![\"lmc_112516_books\"](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/LMC_112516_Books-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild decided that she needed to get out of her bubble in Berkeley, California, and went to live in one of the poorest regions of Louisiana.\u00a0In-depth stories of the lives of rural white families on the edge of poverty make up her acclaimed book \u201cStrangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Along similar lines, Matthew Desmond\u2019s \u201cEvicted: Power and Profit in America\u201d is about the appalling way in which once-rare evictions have become commonplace among some of the nation\u2019s poorest.<\/p>\nMichelle Alexander’s \u201cThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness\u201d is about racism faced by African-Americans, particularly as it relates to law enforcement, prison and the “war on drugs.”\u00a0The book also pushes back hard against the idea that American racism is over. Wesley Lowrey\u2019s upcoming \u201cThey Can\u2019t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore and a New Era in America\u2019s Racial Justice Movement\u201d is a highly-anticipated book about the journalist\u2019s experiences covering police violence and the protest movement that has sprung up to oppose it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe Too Sing America: South Asian, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multicultural Future\u201d is Deepya Iyer\u2019s examination of the lives of these immigrant groups, and the impact of terrorism, fear, and bigotry on their lives. The book focuses on the racial profiling and attacks that this group has faced since Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Indigenous Peoples\u2019 History of the United States\u201d by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz won an American Book Award in 2015 for its look at 400 years of American history from the point of view of Native Americans instead of European immigrants. Erika Lee\u2019s \u201cThe Making of Asian America\u201d is another history book, featuring Asian immigrants\u2019 experiences from the nation\u2019s earliest days, their struggles against racism, and the complicated social situations of modern times.<\/p>\n
Juan Gonzalez’s \u201cHarvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America\u201d is a hefty volume chronicling Latinos in North America from the colonial period to the present, including new immigrants and long-time citizens.\u00a0If you want a quicker read, there is also \u201cLatino USA: A Cartoon History,\u201d which tells the long tale of Latinos with a lighter tone, fully illustrated by artist Lalo Alcarez and written by Ilan Stevens.<\/p>\n
Gail Collins\u2019 book \u201cAmerica\u2019s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines\u201d tells the stories of generations of individual women of all ethnicities and backgrounds, while also looking at how women\u2019s lives were shaped by changing times, and how women themselves also did the shaping. And Adrian Brooks\u2019 \u201cThe Right Side of History: 100 Years of LGBTQ Activism\u201d is a compendium of essays and first-person accounts of life for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks, with focus on the individuals involved in the struggle for their civil rights.<\/p>\n