The Golden Fortress: California’s Border War on Dust Bowl Refugees by Bill Lascher

Review by Brian Tanguay It’s tempting to think of history as a succession of recurring events and to look to the past to foretell what might happen in the future.…

Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

Review by Brian Tanguay When Daiyu, the protagonist of Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s debut novel, Four Treasures of the Sky, is abducted from the fish market, she’s a desperately hungry thirteen-year-old…

The Sinking Middle Class: A Political History of Debt, Misery, and the Drift to the Right by David Roediger

Review by Brian Tanguay Warren Buffet, one of the wealthiest men in America, made a statement in 2006 about class warfare which is often cited on the infrequent occasions when…

Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire & Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernandez

Review by Brian Tanguay On July 4, 1915, a band of armed and mounted Mexicans crossed the border and murdered three white men in southern Texas. For the next five…

The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society by William Deresiewicz

Review by Brian Tanguay After reading Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, I was hooked on William Deresiewicz. The next book…

The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone

Review by Brian Tanguay I began reading The Cross and the Lynching Tree by the late theologian James H. Cone the week before a white gunman murdered ten black people…

The Naked Don’t Fear the Water by Matthieu Aikins

Review by Brian Tanguay Refugees are once again in the news and on our screens. Millions of Ukranians have fled their homes to escape Russia’s unprovoked attack, taking whatever possessions…

Angela Davis: An Autobiography

Review by Brian Tanguay The cover photograph for the third edition of Angela Davis: An Autobiography, published in 2021 by Haymarket Books, was taken in November 1969 by an unnamed…

We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama

Review by Brian Tanguay The Dalai Lama is the most recognizable figure of the Tibetan diaspora, but the focus of Tsering Yangzom Lama’s debut novel, We Measure the Earth with…

Free The Press: The Death of American Journalism and How to Revive It by Brian J. Karem

Review by Brian Tanguay In his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman sounded a warning about media ownership and the danger to the public when it’s fed a…