Books in Nation Books series

With the Israeli-Palestinian crisis reaching wartime levels, where is the latest confrontation between these two old foes leading? Robert Fisk's explosive Pity the Nation recounts Sharon and Arafat's first deadly encounter in Lebanon in the early 1980s and explains why the Israel–Palestine relationship seems so intractable. A remarkable combination of war reporting and analysis by an author who has witnessed the carnage of Beirut for twenty-five years, Fisk, the first journalist to whom bin Laden announced his jihad against the U.S., is one of the world's most fearless and honored foreign correspondents. He spares no one in this saga of the civil war and subsequent Israeli invasion: the PLO, whose thuggish behavior alienated most Lebanese; the various Lebanese factions, whose appalling brutality spared no one; the Syrians, who supported first the Christians and then the Muslims in their attempt to control Lebanon; and the Israelis, who tried to install their own puppets and, with their 1982 invasion, committed massive war crimes of their own. It includes a moving finale that recounts the travails of Fisk's friend Terry Anderson who was kidnapped by Hezbollah and spent 2,454 days in captivity. Fully updated to include the Israeli withdrawl from south Lebanon and Ariel Sharon's electoral victory over Ehud Barak, this edition has sixty pages of new material and a new preface. "Robert Fisk's enormous book about Lebanon's desperate travails is one of the most distinguished in recent times."—Edward Said

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 brought to the surface memories of an earlier time of unprecedented national emergency—Pearl Harbor—and America's subsequent involvement in World War II. In this evocative cultural history, Richard Lingeman re-creates the events—historic, humorous, and tragic—and personalities of the American home front. From V-girls and V-mail, blackouts and the internment of the Japanese, to new opportunities for African-Americans and women, Lingeman recaptures a unique time in American history in this New York Times Notable Book.

Al Sharpton's entrance into the 2004 Democratic presidential race is evidence of a decaying black political culture where ego trumps politics. It is the last gasp of a tradition that has been transformed over a generation from bold, effective and results-oriented politics to rhetoric and symbolism, argues crime writer and social commentator Norman Kelley. As Kelley shows, what Sharpton covets is the sobriquet—The Head Negro in Charge (HNIC), a symbolic political mobilization that replaces effective politics and organizing. "The HNIC syndrome has seen the rise of symbolic leaders—Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Sharpton and now Russell Simmons—who may be charismatic," Kelley writes, "but are politically unaccountable to the very people they claim to represent, namely African Americans. The transformation has been underway since the 1970s, but most African Americans have yet to confront it." HNIC syndrome is both a symptom and response to the failings of black political and cultural orthodoxy, of a sclerotic black elite represented by the NAACP and the Black Congressional Caucus, who have embedded themselves into the machinery of the Democratic Party and the conservative movement.

Burning All Illusions is a collection from The Nation archives of the best writing on race and civil rights from the magazine’s founding in 1865 to the present. It features selections by such insurgent American writers as Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ishmael Reed, and Patricia J. Williams, representing a diverse range of political and personal points of view that illuminate The Nation’s steadfast commitment to racial justice, each infused with the moral passion and urgency that the subject demands. The writers in this anthology have addressed these questions not to embitter but to provoke, educate, arouse, and inspire. James Baldwin once wrote that “the story of the Negro in America is the story of America.... It is not a very pretty story.” Baldwin and others in this collection shed light on the ugliness of American racism to certify that it is intolerable, that America can—must—do better. “The Nation’s editors ... have provided space for those persistent and ... often lonely voices inveighing against the evils of racial injustice.”—Derrick Bell

Al Sharpton's entrance into the 2004 Democratic presidential race is evidence of a decaying black political culture where ego trumps politics. It is the last gasp of a tradition that has been transformed over a generation from bold, effective and results-oriented politics to rhetoric and symbolism, argues crime writer and social commentator Norman Kelley. As Kelley shows, what Sharpton covets is the sobriquet—The Head Negro in Charge (HNIC), a symbolic political mobilization that replaces effective politics and organizing. "The HNIC syndrome has seen the rise of symbolic leaders—Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Sharpton and now Russell Simmons—who may be charismatic," Kelley writes, "but are politically unaccountable to the very people they claim to represent, namely African Americans. The transformation has been underway since the 1970s, but most African Americans have yet to confront it." HNIC syndrome is both a symptom and response to the failings of black political and cultural orthodoxy, of a sclerotic black elite represented by the NAACP and the Black Congressional Caucus, who have embedded themselves into the machinery of the Democratic Party and the conservative movement.

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 brought to the surface memories of an earlier time of unprecedented national emergency-Pearl Harbor-and America's subsequent involvement in World War II. In this evocative cultural history, Richard Lingeman re-creates the events-historic, humorous, and tragic-and personalities of the American home front. From V-girls and V-mail, blackouts and the internment of the Japanese, to new opportunities for African-Americans and women, Lingeman recaptures a unique time in American history in this New York Times Notable Book.

Are you in? Welcome to The Nation, a secret society of Legends who have hidden in plain sight for hundreds of years. Now, in West Haven, IL, an unlikely pregnancy threatens to expose them all. Tracy DeSalvo must hide what should be joyous news from those she holds most dear in order to protect them, and she can't help but think the recent disappearance of a Legendary family is somehow related. Meanwhile, highschoolers Scarlett McAllister, varsity baseball captain Connor DeSalvo, and best friend Allison Petrovsky try to clear up confusion when scholarship potential athlete and Connor's teammate, Jack Taylor, is mistakenly arrested. Jack disappears before Connor can straighten out the situation and the kids must take matters into their own hands. Now the teens must find Jack before it is too late. A vampire novel without the glitter and glam, Us of Legendary Gods takes an unromanticized approach to Legends living in the modern-day. To be in The Nation you have to be a Legend. So, again you have to ask yourself...are you in?