"Living in ancient Rome was one of the most intense experiences in human history. It was also superbly and vividly recorded by Rome's historians and poets, who were acutely aware of the seething and voluptuous nature of the city that ruled the known world. Populus takes the reader on a compelling journey through the landscape of politics, crime, domestic life, faith, sex, entertainment, cuisine, disease, and inequality experienced daily by Roman people...

"A magnificent, foundational reckoning with how Black Americans have used the written word to define and redefine themselves, in resistance to the lies of racism and often in heated disagreement with each other, over the course of the country's history. Distilled over many years from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s legendary Harvard introductory course in African American Studies, The Black Box: Writing the Race, is the story of Black self-definition in...