New Book Release: The LGBTQ Almanac

The LGBTQ Almanac: 500 Years of Queer Culture in American History by Deborah G. Felder

Influential! Remarkable! Groundbreaking! Discover and celebrate the amazing stories and achievements of some of America’s most inspiring artists, athletes, scholars, advocates and activists, political and civic leaders, entrepreneurs, physicians, educators, and more. Explore the vibrant experiences and vital roles of LGBTQ people in America!

Honoring the history and the impact of LGBTQ people on the United States across a variety of fields, The LGBTQ Almanac: 500 Years of Queer Culture in American History is a fascinating mix of biographies, little-known or misunderstood historical facts, enlightening essays on significant legislation, and cultural changes. It features a large collection of 450 biographies of both celebrated and lesser-known influencers in the community, such as …

● Harvey Milk, Politician ● Henry Gerber, Activist ● Marsha P. Johnson, Activist ● Bessie Smith, Blues Singer ● Bayard Rustin, Activist ● James Beard, Chef ● Barbara Gittings, Activist ● Kevin Jennings, Educator, Administrator, Author ● John J. McNeill, Priest, Theologian ● Nergis Mavalvala, Scientist ● Christine Abizaid, Intelligence Officer ● Sylvia Rivera, Activist, Community Organizer ● Frank Kameny, Activist ● Edith Windsor, Computer Programmer, Activist ● Billie Jean King, Tennis Player ● Larry Kramer, Writer ● Tammy Baldwin, Politician ● Emily Shilling, Naval Officer ● Pete Buttigieg, Politician ● Gilbert Baker, Activist, Artist ● Kathy Kozachenko, Politician ● Ellen DeGeneres, Actor, Comedian ● Elizabeth Birch, Attorney, Activist ● Michael Callen, Activist, Musician ● June Chan, Activist, Neurobiologist ● Walter W. Cole (Darcelle XV), Entertainer ● Laverne Cox, Actor, Producer ● J. C. Leyendecker, Illustrator ● Little Richard, Singer ● Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Filmmakers, Writers, Producers ● David Bohnett, Technology Entrepreneur, Investor ● David Geffen, Business Executive, Music Producer ● Dan Choi, Army Officer ● Julie Dorf, Human Rights Activist ● Ruth Ellis, Entrepreneur ● Cecilia Gentili, Activists ● Lucy Diggs Slowe, Educator, Athlete ● Jasper Johns, Painter, Graphic Artist ● Tim Gunn, Fashion Mentor, TV Personality ● Nathan Lane, Actor ● Ben Barres, Neurobiologist ● William Masters and Virginia Johnson, Scientists, Sexologists ● Sarah McBride, Congresswoman ● Phyllis Frye, Lawyer, Judge ● James Hormel, Business Executive, Diplomat ● Beth Ford, Business Executive ● Eric Fanning, Secretary of the Army ● Helen G. James, Airman Second Class ● Megan Rapinoe, Soccer Player ● Brittney Griner, WNBA Basketball Player ● David Kopay, NFL Football Player ● Lia Thomas, Swimmer ● And many, many more!

Celebrating Queer history and achievements, The LGBTQ Almanac is a unique and valuable resource. This massive tome is devoted to illustrating the moving and often lost history of LGBTQ people in business, politics, the military, art, entertainment, sports, media, religion, science, and across America life and throughout its history. Commemorating and honoring Queer achievements, honors, and influence, this important book brings to light all there is to admire and discover about LGBTQ Americans! Numerous photographs and illustrations, a helpful bibliography, and an extensive index add to its usefulness.

New Book Release: Latino Firsts

Latino Firsts: Trailblazers and Milestones in United States History by Nicolas Kanellos

Salute the Latino legends, pioneers, and trailblazers! Celebrate the Hispanic milestones, accomplishments, and victories!

