Essays Social

A searing, on-the-ground examination of the collapsing coal industry - and the communities left behind - in the midst of an economic and environmental crisis. The past few years have highlighted the paradox at the heart of coal country. Despite fueling a century of American progress, the people at the heart of coal country are being left behind, suffering from unemployment, the opioid epidemic, and environmental crises often at greater rates than anywhere else in the country. But what if Appalachia’s troubles are just a taste of what the future holds for all of us?

Politics of the Womb proves that there can be broken babies and breaking mothers; it rips away the romanticism around uterus transplants, warns of genetic theft and "designer babies", and points to the human element being sacrificed, as artificial reproduction uses, reuses, and recycles the woman. Pinki Virani combines investigation with analysis to question those who lead the worldwide onslaught on the woman’s womb in the name of babies, and squarely confronts what has become the business of baby-making by a chain of suppliers that manufactures on demand.

Featuring interviews by former NBA player Etan Thomas with over 50 athletes, executives, media figures, and more - and interwoven with essays and critiques by Thomas - We Matter shares the personal tales and opinions of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Dwyane Wade, Russell Westbrook, Steve Kerr, Oscar Robertson, Mark Cuban, Michael Bennett, Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose....

The slippery online ecosystem is the perfect breeding ground for identities: true, false, and in between. The Internet shorthand IRL - "in real life" - now seems naïve. We no longer question the reality of online experiences but the reality of selfhood in the digital age. In The Secret Life, the essayist and novelist Andrew O'Hagan issues three bulletins from the porous border between cyberspace and IRL.

America is broken. You don't need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence of our shattered social compact will present itself. From Appalachia to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest stretches to unimaginable chasms. In Tales of Two Americas, some of the literary world's most exciting writers look beyond numbers and wages to convey what it feels like to live in this divided nation. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate how boundaries break down when experiences are shared.

A star-studded collection of essays from acclaimed and best-selling authors and celebrities that illuminates the lasting power of desire and longing and celebrates our initiation into the euphoria, pain, and mystery that is our first celebrity crush.

The Souls of Black Folk is a classic work by W. E. B. Du Bois. Originally published in 1903, it contains many essays on race and equality, but is also a piece of seminal history, laying the groundwork for the field of sociology. Some of the essays in the book were even previously published by the Atlantic Monthly magazine. When writing, Du Bois drew from his personal experiences as an African-American in America to highlight the issues of prejudice that were still going on into the 20th century.

Fabulously entertaining and filled with the intriguing trivia of life, Irons in the Fire is another impeccably crafted collection of seven essays by John McPhee. His peerless writing, punctuated with a sharp sense of humor and fascinating detail, has earned him legions of fans across the country.

In a series of 10 essays, spanning five centuries of history, beginning with the conquest of Mexico by Hermán Cortés and ending in 1992 San Francisco, Rodriguez explores the conflicts of race, religion, and cultural identity for Mexican-Americans across the landscape of his beloved California.

A new collection of essays by the legendary literary scholar and critic. In the year of his 100th birthday, preeminent literary critic, scholar, and teacher M. H. Abrams brings us a collection of nine new and recent essays that challenge the reader to think about poetry in new ways. In these essays, three of them never before published, Abrams engages afresh with pivotal figures in intellectual and literary history, among them Kant, Keats, and Hazlitt.

The Good Book collects new pieces by writers from many different faiths and ethnicities, including literary fiction writers (Colm Tóibín, Edwidge Danticat, Tobias Wolff, and Rick Moody); best-selling nonfiction writers (A. J. Jacobs, Ian Frazier, Adam Gopnik, and Thomas Lynch); notable figures in the media (Charles McGrath, Cokie Roberts, and Steven V. Roberts); and social activists (Al Sharpton and Kerry Kennedy).

We all have stories to tell, but not everyone gets the mentoring and training or encouragement to become a great storyteller. Founded a quarter century ago, Girls Write Now has empowered young women and gender-expansive youth to harness their creative talents, gaining confidence, skills, and a community supporting them in sharing stories the world needs to hear.

Writing comes down to turning your hazy mind into crystal-clear words. In this book, you will learn the different types of essays out there, the basics of research and development, use of logical reasoning and critical thinking skills, rough draft creation, editing, proofreading, and building an empire with your words. An essay is a remarkable way to spread your philosophy and grow your brand. Learn the basics of how to effectively write essays in Get to the Point....

In these impassioned, powerful essays, an award-winning journalist deals forthrightly with what it means to be Black in Trump’s America. South Carolina-based journalist Issac J. Bailey reflects on a wide range of complex, divisive topics which have taken on a fresh urgency with the protest movement sparked by George Floyd’s killing. Bailey has been honing his views on these issues for the past quarter of a century in his professional and private life, which included an 18-year stint as a member of a mostly white Evangelical Christian church.

In Body Politic, David Shields looks at contemporary America and its mythology through the lens of professional and college sports. The result is an unusually insightful and provocative book about an empire in denial. Shields relentlessly examines the way we tell our sports stories (both fictional and nonfictional), considers the kinds of athletes we choose as heroes, and delineates the lessons and values we glean from sports.

Marion Winik is esteemed for bringing humor and wit to that most unavoidable of subjects: death. At last, Winik's critically acclaimed, cult favorites Glen Rock and Baltimore Book of the Dead have been carefully combined in their proper order, revealing more clearly than ever before the character hidden throughout these stories: Winik herself.

In his debut essay collection, Nicholas Belardes uses today’s pop culture and self-deprecating humor as a filter for discussing personal stories of family, writing, gender, art, and race. He dives into the Harry Potter play and discusses his cursed childhood home. He tells coming-of-age tales of Dungeons & Dragons and blames Stranger Things for jogging those hilarious memories.

Rescue offers riveting stories about what happens when things go terribly wrong in some of the world's most perilous places: Himalayan peaks, African plains, vast oceans, remote Arctic wilderness. The result is a collection of first-rate prose read by masterful narrators that makes for compulsive listening.

Jørgen Leth kan det hele: Han er digter, filminstruktør, tv-kommentator, cykelsportsekspert, enfant terrible, levemand og æstetiker. At han også skulle være etiker, vil nok overraske mange, men det er faktisk lige det, filosoffen Finn Janning påstår i sin nye bog. Finn Janning argumenterer i sit essay for, at Leth er en gavmild etiker. Han viser, at digterens skrift og liv hænger sammen i kroppen. Og kroppen er det sted, hvor digterens erfaringer sætter sig og spreder sig.

Is wealth inherently good? Is it inherently evil? How much is morally acceptable to enjoy? Should all excess be given away? Do we feel ashamed of having wealth? Do we feel “blessed” by it? In Essays on Wealth, Generosity, and Legacy, Travis C. Mallett invites fellow progressive Christians to struggle with these ancient questions together. Each essay brings the topics of faith, personal finance, and social justice into uncomfortably close proximity with each other. This book calls us to engage with our sacred responsibility to struggle with them.