The Kids of Freedom Summer
In 1964, Tracy Sugarman began participating in and covering the Freedom Summer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. His reporting and illustrations are captured in "We Had Sneakers, They Had …
Untangling Funk
The New Yorker editor and novelist Ben Greenman's new book, "Please Step Back", tracks the life and career of funk-rock star Robert Franklin, a.k.a. Rock Foxx, a fictional character based …
'First Understand Mississippi
In her book, "Historic Photos of Mississippi", Anne B. McKee highlights nearly 200 photos from history archives and private collections.
Gloria Norris and her Mississippi Road
With her Nikon FE camera in tow, Mississippi native and noted author Gloria Norris drove down Highway 51 through Mississippi capturing the fleeting images of the state that characterized her …
The Day the Music Died
Many of us carry around tiny, flat devices that hold hundreds or thousands of songsthe equivalent of hauling around crates upon crates of albums or CDs. How did we get …
Tweaking Sound
"Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music" (Faber & Faber, 2009, $35) is a book for music nerds and casual fans alike. In it, Greg Milner explains sound …
Books
Crime & Punishment
When a best-selling author comes to Jackson, it's news. When three best-selling authors come in one exclusive event, it's historic.
Thoreau's Fire
True story: On April 30, 1844, Henry David Thoreau began the fire that eventually burned 300 acres of forest outside his home in Concord, Mass. He was never prosecuted for …
Love for an Enemy
In America, as elsewhere on the planet, terrorism in the name of religious fundamentalism seems to be humankind's currently unavoidable cause of suffering, providing fertile fields for bigotry, hatred, wars …
Write Your Own History
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich knows a thing or two about women. Whether misbehaved or well mannered, daring or demure, naughty or nice; every one of us deserves a podium from which …
Mysterious Relics
Hanna Heath arrives in war-torn Sarajevo in 1996 to undertake the "once-in-a-lifetime career maker" project: to analyze and conserve the 14th-century illuminated edition of the Haggadah, the book used to …
‘If I Could Choose Yesterday'
William Winter, Billy Mounger, Bill Waller, Mike Mills—those are names we recognize. They have made political history over the course of their careers and most recently have published remembrances of …
Intellectual Delinquency
"The Beats: A Graphic History" (Hill and Wang, 2009, $22) is a graphic biography of the close-knit group of avant garde macho writers of the 1950s and '60s like Jack …
Sesquipedalian Delight
In "Alphabet Juice" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008, $25), Roy Blount Jr. combs through the English language from its roots to its modern tips, and sweeps it into an up …
Eclipsing Slave History
America's economy was built largely on the backs of slaves, and the South's "peculiar institution" affected America's cultural development for decades. So, the story of the generation of black Americans …
