African American Literature Book Club

Celebrating Our Literary Legacy Since 1998 — Black Literature is for Everyone

34 Books Published by Basic Civitas Books an Imprint of Perseus Books

You are sure to discover a great read here. Also check out our top 100 publisher imprints and our list of Black-owned publishers.

Click for more detail about Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America by Bakari Kitwana
Click for more detail about The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture by Bakari Kitwana
Click for more detail about The Cornel West Reader by Cornel West
Click for more detail about Out There by Darryl Pinckney
Out There
by Darryl Pinckney
Click for more detail about Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists And Progressive Politics During World War Ii by Farah Jasmine Griffin
Click for more detail about The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader
by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Click for more detail about Total Chaos: The Art And Aesthetics Of Hip-Hop by Jeff Chang
Click for more detail about Some Of Us Did Not Die: New And Selected Essays (New And And Selected Essays) by June Jordan
Click for more detail about Soldier: A Poet’s Childhood by June Jordan
Click for more detail about Party Crashing: How The Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence by Keli Goff
Click for more detail about Africana by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Africana
by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Click for more detail about Living Black History: How Reimagining the African-American Past Can Remake America’s Racial Future by Manning Marable
Click for more detail about The Great Wells Of Democracy: The Meaning Of Race In American Life by Manning Marable
Click for more detail about Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, And Insight Of Michael Eric Dyson by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death And How It Changed America by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Know What I Mean? Reflections on Hip-Hop by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Debating Race: with Michael Eric Dyson by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Why I Love Black Women by Michael Eric Dyson
Why I Love Black Women
by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Open Mike by Michael Eric Dyson
Open Mike
by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Holler If You Hear Me: Searching For Tupac Shakur by Michael Eric Dyson
Click for more detail about Something Torn And New: An African Renaissance by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Click for more detail about Triangular Road: A Memoir by Paule Marshall
Triangular Road: A Memoir
by Paule Marshall
Click for more detail about Stokely: A Life by Peniel E. Joseph
Stokely: A Life
by Peniel E. Joseph
Click for more detail about Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power To Barack Obama by Peniel E. Joseph
Click for more detail about An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President by Randall Robinson
Click for more detail about In Defense of Taboos by Stanley Crouch
In Defense of Taboos
by Stanley Crouch
Click for more detail about Considering Genius: Writings On Jazz by Stanley Crouch
Click for more detail about The Artificial White Man: Essays On Authenticity by Stanley Crouch
Click for more detail about My Confederate Kinfolk: A Twenty-First Century Freedwoman Discovers Her Roots by Thulani Davis
Click for more detail about The Right Mistake: The Further Philosophical Investigations of Socrates Fortlow by Walter Mosley