Books of Soul

Right Now: A 12-Step Program For Defeating The Obama Agenda by Michael Steele

January 10, 2010

Regnery Press
Available 01/04/10 in Hardcover

What Should Conservatives Do in the Age of Obama?
Two Words: Fight Back

President Obama ran on promises of bipartisanship and centrism, but he’s delivered something else: unprecedented government borrowing and spending, unsustainable debt, and audacious attempts to usher in a colossal, overbearing government, the likes of which we’ve never seen.

In Right Now, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele blows the whistle on the entire Obama agenda. Setting aside appeals for caution in taking on a popular president, Steele throws down the gauntlet, insisting Republicans must expose and refute the policies lying at the heart of this administration’s attempts to resurrect a discredited brand of extreme liberalism. A call to arms for grassroots America, this book argues for abandoning “conservatism-lite,” returning to core conservative principles, and launching an uncompromising campaign for limited government. The path to a Republican renaissance has already been laid, says Steele: the target is the Obama agenda, the method is active opposition, and the time is Right Now.

Bonus: Foreword by Newt Gingrich

Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton by Duchess Harris

August 1, 2009

Palgrave Macmillan
Available 07/15/09

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book analyzes Black women’s involvement in American political life, focusing on what they did to gain political power between 1961 and 2001, and why, in many cases, they did not succeed. Harris demonstrates that Black women have tried to gain centrality through their participation in Presidential Commissions, Black feminist organizations, theatrical productions, film adaptations of literature, beauty pageants, electoral politics, and Presidential appointments. Harris contends that ’success’ in this area means that the feminist-identified Black women in the Congressional Black Caucus who voted against Clarence Thomas’s appointment would have spoken on behalf of Anita Hill; Senator Carol Moseley Braun would have won re-election; Lani Gunier would have had a hearing; Dr. Joycelyn Elders would have maintained her post; and Congresswoman Barbara Lee wouldn’t have stood alone in her opposition to the Iraq war resolution.

Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson

April 18, 2009

Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson
by Michael Eric Dyson

Available 05/11/09

Over the last 20 years, Michael Eric Dyson has become one of America’s most visible—and quotable—public intellectuals. Whether in his sixteen books, or in countless newspapers, television and radio appearances, or on stages, podiums, and pulpits across the world, Dyson has spun an enchanting web of words that has caught the attention of the masses and elites alike. He has weighed in on a myriad array of topics – from faith to fatherhood, and from race to sex, as well as sports, manhood, gender, music, leadership, politics, language, love, justice, literature, suffering, death, hope, relationships and much, much more.

Can You Hear Me Now?, offers a sampling of Dyson’s sharp wit, profound thought, and edifying eloquence on the enduring problems of humanity, from love to justice, and the latest topics of the day, including race and the presidency. It is both revealing and relevant, and at once thoughtful provoking and uplifting. Whether he is writing about Jay-Z or Barack Obama, addressing racial catastrophes or opportunities, or speaking about religion or the felicities of King’s rhetoric, Dyson’s intellect shines with insight and inspiration.

Can You Hear Me Now? captures Dyson’s incredible facility with words, and his prodigious intelligence, at a time when he has gained greater fame as a public intellectual, university professor, best-selling author, and most recently, as one of the first prominent blacks to endorse President Barack Obama. The time is ripe for his wit, wisdom and worldview, and this book is Dyson’s most accessible compendium of thinking on a broad range of topics that haunt and shape the nation.

Change Has Come

January 13, 2009

Change Has Come
An Artist Celebrates Our American Spirit
By Kadir Nelson
Illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Available 01/13/09

The black and white images throughout are personal reflections, uniquely felt and rendered by award winning artist Kadir Nelson. They are accompanied by the uplifting words of Barack Obama and commemorate the movement and the moment that have changed our history. It’s a celebration of the power of inspiration. It’s a celebration of how far we have come and how determined we are to look ahead. It’s a celebration of pride, hope and joy personally felt and publicly shared. Most of all it’s a celebration of the 44th president – a new president and a new chapter in the American story.

Your Spirits Walk Beside Us

October 27, 2008

Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion
by Barbara Dianne Savage

Available November 2008

Even before the emergence of the civil rights movement with black churches at its center, African American religion and progressive politics were assumed to be inextricably intertwined. In her revelatory book, Barbara Savage counters this assumption with the story of a highly diversified religious community whose debates over engagement in the struggle for racial equality were as vigorous as they were persistent. Rather than inevitable allies, black churches and political activists have been uneasy and contentious partners.

From the 1920s on, some of the best African American minds — W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Benjamin Mays, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Mary McLeod Bethune, Charles S. Johnson, and others — argued tirelessly about the churches’ responsibility in the quest for racial justice. Could they be a liberal force, or would they be a constraint on progress? There was no single, unified black church but rather many churches marked by enormous intellectual, theological, and political differences and independence. Yet, confronted by racial discrimination and poverty, churches were called upon again and again to come together as savior institutions for black communities.

The tension between faith and political activism in black churches testifies to the difficult and unpredictable project of coupling religion and politics in the twentieth century. By retrieving the people, the polemics, and the power of the spiritual that animated African American political life, Savage has dramatically demonstrated the challenge to all religious institutions seeking political change in our time.

Obamanomics

July 16, 2008

Obamanomics

Obamanomics
How Bottom-Up Economic Prosperity Will Replace Trickle-Down Economics
by John R. Talbott

Publication Date August 2008

Bestselling author John R. Talbott, who predicted the current housing and mortgage crisis, pictures here a Barack Obama presidency based on justice and cooperation—principles that have not held sway in Washington, DC, for quite some time. Talbott’s powerful grasp of finance allows him to connect the issue of financial inequality in America with our need as a people to embrace change.

Obama has shown he knows that divisions among races, religions, and political views have prevented Americans from coming together to solve the most important problems of our age. Obamanomics, infused with Obama’s speeches, campaign policy statements, and other writings, describes a
government acting according to democratic principles to enact lobbying reform, get our economy moving again, fix our healthcare system, slow global warming, prevent unnecessary wars, improve education, address the aging of our population, find alternative energy sources, and bring about
housing, mortgage, and banking reform.