An inspiring exploration of 1,250 groundbreaking individuals and pioneering events, Latino Firsts: Trailblazers and Milestones in United States History honors the an indelible mark Hispanics have made on American history and society. Featured are brigadier general Richard E. Cavazos, Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral, actress America Ferrera, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Francisco Ayala, artist Jen-Michel Basquiat, weightlifter Sarah Elizabeth Robles, and many, many more notable people and accomplishments, such as …

• The first Latinos—three Mexican American lawyers—to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court: Gustavo C. García, Carlos Cadena, and John J. Herrera prevailed in Hernandez v. Texas to have juries in the state of Texas desegregated in 1954
  
• The first Latina to represent the United States in the Olympics in archery: Jennifer Muciño-Fernández in 2020
  
• The first Hispanic American to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his years of work on behalf of civil rights for Latinos: President Ronald Reagan honored Hector Pérez García in 1984
  
• The first Latino to be named executive director and president of the Academy of American Poets: Puerto Rican Ricardo Alberto Maldonado in 2023
  
• The United States’ first recorded Latino labor organizing activity: Juan Gómez organized cowboys in the panhandle of Texas in 1883, leading several hundred cowboys on strike against ranch owners
  
• The first Latino to hold the rank of brigadier general of the U.S. Marine Corps: Angela Salinas in 2006
  
• The first Hispanic to be inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame: Opera soprano Martina Arroyo in 2020
  
• The first Puerto Rican and first U.S. Latino to win the Academy Award for Best Actor: José Ferrer in 1950 for Cyrano de Bergerac
  
• The first Latina to serve as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company: Cuban American Geisha Williams became the CEO the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in 2017
  
• The first Latina to serve as a bishop of the United Methodist Church: Minerva G. Carcaño in 2004
  
• The first Latino known to have graduated from an Ivy League school: David Camden DeLeón graduated in 1836 from the University of Pennsylvania
  
• The first Latina dancer to star on Broadway: Puerto Rican Chita Rivera was the principal dancer in 1952’s Guys and Dolls
  
• The first Hispanic spy for the United States: Captain Román Antonio Baca in 1862
  
• The first Latino to be named chief scientist for NASA: France Anne-Dominic Córdova in 1993
  
• The first Latino to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism: Peruvian American journalist Carlos Lozada in 2019
  
• And thousands of other milestones and firsts!
  
  
  Milestones, victories and success are not always noticed when they happen. Sometimes an achievement is only recognized years later. Revel and rejoice in the renowned and lesser-known, barrier-breaking trailblazers in all fields—arts, entertainment, business, civil rights, education, government, invention, journalism, religion, science, sports, music, and more. Latino Firsts illuminates the rich and important history of Hispanic Americans!

New Book Release: Warnings

Warnings: The Holocaust, Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy by Leonard Grob and John K. Roth

Old friends--one a Jew, the other a Christian--Leonard (Lenny) Grob and John K. Roth are philosophers who have long studied the Holocaust. That experience makes us anxious about democracy, because we are also Americans living in perilous times. The 2020s remind us of the 1930s when Nazis destroyed democracy in Germany. Carnage followed. In the 2020s, Donald Trump and his followers endanger democracy in the United States. With Vladimir Putin's ruthless assault against Ukraine compounding the difficulties, democracy must not be taken for granted. Americans love democracy--except when we don't. That division and conflict mean that democracy will be on the ballot in the 2024 American elections. Probing the prospects, Warnings: The Holocaust, Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy features exchanges between us that underscore the most urgent threats to democracy in the United States and show how to resist them. What's most needed is ethical patriotism that urges us Americans to be our best selves. Our best selves defend liberal democracy; they strive for inclusive pluralism. Our best selves resist decisions and policies like those that led to the Holocaust or genocidal war in Ukraine or conspiracies to overturn fair and free elections in the United States. Our best selves reject antisemitism and racism; they oppose hypocrisy and autocracy. Our best selves hold lying leaders accountable. Our best selves believe that, against all odds, democracy can win out if we never give up trying to be our best.

New Book Release: Indigenous Firsts

Indigenous Firsts: A History of Native American Achievements and Events by Yvonne Wakim Dennis and Arlene Hirschfelder

A celebration of achievement, accomplishments, and courage!

