Basic Books Black History Month Reading List

The epic history of Black women's pursuit of political power—and how it transformed America.

“Jones has written an elegant and expansive history of Black women who sought to build political power where they could.”
—New York Times

A brilliant and surprising account of the coming of the American Civil War, showing the crucial role of slaves who escaped to Mexico.

“Baumgartner has achieved a rare thing: she has made an important academic contribution, while also writing in beautiful, accessible prose.”
—New Republic

A searing portrait of the racial dynamics that lie inescapably at the heart of our nation, told through the turbulent history of the city of St. Louis.

“Johnson is a spirited and skillful rhetorician, juggling a slew of historical facts while never allowing the flame of his anger to dim.”
—New York Times

This dual biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King upends longstanding preconceptions to transform our understanding of the twentieth century’s most iconic African American leaders.

“In this brilliantly braided biography, Peniel E. Joseph tells the story of each man’s identity and how their ideas shaped America, making clear that we can never fully understand one without the other.”
—TIME

A major new history of the fight for racial equality in America, arguing that fear of black sexuality has undergirded white supremacy from the start.

“In her original, nuanced historical investigation, Dailey adds a new dimension to the history of civil rights by focusing on the anxiety over Black sexuality and miscegenation and the quest for white ‘racial purity.’”
—National Book Review

The first book to bring to life the influential friendship between Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali

“A rigorously researched book that gracefully pivots between the world of the ring and the racial politics of the early ’60s.”
—New York Times Book Review

A groundbreaking history demonstrating that America’s economic supremacy was built on the backs of slaves

“Thoughtful, unsettling.... Baptist turns the long-accepted argument that slavery was economically inefficient on its head, and argues that it was an integral part of America’s economic rise.”
—Daily Beast

The classic, bestselling book on the psychology of racism—now fully revised and updated

“An unusually sensitive work about the racial barriers that still divide us in so many areas of life.”
—Jonathan Kozol

In this New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America

“A must-read primer on the politics of American racism.”
—Bustle

In this analysis of social history, examine the complex lineage of America’s oppression of Black companionship

“A fresh and surprising look at the economic, spiritual, structural and emotional constraints on the hundreds of thousands of Black women for whom love and marriage are neither blithely expected nor easy. In that, it feels not so much necessary as needed.”
—New York Times

A dazzling history of Africans in Europe, revealing their unacknowledged role in shaping the continent

“Superbly researched.... This richly layered history brims with stories of how African Europeans contributed to the culture, politics and language in the countries they lived in.”
—Prospect (UK)