African American Women and the Vote,1837 - 1965 Edited by Ann D. Gordon with Bettye Collier-Thomas, John H. Bracey, Arlene Voski Avakian, and Joyce Avrech Berkman 256 pages, $15.95 paperback, $45 cloth Based on a conference held at UMass Amherst that brought together leading scholars of African American and women’s history, this volume seeks to reconceptualize the political history of black women in the United States by placing them “at the center of our thinking.” In ten incisive essays, contributors explore how slavery, racial discrimination, and gender shaped the goals that African American women set for themselves, their families, and their race, as well as the political tools at their disposal. By identifying key turning points for black women, the essays create a new chronology and a new paradigm for historical analysis. The chronology begins in 1837 with the interracial meeting of antislavery women in New York City and concludes with the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The contributors focus on specific examples of women pursuing a dual ambition: to gain full civil and political rights and to improve the social conditions of African Americans. Together, the essays challenge us to reexamine common generalizations that govern much of our historical thinking about the experience of African American women. In the words of historian Darlene Clark Hine, the book is “an exciting and pathbreaking collection containing exceptionally well-written, thought-provoking, insightful essays on a subject that has never before received this concentrated attention.”

The Correspondence of W.E.B. Du Bois Edited by Herbert Aptheker In three volumes (1877-1934; 1934-1944; 1944-1963). Now available for the first time in paperback: Vol.I, 510 pages; Vol.II, 512 pages; Vol. III, 512 pages, $19.95 each Scholar, author, editor, teacher, reformer, and civil rights leader, W.E.B. Du Bois (1888-1963) was a major figure in American life and one of the earliest proponents of equality for black Americans. He was a founder and leader of the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and the Pan-African Movement; a progenitor of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance; an advocate of anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, unionism, and equality for women; and a champion of the rights of oppressed people around the world. Based on the holdings in the Archives of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the three-volume Correspondence of W.E.B. Du Bois offers a unique perspective on Du Bois’ s experiences and views. In recognition of the significance of the Correspondence, the final volume was named a “Best Book of the Year” by the New York Times Book Review. Herbert Aptheker has provided an introduction and notes to each volume, illuminating the circumstances and identifying the personalities involved in the correspondence. A long-time friend and colleague of Du Bois, Aptheker is a well-known historian of the African American experience. In 1939 and again in 1969, he won the history award given by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Among his most prominent works are American Negro Slave Revolts and the seven-volume Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States. “An excellent job of editing. . . . There is not an editorial comment nor an editorial footnote that is superfluous. There is not a single letter nor an exchange of letters that does not contribute to the reader’s understanding of Du Bois himself or of the history of the times through which Du Bois lived and upon which he had a very considerable effect.” — Jay Saunders Redding, Phylon “It is a remarkable fact that this volume brings to completion the first collection of the correspondence of any black American. As such, it is a milestone in the coming of age of Afro-American history, a subject whose scholarly acceptance is among W.E.B. Du Bois’s most outstanding legacies.” — New York Times Book Review Originally published in hardbound editions in 1973, 1976, and 1978, these three volumes are now available for the first time in paperback at $19.95 per volume.