Native American Medal of Honor recipients, Heisman Trophy recipients, U.S. Olympians, a U.S. vice president, Congressional representatives, NASA astronauts, Pulitzer Prize recipients, U.S. poet laureates, Oscar winners, and more. The first Native magician, all-Native comedy show, architects, attorneys, bloggers, chefs, cartoonists, psychologists, religious leaders, filmmakers, educators, physicians, code talkers, and inventors. Luminaries like Jim Thorpe, King Kamehameha, Debra Haaland, and Will Rogers, along with less familiar notables such as Native Hawaiian language professor and radio host Larry Lindsey Kimura and Cree/Mohawk forensic pathologist Dr. Kona Williams. Their stories plus the stories of 2000 people, events and places are presented in Indigenous Firsts: A History of Native American Achievements and Events, including …

• Suzanne Van Cooten, Ph.D., Chickasaw Nation, the first Native female meteorologist in the country
• Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, Wampanoag from Martha’s Vineyard, graduate of Harvard College in 1665
• Debra Haaland, the Pueblo of Laguna, U.S. Congresswoman and Secretary of the Interior
• Sam Campos, the Native Hawaiian who developed the Hawaiian superhero Pineapple Man
• Thomas L. Sloan, Omaha, was the first Native American to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court
• William R. Pogue, Choctaw, astronaut
• Johnston Murray, Chickasaw, the first person of Native American descent to be elected governor in the United States, holding the office in Oklahoma from 1951 to 1955
• The Cherokee Phoenix published its first edition February 21, 1828, making it the first tribal newspaper in North America and the first to be published in an Indigenous language
• The National Native American Honor Society was founded by acclaimed geneticist Dr. Frank C. Dukepoo, the first Hopi to earn a Ph.D.
• Louis Sockalexis, Penobscot, became the first Native American in the National Baseball League in 1897 as an outfielder with the Cleveland Spiders
• Jock Soto, Navajo/Puerto Rican, the youngest-ever man to be the principal dancer with the New York City Ballet
• The Seminole Tribe of Florida was the first Nation to own and operate an airplane manufacturing company
• Warrior's Circle of Honor, the National Native American Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, on the grounds of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian
• The Iolani Palace, constructed 1879–1882, the home of the Hawaiian royal family in Honolulu
• Loriene Roy, Anishinaabe, White Earth Nation, professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information, former president of the American Library Association
• Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Northern Cheyenne, U.S. representative and U.S. senator from Colorado
• Hanay Geiogamah, Kiowa /Delaware, founded the American Indian Theatre Ensemble
• Gerald Vizenor, White Earth Nation, writer, literary critic, and journalist for the Minneapolis Tribune
• Ely S. Parker (Hasanoanda, later Donehogawa), Tonawanda Seneca, lieutenant colonel in the Union Army, serving as General Ulysses S. Grant’s military secretary
• Fritz Scholder, Luiseno, painter inducted into the California Hall of Fame
• The Native American Women Warriors, the first all Native American female color guard
• Lori Arviso Alvord, the first Navajo woman to become a board-certified surgeon
• Kay “Kaibah” C. Bennett, Navajo, teacher, author, and the first woman to run for the presidency of the Navajo Nation
• Sandra Sunrising Osawa, Makah Indian Nation, the first Native American to have a series on commercial television
• The Choctaw people’s 1847 donation to aid the Irish people suffering from the great famine
• Otakuye Conroy-Ben, Oglala Lakota, first to earn an environmental engineering Ph.D. at the University of Arizona
• Diane J. Willis, Kiowa, former President of the Society of Pediatric Psychology and founding editor of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology
• Shelly Niro, Mohawk, winner of Canada’s top photography prize, the Scotiabank Photography Award
• Loren Leman, Alutiiq/Russian-Polish, was the first Alaska Native elected lieutenant governor
• Kim TallBear, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, the first recipient of the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Environment
• Carissa Moore, Native Hawaiian, won the Gold Medal in Surfing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
• Will Rogers, Cherokee, actor, performer, humorist was named the first honorary mayor of Beverly Hills
• Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations by Lois Ellen Frank, Kiowa, was the first Native American cookbook to win the James Beard Award
• Diane Humetewa, Hopi, nominated by President Barack Obama, became the first Native American woman to serve as a federal judge
• Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail, Crow, the first Native American nurse to be inducted into the American Nursing Association Hall of Fame

Indigenous Firsts honors the ongoing and rich history of personal victories and triumphs, and with more than 200 photos and illustrations, this information-rich book also includes a helpful bibliography and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness. This vital collection will appeal to anyone interested in America’s amazing history and its resilient and skilled Indigenous people.

