New Books: Social Sciences

Jessica Valenti shines a light on the conservative assault on women's freedom, cutting through the misinformation and overwhelm to inform, engage, and enrage. From the attacks Americans know about to the ones anti-abortion lawmakers and groups are trying to hide, Valenti details the tactics and horrors that she's been painstakingly tracking in her acclaimed newsletter, Abortion, Every Day. With the wit, expertise, and blunt moral clarity that's made Valenti's writing popular for decades, Abortion is a handbook for the overwhelming majority of Americans who support abortion rights, whether they're seasoned activists or just starting to learn.

For nearly a half century, Roe was synonymous with women's rights and freedoms. Then, suddenly, it was gone. With stunning scope, journalistic rigor, and unprecedented access to the highest echelons of conservative and liberal power, Dias and Lerer chronicle the end of the Roe era. Their reporting stretches from the back rooms of abortion clinics to the halls of the White House, exposing the behind-the-scenes actors and recasting the maneuvers of those already in the spotlight. The result is a sweeping and intimate narrative of secrets, power, and jaw-dropping revelations, and a beacon to guide us forward.

In Metaracism, Tricia Rose cuts through the noise with a new account of what systemic racism actually is, how it works, and how we can fight back. She reveals how--from housing to education to criminal justice--an array of policies and practices connect and interact to produce an even more devastating "metaracism" far worse than the sum of its parts. While these systemic connections can be difficult to see, again and again they function to disproportionately contain, exploit, and punish Black people. By helping us to comprehend systemic racism's inner workings and destructive impacts, Metaracism shows us also how to break free.

2024 National Book Award Winner for Non-fiction. Political instability, poverty, climate change, and the insatiable appetite for cheap labor all fuel clandestine movement across borders. As those borders harden, the demand for smugglers who aid migrants across them increases every year. Yet media and politicians have always characterized smugglers--or coyotes, or guides, as they are often known--using tired tropes and stereotypes, as boogie men and violent warlords. In an effort to better understand why, Jason De León embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico over the course of seven years.

A deeply researched investigation that reveals how the United States is like a spider at the heart of an international web of surveillance and control, which it weaves in the form of globe-spanning networks such as fiber optic cables and obscure payment systems. America's security state first started to weaponize these channels after 9/11, when they seemed like necessities to combat terrorism. Slowly but surely, Washington has turned the most vital pathways of the world economy into tools of domination over foreign businesses and countries, allowing the U.S. to maintain global supremacy. In the process, we have sleepwalked into a new struggle for empire.

Cancel culture is a new phenomenon, and The Canceling of the American Mind is the first book to codify it and survey its effects. Cancel culture is just one symptom of a much larger problem: the use of cheap rhetorical tactics to "win" arguments without actually winning arguments. After all, why bother refuting your opponents when you can just take away their platform or career? This book offers concrete steps toward reclaiming a free speech culture, with materials specifically tailored for parents, teachers, business leaders, and everyone who uses social media.

A work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and joyful celebration of the human mind, this book explores the critical role music has played in human evolution. Music insinuates itself into our earliest memories; it is intimately connected to our emotional regulation and cognition; its shared rhythms and sounds are essential to our social behaviors. As neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin demonstrates, medical researchers are now finding that these same deep connections can be harnessed to create profound benefits for those both young and old.

Donald Trump could be the greatest gift to the Russians in the history of propaganda. This is not because the Russians held secret information on him or manipulated him through some undetected network. Trump became a foreign asset because he produced both words and actions that could be used to attack democracy itself, a key strategic goal of the Russians. Trump consistently denies reality, vilifies the free media, and broadcasts disinformation. This opens the door for foreign disinformation to flow into the U.S. news, hidden in plain sight by Kremlin-style rhetoric from a U.S. president and amplified by the right-wing media.

What is the "something in these hills" that ties mountain families to family land in the southern Appalachians? This ethnographic examination explores two themes: the duality of the southern Appalachians as both a menacing and majestic landscape and the emotional relationship to family land characteristic of long-term residents of these mountains. To most outsiders, the area conjures images of a beautiful yet dangerous place. To long-term residents, these mountains have a fundamental emotional hold so powerful that many mourn the sale or loss of family land as if it were a deceased relative. How can the same geographical space be both?

Autism is a deep source of uniqueness and beauty. Unfortunately, living in a neurotypical world means it can also be a source of incredible alienation and pain. Most masked Autistic individuals struggle for decades before discovering who they truly are. They are also more likely to be marginalized in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and other factors, which contributes to their suffering and invisibility. Dr. Price lays the groundwork for unmasking and offers exercises that encourage self-expression, including: Celebrating special interests; cultivating autistic relationships; reframing autistic stereotypes; and rediscovering your values.