Recommended Reads, 38th in a Quarterly Series

 

Stuff I'd recommend from the past three months:

Nerve: Adventures in the Science of Fear (Holland).  I love these kinds of pop-sci books.

The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Sugrue).  Super interesting to see national historical trends around race and inequality through the lens of a single city.

With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace (Haley).  Will we be hearing more about her in 2024?

The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation (Ramey Berry).  An incredible dive into the economics, emotions, and dehumanization of slavery. 

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Wilkerson).  This story is truly epic: what an incredible window into part of the American story, and how masterfully written to weave in first-person accounts and historical context.

Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (Ehrman).  Super interesting look at the evolution of beliefs about the after-life and the historical and cultural influences that shaped those beliefs.