History & Culture

A Musical Journey Through Modern Black BritainMusic can carry the stories of history like a message in a bottle.Lord Kitchener, Neneh Cherry, Smiley Culture, Stormzy . . . Groundbreaking musicians...

Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women and Queer Radicals Revolution in a minor key: how young Black women invented freedom. At the dawn of the twentieth century, Black...

The creators of the popular website Black Nerd Problems bring their witty and unflinching insight to this engaging collection of pop culture essays — on everything from Mario Kart to...

A New American Origin Story A dramatic expansion of one of the definitive journalistic events of recent years- The 1619 Project, The New York Times Magazine's award-winning reframing of the American founding and...

Two long-time friends share an intimate and urgent conversation about life, music and their enduring love of America, with all its challenges and contradictions, in this stunningly-produced expansion of their...

Women, Slavery and ResistanceA history of slavery that puts enslaved women front and centre.Enslaved women had few opportunities to record their stories for posterity. Yet from their dusty footprints and...

A critical biography of Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian Nobel laureate and social activist, discussing his personal life, major works, and political legacy.This timely and expansive biography of Wole Soyinka, the...

How 30 Women of Colour Achieved Greatness against all OddsFollow the life lessons of 30 remarkable women of colour — past and present — who have made their mark on...

Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan, Wendell Pierce, Michael K. Williams — first known as Stringer Bell, Wallace, Bunk, and Omar — are just a few of the fruits of The...

Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Hayward GalleryThis is an expressive exploration of Black popular culture at its most wildly imaginative, artistically ambitious and politically urgent.In the...

'We shall therefore confine our walk to Central London where people meet on business during the day, and to West London where they meet for pleasure at night. If you...

A brilliant look at colonialism and its effects in Antigua — by the author of Annie John. If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will...

A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots One of TIME's 100 Must Read Books of 2020 Now in paperback and featuring a new afterword from the author, comes...

The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense versus nonviolence, Black Power versus civil...

The question of control for Black women is a costly one. From 1986 onwards, the trajectory of Janet Jackson's career can be summed up in her desire for control. Control...

A Journey Across the country that Black America Built Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks —...

Art has always declared its dissatisfaction against the status quo. Throughout history artists have used their art to criticise and protest against a range of injustices and inequalities, oppression and...

Memoir of a Freedom RiderA firsthand exploration of the cost of boarding the bus of change to move America forward — written by one of the Civil Rights Movement's pioneers.At...

Liz Johnson Artur is a Ghanaian-Russian photographer and photojournalist based in London. For over three decades, her work has documented the lives of black people from across the African Diaspora....

Two Works, Vol. 4In 1903 W.E.B. Du Bois's text The Souls of Black Folk made history as a work of sociological thought, and would go on to become a cornerstone...

1902 to the Present*** Winner of the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences non-fiction book award ***South Africa was born in war, has been cursed by crises and...

A breakthrough work of social and cultural criticism from one of the foremost intellectuals of his era Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his...

A landmark contribution to British art history, bringing together overlooked and marginalised perspectives from 'the critical decade'What is Black art and why don't we know more about it? Museums, galleries...

Explores the sonic, visual, and affective layers of Lamar's instant-classic album to explore how the rapper captures the consciousness of a nation in the midst of moral reckoning.Breaking the global...

Baltimore’s Fiery Reckoning When Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing an 'illegal knife' in April 2015, he was, by eyewitness accounts that video evidence later confirmed, treated 'roughly' as police...

The Soul of Inequality in American LifeA new edition of a celebrated contemporary work on race and racismPraised by a wide variety of people from Ta-Nehisi Coates to Zadie Smith,...

The True Story of One British Ship's Battle Against the Slave TradeA groundbreaking history of the Black Joke, the most famous member of the British Royal Navy's anti-slavery squadron, and...

Winner of the Stowe Prize 2021A TIME 100 Must-Read Book of 2020A Washington Post Notable Work of Non-Fiction 2020A searing indictment of racial injustice in America — inspired by the...

A rousing exploration of the blues and jazz music that formed much of American popular music culture, penned by the iconic Beat writer and critic. In this essential and impassioned...

Aja Barber wants change. In the 'learning' first half of the book, she will expose you to the endemic injustices in our consumer industries and the uncomfortable history of the...

The paradigm-shifting classic that connected the dots between transatlantic slavery, capitalism and racismArguing that the slave trade was at the heart of Britain's economic progress, Eric Williams's landmark 1944 study...

A Black Woman’s Story The incredible memoir of Elaine Brown — the first female leader of the Black Panthers "I have all the guns and all the money. I can...

Timely reissue of the classic radical history of race and modernityIn this ground-breaking work, Paul Gilroy proposes that the modern black experience can not be defined solely as African, American,...

Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America From the New York Times bestselling author of White Rage, an unflinching, critical new look at the Second Amendment and how it...

How Black Radicals Reshaped the British LeftMaking the Revolution Global shows how black radicals transformed socialist politics in Britain in the years before decolonisation.African and Caribbean activist-intellectuals, such as Amy...

A comprehensive and celebratory journey through the history of popular music, from the former New York Times music critic.From his allegiance to punk rock in his adolescence to becoming an...

How the Mothers of Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation In her groundbreaking debut, Anna Malaika Tubbs tells the incredible, moving story of three...

The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960sA radical reckoning with the racial inequality of America’s past and present, by one of the leading scholars of...

The Racial History of an Idea The racist legacy behind the Western idea of freedom. The era of the Enlightenment, which gave rise to our modern conceptions of freedom and...

In The Third Reconstruction, distinguished historian Peniel E. Joseph offers a powerful and personal new interpretation of recent history. The racial reckoning that unfolded in 2020, he argues, marked the...

Recognised as one of the most beloved fruits of the Black diaspora, Plantain holds profound value within the cultures and communities it is part of. A Quick Ting On Plantain...

Black Women's hair is a topic that has been at the centre of contemporary conversation for some time. This informative book explores the rich cultural history of Black Womens' Afros,...

THE FIRST BOOK ON AFROBEATSAfrobeats is a fast-growing genre, one that has carved out a distinct and powerful Black identity rooted within the African continent. The first book of its...

Unravelling Africa's history one country at a timeWhy is Africa still perceived as a single country? How did African soldiers contribute to World War II? Who else led the charge...

Taking African Agency Seriously Decolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West’s direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for performing...

The time is right for this title: Spike Lee’s popularity and critical acclaim are at an all-time high. Lee won an Academy Award for his recent film Blackkklansman, and he...

The essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde The woman's place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it...

Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration Each year, more than half a million Americans are released from prison and join a population of eight million formerly incarcerated men...

These are the books you should read. This is the canon. Joan Anim-Addo, Deirdre Osborne and Kadija Sesay have curated a decolonized reading list that celebrates the wide and diverse...

How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World An essential work outlining the origin and ongoing reality of global racism, from Britain's leading authority on Black Studies. The New Age...