlight enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and “women who lived outside the law.” And they do it in less than 300 pages. Amazing.
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. This starts with Christopher Columbus coming over and destroying people’s lives and continues up through President Clinton’s first term in office. Zinn focuses on America’s “women, factory workers, African Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.” This book was groundbreaking in terms of its emphasis that there are other stories to be told, and we should pay attention to them.
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. “Native peoples have vast claims to reparations and restitution,” yet “[n]o monetary amount can compensate for lands illegally seized, particularly those sacred lands necessary for Indigenous peoples to regain social coherence.” Dunbar-Ortiz speaks against the founding myth of the U.S. and walks you through the blatant colonial and genocidal ambitions of those in power regarding Indigenous populations.
A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen. Published in 2012 and covering pre-1492 to then, this is the first book to “place the experiences of people with disabilities at the center of the American narrative.” I am super psyched for this, because who is FREQUENTLY left out of the narrative? Yes, people with disabilities. Nielsen is a professor and director of the disability studies program at the University of Toledo.
Have a good weekend! Be safe! And as always, you can find me on social media @itsalicetime and co-hosting the For Real podcast with Kim here at Book Riot. Until next time, enjoy those facts, fellow nerds.