Roots Social Science

Roots is a groundbreaking story of history and family that spanned continents and touched generations. One of the most important books and television series ever to appear, Roots galvanized the nation and created an extraordinary political, racial, social, and cultural dialogue that hadn’t been seen since the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book sold more than one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

In 1962, the young Eugene Rose - the future Hieromonk Seraphim - undertook to write a monumental chronicle of the abandonment of truth in the modern age. Of the hundreds of pages of materials he compiled for this work, only the present essay, on nihilism, has come down to us in completed form. Here Eugene reveals the core of all modern thought and life - the belief that all truth is relative - and shows how this belief has been translated into action in our era. Today, more than half a century after he wrote it, this essay is more timely than ever.

Individual liberty rarely vanishes overnight. It erodes gradually—quietly, incrementally, and often in the name of good intentions. In The Forbidden Idea, Mark A. Monoscalco challenges the assumptions that have shaped modern political and economic thought, arguing that human flourishing depends on unfettered minds and voluntary cooperation—not coercion, central planning, or wealth redistribution.

Liberal democracy in America has always contained contradictions—most notably, a noble but abstract commitment to freedom, justice, and equality that, tragically, has seldom been realized in practice. While these contradictions have caused dissent and even violence, there was always an underlying and evolving solidarity drawn from the cultural resources of America’s “hybrid Enlightenment”. James Davison Hunter, who introduced the concept of “culture wars” 30 years ago, tells us in this new book that those historic sources of national solidarity have now largely dissolved.

In her memoir, Giorgia Meloni speaks about herself in depth for the first time. She talks about her roots, her childhood, and her relationship with her mother Anna, her sister Arianna, her grandparents Maria and Gianni, and the pain of her father’s absence. She shares her visceral passion for politics, which took her from her neighborhood of Garbatella to the Government as a Minister, and then to the leadership of Fratelli d’Italia and the European Conservatives.

Why do African Americans face the highest rates of chronic illness, stress-related disease, and early death? It’s not just biology—it’s the cumulative impact of history, racialized trauma, and structural neglect. In Black Wellness Barriers, Dr. Tawainna Houston—a licensed Naturopathic Doctor and cultural wellness educator—uncovers the deep roots of Black health disparities in America.

Most histories of the Cherokee nation focus on its encounters with Europeans, its conflicts with the U.S. government, and its expulsion from its lands during the Trail of Tears. This work, however, traces the origins of the Cherokee people to the third century B.C.E. and follows their migrations through the Americas to their homeland in the lower Appalachian Mountains.

In 1983 Chicago elected Harold Washington as the city's first black mayor. This is the story of Washington's improbable victory over Jane Byrne, heir to the late Richard J. Daley's political empire, and over Daley's eldest son. It's the story of a coalition outside the party's mainstream coming to power and ruling in the country's most political of cities. In Fire on the Prairie, Gary Rivlin reveals the personalities and philosophies of those who were at the center of events, from black separatists such as Lu Palmer to community organizers such as Jesse Jackson....

Sex. Drugs. Loud music. Wild costumes. Dazzling light shows. These words can all describe a great rock concert or a hot dance club, but they were also part and parcel of the ancient cultural phenomenon known as the "Mystery religions". In this book, author Christopher Knowles shows how the long-dead Mystery religions got a secular reincarnation when a new musical form called rock 'n' roll burst onto the scene.

Long before written spells or modern spirituality, Slavic folk magic lived at the heart of the home—by the fire, in the bread oven, and within the quiet rituals of everyday life. Slavic Folk Magic Traditions invites you to step into this ancestral world, where protection, balance, and spiritual awareness were woven into the rhythms of daily living.

In Far-Right Vanguard, John Huntington shows how, for almost a century, the far right has forced so-called "respectable" conservatives to grapple with their concerns, thereby intensifying right-wing thought and forecasting the trajectory of American politics. Ultraconservatives of the 20th century were the vanguard of modern conservatism as it exists in the Republican Party of today.

Throughout his genre-defying career as one of the most innovative musicians of our time, iconoclastic guitar player Marc Ribot has consistently defied expectation at every turn. Here, in his first collection of writing, we see that same uncompromising sensibility at work as he playfully interrogates our assumptions about music, life, and death. Through essays, short stories, and the occasional unfilmable film "mistreatment" that showcase the sheer range of his voice, Unstrung captures an artist whose versatility with words rivals his dexterity onstage.

The Appalachian Trail, a thin ribbon of wilderness running through the densely populated eastern United States, offers a refuge from modern society and a place apart from human ideas and institutions. But as environmental historian - and thru-hiker - Sarah Mittlefehldt argues, the trail is also a conduit for community engagement and a model for public-private cooperation and environmental stewardship. In Tangled Roots, Mittlefehldt tells the story of the trail’s creation.

We just made it simple and easy for conservatives, Christians, patriots, and 80+ million Trump voters to fund conservative, patriotic, Christian companies and defund leftist woke companies! Let’s stop giving money to companies that hate us and start giving money to companies that respect us, celebrate us, focus on us, and inspire us!

All Americans, liberal or conservative, religious or not, can agree that religious freedom, anchored in conscience rights, is foundational to the US democratic experiment. But what freedom of conscience means, what its scope and limits are, according to the Constitution - these are matters for heated debate.

The stakes have never been higher as daughters of every age are navigating a world of hyper-sexualization, social media hangover, extreme loneliness, and a flood of confusing messages. Whether listeners desire to know more of who they are created to be or are raising daughters who are just beginning their own journeys, Courageous leads women and those they love through transformation as they experience confidence in who God made them to be.

A century ago, Europe's diplomats mismanaged the crisis triggered by the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the continent plunged into World War I, which killed millions, toppled dynasties, and destroyed empires. Today, as the 100th anniversary of the Great War prompts renewed debate about the war's causes, scholars and policy experts are also considering the parallels between the present international system and the world of 1914. Are China and the United States fated to follow in the footsteps of previous great power rivals?

From farm-to-table restaurants and farmers markets, to support for fair trade and food sovereignty, movements for food-system change hold the promise for deeper transformations. Yet Americans continue to live the paradox of caring passionately about healthy eating while demanding the convenience of fast food. Rooted Resistance explores this fraught but promising food scene. This book wagers that socially responsible agrarian mythmaking should be a vital part of a food ethic of resistance if we are to rectify the destructive tendencies in our contemporary food system.

What if the key to a more connected and mindful life lies in ancient wisdom, we've overlooked? This audiobook explores the spiritual traditions of Indigenous Australians, with a focus on the practice of Dadirri—a deep form of listening and contemplation. It also examines parallels between Indigenous spirituality and other global wisdom traditions, such as Zen Buddhism, Vedic traditions, and Christian mysticism.

The future will be shaped not only by technology, but also by the liberation of human potential, much of it locked up in obsolete schooling. This book mines the rich cultural legacy of philosophy, folklore, and legend, especially Greek mythology, to understand their inner meaning and their relevance to the dilemmas of a troubled and confused world at the crossroads of evolution.