New Book Release: Theologizing Place in Displacement

Theologizing Place in Displacement: Reconciling, Remaking, and Reimagining Place in the Republic of Georgia by Curtis W. Elliott

Displacement of peoples around the world continues to impact governmental policies and contest national identities. At the micro level, displacement's impact on the religious lives of those affected by displacement is a growing field of study and worthy of consideration as a form of self-theologizing and religious renewal. Theologizing Place in Displacement looks at the process of theologizing about place among displaced Orthodox Christian believers in the Republic of Georgia and outlines three key areas where a local theology takes shape around key Orthodox theological themes.

New Blog Post: Bodies of Subversion

Bodies of Subversion by Margot Mifflin

Bodies of Subversion was the first history of women's tattoo art when it was released in 1997, providing a fascinating excursion to a subculture that dates back to the nineteenth-century and including many never-before-seen photos of tattooed women from the last century. Newly revised and expanded, it remains the only book to chronicle the history of both tattooed women and women tattooists. As the primary reference source on the subject, it contains information from the original edition, including documentation of:

•Nineteeth-century sideshow attractions who created fantastic abduction tales in which they claimed to have been forcibly tattooed.
•Victorian society women who wore tattoos as custom couture, including Winston Churchill's mother, who wore a serpent on her wrist.
•Maud Wagner, the first known woman tattooist, who in 1904 traded a date with her tattooist husband-to-be for an apprenticeship.
•The parallel rise of tattooing and cosmetic surgery during the 80s when women tattooists became soul doctors to a nation afflicted with body anxieties.
•Breast cancer survivors of the 90s who tattoo their mastectomy scars as an alternative to reconstructive surgery or prosthetics.

The book contains 50 new photos and FULL COLOR images throughout including newly discovered work by Britain's first female tattooist, Jessie Knight; Janis Joplin's wrist tattoo; and tattooed pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber. In addition, the updated 3rd edition boasts a sleek design and new chapters documenting recent changes to the timeline of female tattooing, including a section on: celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D, the most famous tattooist, male or female, in the world; the impact of reality shows on women's tattoo culture; and, therapeutic uses of tattooing for women leaving gangs, prisons, or situations of domestic abuse.

As of 2012, tattooed women outnumber men for the first time in American history, making Bodies of Subversion more relevant than ever.

New Book Release: Grandmother Power

Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon by Paola Gianturco

An unheralded grandmothers' movement is changing the world. Insurgent grandmothers are using their power to fight for a better future for grandchildren everywhere. And they are succeeding. Grandmother Power profiles activist grandmothers in fifteen countries on five continents who tell their compelling stories in their own words.

Grandmothers in Canada, Swaziland, and South Africa collaborate to care for AIDS orphans. Grandmothers in Senegal convince communities to abandon female genital mutilation. Grandmothers in India become solar engineers and bring light to their villages while those in Peru, Thailand, and Laos sustain weaving traditions. Grandmothers in Argentina teach children to love books and reading. Other Argentine grandmothers continue their 40-year search for grandchildren who were kidnapped during the nation's military dictatorship. Irish grandmothers teach children to sow seeds and cook with fresh, local ingredients. Filipino grandmothers demand justice for having been forced into sex slavery during World War II. Guatemalan grandmothers operate a hotline and teach parenting. In the Middle East, Israeli grandmothers monitor checkpoints to prevent abuse and the UAE's most popular television show stars four animated grandmothers who are surprised by contemporary life. Indigenous grandmothers from thirteen countries conduct healing rituals to bring peace to the world.

Gianturco's full-color images and her heroines' amazing tales make Grandmother Power an inspiration for everyone, and it cements the power of grandmothers worldwide. Please visit http://globalgrandmotherpower.com/ for additional information.

All author royalties will be donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation's Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign, which provides grants to African grandmothers who are raising AIDS orphans.

New Book Release: What We See

What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs

What We See refreshes Jane Jacobs' economic, social and urban planning theories for the present day. More than thirty renowned pundits and practitioners combine their personal observations with meditations on Jacobs' insights for the living city.

The book models itself after Jacobs' collaborative approach to city and community building, asking citizens and niche specialists to share their knowledge with each other. What We See asks us all to join the conversation about next steps for shaping socially just, environmentally friendly, and economically prosperous communities.