Sponsored by Harper Perennial, publisher of What White People Can Do Next by Emma Dabiri.
An International Bestseller, What White People Can Do Next is a poignant and sensible guide to questioning the meaning of whiteness and creating an antiracist world in the spirit of We Should All Be Feminists and How to Be an Antiracist. Emma Dabiri draws on both academic discipline and lived experience to probe the ways many of us are complacent and complicit—and can therefore combat—white supremacy. She outlines the actions we must take, including: Stop the Denial. Interrogate Whiteness. Abandon Guilt. Redistribute Resources. Realize this shit is killing you too…
Sure, summer weather can be great (esp. if you live in a cold, gross winter climate; lookin’ at you, fellow Midwesterners), but what about summer FACTS? Do I need to quote the opening of Dickens’s Hard Times again?
‘Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!’
Sure, the person saying it is bad, but NEVERTHELESS. I thought it’d be fun to check out some summer fact books so you can head into the season armed with knowledge. Mmm. Knowledge.
We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy by Natalie Baszile
It is an anthology! I love an anthology. Ok, farmers are summery because I assume that summer is a super busy time for farmers. Maybe that is wrong. Which is why I should read this (to LEARN). But summer on a farm sounds really idyllic, and in Baszile’s book, she collects “photographs, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine black people’s connection to the American land from Emancipation to today.” She also talks about the Returning Generation, which is a name I 100% love, who are coming back to farming and looking to address “issues of food justice, food sovereignty, and reparations.” Also — look at that cover. So good.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Is this a reach and is that reach the fact that summer is warm and frequently depicted with a prominent sun? Maybe. But anyway — in her extremely lauded book, Wilkerson recounts the story of the Great Migration, which took place from appx 1915-1970 and involved about six million Black Americans moving from the rural South to the rest of the country (primarily to urban areas). Wilkerson interviewed more than a thousand people for this book. It was a massive undertaking for a massive movement.
One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
Kim and I have talked about this a couple times on the For Real podcast, mainly because she’s not into Bryson’s other books, but I usually cite this one as being less “here is a collection of facts” and more “here is a semi-cohesive story.” The book is entirely focused on the summer of 1927, when a ton of things happened, including the transatlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh; the 1927 NY Yankees; the transition from the Model T Ford to the Model A; the execution of anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti; and more. Lots of big cultural shifts! I really liked this one.
Disposable City: Miami’s Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe by Mario Alejandro Ariza
I keep thinking about this book. I mention it basically any time Miami comes up. It’s focused on the present and future of Miami, specifically regarding climate change. The description starts with “Miami, Florida, is likely to be entirely underwater by the end of this century.” Which is a real attention-grabber. It talks about residential inequality, racism, and how climate change impacts the day-to-day life of Miami residents. Obviously it’s in the summer list because — look at the cover.
Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence by Joseph J. Ellis
I confess to a weakness for books about the American Revolution. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea! (get it?) But this one is SHORT and covers the summer of 1776, so you get this very specific moment when things had started moving into place, and then shows you what was happening on both the British and American sides in a really digestible amount of space. And it’s during the summer!
For more nonfiction reads, check out the For Real podcast which I co-host with the excellent Kim here at Book Riot. If you have any questions/comments/book suggestions, you can find me on social media @itsalicetime. Until next time, enjoy those facts, fellow nerds.