Politics and Prose Presents

This event is in partnership with  FreeDC . A provocative, personal, blazingly intelligent examination of one of the most vexing questions facing the United States today: Who is, and should be, a citizen? In this one-of-a-kind book, Daisy Hernández fiercely interrogates one of the most complicated subjects of contemporary life and politics: citizenship. Braiding memoir, history, and cultural criti...

A stunning, fierce collection from a master of the short story and one of the most important writers of our time Read alone, each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region -- from New England to Florida...

A landmark new history of Syria, a country forged in conflict, cursed by civil war and dictatorship, and pivotal to the future of the Middle East Modern Syria has seen violence, repression, and autocracy, suffering through tragedy after tragedy over the past century. Yet the history of Syria is not just a tale of dictators and generals. From the 1800s to the 2020s, the Syrian people have engaged i...

Among the casualties of the drastic cuts this month at the  Washington Post  is the Book World section, which no longer will exist. The demise of Book World is a tragic blow to writers, readers, and the publishing industry. As a tribute to the many reviews the section carried over the years and all it did to serve the reading public, Politics and Prose will be holding an event with former Book Wor...

PLEASE NOTE: The majority of this recording is in Arabic with English translations following. ALSO: Be Mindful of the difficulty many of our speakers had connecting to us from Gaza, In early 2024, writer and activist susan abulhawa managed to enter Gaza twice through the Rafah crossing. There, at the Culture and Free Thought Association, susan held a series of workshops for young people who had be...

From former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, a candid and humorous blueprint for finding optimism in troubling times IN THIS FRANK, OFTEN HILARIOUS COLLECTION OF TRUE STORIES, political trailblazer Andrew Yang examines America’s breakdown through the lens of his unexpected journey from entrepreneur to presidential candidate. Part political memoir, part comedy, and part interior monologue,   Hey...

A powerful, singular collection of short stories depicting the evolving role of fatherhood in contemporary society—perfect for readers of Jamel Brinkley’s A Lucky Man and Phil Klay’s Redeployment. From stories about a father who shows up hungover to chaperone his daughter’s kindergarten bowling trip, to another who rediscovers his love of graffiti, and a father who pays for his legal fees and apar...

About the Book:    After a public sports figure makes an antisemitic remark on social media, Jewish soccer player Theo must decide if he will stand up for what he believes in or keep quiet in the face of social pressure.  Even though some teammates brush off the threats towards him, the support of both old and new friends shows him how to confront prejudice in all forms.  A timely look at the ques...

Since the brutal attacks of October 7, 2023, the Gaza strip - home to over 2 million Palestinians - has once again become a critical flashpoint in the Middle East. As the world looks on in horror at the renewal of intense violence between Hamas and Israel, Gazans are engulfed by a humanitarian and security crisis that shows no signs of abating. How did Gaza become the site of such devastation? And...

An engaging investigation of how 13 key Enlightenment figures shaped the concept of race, from the acclaimed author of  Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely . Over the course of the 18th century, Christianity began to loosen its grip on the story of humankind. Yet centuries of xenophobia, religious intolerance, and proto-biological speculation were not cast aside. Instead, this raw material was...

The renowned legal experts behind  Say the Right Thing  return with this clarion call for reimagining the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in a divided nation. Equality in America is under siege. Corporations and universities are abandoning the DEI programs they previously championed. The tools Americans had for advancing fairness are facing a relentless political and legal assault....

From the literary agent behind some of today’s most successful authors comes a narrative guide geared specifically to the needs of aspiring and working nonfiction writers, demystifying the world of publishing and offering a practical roadmap to getting your book published. Alia Hanna Habib remembers what it was like to be on the outside of the publishing world, looking in. Arriving in New York, a...

From the award-winning composer/co-lyricist behind such iconic projects as Hairspray, Sister Act, Mary Poppins Returns, and Smash comes a wickedly funny, no-holds-barred memoir. In  Never Mind the Happy , musical dynamo Marc Shaiman looks back on five decades of Broadway triumphs, Hollywood hijinks, and unforgettable collaborations. Along the way, he charts the personal highs and heartbreaks that...

