Racism is resilient, duplicitous, and endlessly adaptable, so it is no surprise that America is again in a period of civil rights activism. A significant reason racism endures is because it is structural: it's embedded in culture and in institutions. One of the places that racism hides -- and thus perhaps the best place to oppose it -- is books for young people. Philip Nel presents five serious critiques of the history and current state of children's...

"In the global convulsions in the aftermath of World War II, one dominant world racial order broke apart and a new one emerged. This is the story Jodi Melamed tells in Represent and Destroy, portraying the postwar racial break as a transition from white supremacist modernity to a formally antiracist liberal capitalist modernity in which racial violence works normatively by policing representations of difference. Following the institutionalization...

"This text provides a critical study of To kill a mockingbird / by Harper Lee. This analysis draws on extensive research providing key insights into the novel's historical and biographical contexts; its place in American literature, and its critical reception. She then presents a five-part reading of Mockingbird, underscoring the novel's form and elucidating its pertinence for American society today. Special attention is paid to linking the novel's...

Presents literary criticism on the works of twentieth-century writers of all genres, nations, and cultures. Critical essays are selected from leading sources, including published journals, magazines, books, reviews, diaries, interviews, radio and television transcripts, pamphlets, and scholarly papers.