Journey back Inside The Blanket Fort as we wrap up the books the SIU Press is spotlighting as part of the theme “Our American Story.”
With this selection of books, we wanted to explore the individual and collective stories that have built that of our nation, from biographies of famous figures to the histories of the groups who came together to form America as we know it. Some of the examples of the diversity that has built our nation come in the form of books addressing time periods in American history as a whole, and some are examples of the state or regional levels, as Illinois and the Midwest have played parts in weaving this national tapestry.
In A Brick and a Bible: Black Women’s Radical Activism in the Midwest during the Great Depression, the first book-length study of Black radicalism in midwestern cities before the civil rights movement, author Melissa Ford connects the activism of Black women who championed justice during the Great Depression to those involved in the Ferguson Uprising and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Moving between the languages of love and war, Jehanne Dubrow’s poetry collection Dots & Dashes offers valuable testimony to the experiences of military wives. Frequently employing rhyme, meter, and traditional forms, these poems examine what it means to be both a military spouse and an academic, straddling two communities that speak in very different and often conflicting terms.
These books and more this week on Inside The Blanket Fort.