From the renowned former president of Columbia, an account of the university in the age of authoritarianism and a new case for its place in the American system. In this thrilling work, Lee C. Bollinger, perhaps the most consequential university leader of our time, argues that the university is an institution vital to the maintenance of democracy—and thus it is no surprise that it is coming under f...

For much of the Crescent City's history, days began with the cries of roaming street vendors and the percussive  thwack  of butchers' meat cleavers echoing out from the municipal markets. Generations of New Orleanians--Black and white, enslaved and free, men and women, wealthy and working class--gathered in public to feed the city. In   Nourishing Networks , historian  Ashley Rose Young  i...

Zorah Sharaf could do no wrong. Zorah Sharaf brought shame upon her family. What’s the truth? Depends on who you ask. After fleeing a war-torn Afghanistan, the Sharaf family resettles as refugees in Northern Virginia. After many years of hard work, the father has become a successful businessman. Now they live in the most exclusive neighborhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious s...

An elegant biography of a prescient author whose novels portray Black women’s experiences across the African diaspora   Growing up in World War II–era Brooklyn among West Indian immigrants, Paule Marshall (1929–2019) was fiercely driven to become a writer, making art from the world she knew, the life she lived, and the world she imagined. Though her novels and stories are understood by scholars as...

From Well–Read Black Girl Books, a "wise and witty, unflinchingly honest and insightful" (Maaza Mengiste) novel that delves into the secret lives of three women on the eve of Eritrean independence. The year is 1991. Eritrea is on the verge of liberation from Ethiopian rule and in Washington, D.C.’s tight-knit Eritrean community, change is in the air. Thirteen-year-old Lydia and her famil...

In this masterful, groundbreaking work, Pulitzer Prize-winning author  Heather Ann Thompson  shines surprising new light on an infamous 1984 New York subway shooting that would unveil simmering racial resentments and would lead, in unexpected ways, to a fractured future and a new era of rage and violence. On December 22, 1984, in a graffiti-covered New York City subway car, passengers looked on in...

Award-winning author and journalist Wil Haygood explores how the Vietnam War became a mirror for the struggle of Black Americans—fighting for freedom abroad while demanding equality at home—and a powerful lens through which to understand the racial and political divides that continue to shape American life. "With this book, Wil Haygood has become the preeminent chronicler of the Black experie...

From CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams, a revelatory account of how one man, four teenagers, and a struggling city collided over race, vigilantism, and public safety . . .  exposing the fault lines of a nation On a dirty New York subway car on December 22, 1984, Bernhard Goetz shot Barry Allen, Darrell Cabey, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur, four teenagers from the Bronx, at point blank range. Goetz...

The acclaimed economist and author of The Future of Money argues that the forces meant to stabilize the world’s economy are in fact driving global instability Global economic power is shifting, liberal market-oriented democracies face growing domestic turmoil, and international trade and financial integration are crumbling. How did we get here? In  The Doom Loop , economist  Eswar Prasad  argues t...

This event will be in partnership with  Smithsonian Folkways Recordings . Alice Gerrard, an award-winning and storied folk and bluegrass musician for over 50 years, is one of the notable few women in a heavily male genre.  Custom Made Woman  tells Gerrard's story through the music, the folk festivals, the kids, and the relationships--both personal and professional--that defined her storied lif...

How did the son of a laundress for local brothels end up one of America’s most powerful politicians and the Senate’s most bare-knuckled Democrat? Political journalist Jon Ralston gives us the first full biography of Harry Reid, the five-time Senator from Nevada whose ruthlessness and tenacity produced the most groundbreaking legislation of the late 20th century, and who also invented the tactics t...

A founder of the iconic band Faith No More shares his coming-of-age and out-of-the-closet story in pre–tech boom San Francisco The Royal We  is a poetic survey of a time set in a magical city that once was and is no more. It is a memoir written by Roddy Bottum, a musician and artist, that documents his coming of age and out of the closet in 1980s San Francisco, a charged era of bicycle messengers,...