books

Darkness on the Edge of Town

Laura Wexler The Washington Post
Chief Justice John Roberts grew up in a town that banned black residents. Places like Long Branch, Ind., were often called Sundown Towns. Only whites were allowed on the streets after dark. James W. Loewen published the first study of these towns ten years ago, just as Roberts was named to the court. Laura Wexler published one of the few reviews of the book. Along with the review, below, are links to the book's website and to the book's introduction.

The Legacy of Frantz Fanon

Hamza Hamouchene counterpunch
Fanon was not a Marxist but he strongly believed that capitalism with imperialism and its divisions enslave people. His precocious diagnosis of the incapability of the nationalist elites in fulfilling their historical mission demonstrates the continuing relevance of Fanon’s thought today.

How to Read the Senate Report on CIA Torture

Alfred W. McCoy History News Network
Despite its rich fund of hard-won detail, the Senate report has, at best, produced a neutral outcome, a draw in this political contest over impunity. Unless we inscribe the lessons from this Senate report deeply into the country’s collective memory, then some future crisis might prompt another recourse to torture that will do even more damage to this country’s moral leadership.

My Glorious Brothers

Uri Avnery / Morris U. Schappes Uri Averney's English weekly / Masses & Mainstream (Trussel)
The heroes of antiquity are perhaps due for another revision of their status.

End of the line for Chino’s storied union

Olivier Uyttebrouck Albuquerque Journal
The southern New Mexico mining town of Santa Rita no longer exists, even as a ghost town, except in the memories of Terry Humble and others who lived there. In September, another vestige of Santa Rita disappeared when workers at the Chino Mine voted 236-83 to decertify a 72-year-old union celebrated for its heroic struggle to improve the lives of Hispanic miners and immortalized by the 1954 movie “Salt of the Earth.”
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