David

Hope Harvey

Hope Harvey is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Kentucky. She is also a research affiliate at the Center for Poverty Research. Dr. Harvey’s research focuses on housing, families, and poverty and inequality. Her primary line of research uses multiple methods to study the experiences of families with children who live doubled-up in shared households. Other projects examine residential decision-making and family complexity.

Dr. Harvey’s research has received awards or funding from the Joint Center for Housing Studies, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Society for the Study of Social Problems.

She holds a Ph.D. in Social Policy and Sociology from Harvard University, an M.P.A. from the La Follette School at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, and a B.A. from Carleton College.

Unworthy Republic

If Americans know anything about the deportation of native people in the 1830s, it is usually the story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears, often recounted in maudlin prose in a narrative that is heartbreaking but ultimately of little broader import. The poetic phrase “Trail of Tears” is so familiar that many people conflate Cherokee forced emigration with deportation more generally, even though Cherokees represented a fraction—about 15,000—of the 80,000 thousand children, women, and men who were shipped west by the Federal government.

In May of 1830, Congress authorized the expulsion of indigenous peoples in the East to territories west of the Mississippi River. Over the next decade, Native Americans saw their homelands and possessions stolen through fraud, intimidation, and murder. Thousands lost their lives. In this powerful, gripping book, award-winning historian Claudio Saunt upends the common view that “Indian Removal” was an inevitable chapter in U.S. expansion across the continent.

Instead, Saunt argues that it was a contested political act—resisted by both indigenous peoples and U.S. citizens – that passed by a razor-thin margin in Congress. In telling the full story of this systematic, state-sponsored theft, he reveals how expulsion became national policy, abetted by Southern power brokers and slave owners and financed by northern Wall Street bankers. Moving beyond the Trail of Tears, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Country is a fast-paced, yet deeply researched, account of unbridled greed, government indifference, and administrative incompetence. The consequences of this vast transfer of land and wealth still resonate today.

Sin Boldly

Jammed with sage advice, genuine encouragement, and surprising examples of how to write and how not to write, this book gives beginning writers and confident students alike an easy-to-follow roadmap for improving one of the most important skills for success.

En route to Sin Boldly!-induced, A+ paper bliss, readers encounter such topics as: Choosing a Topic and Telling Your Story (“K.I.S.S.-Keep It Simple, Stupid”), Literary Games (featuring “Francobabble for Freshman”), Choosing a Voice (“Dissing the Prof”), Grammatical Horrors (“A does not equal they”), and Common Mistakes (“Hopefully and Other Controversies”).

Cheeky, original, and decidedly practical… perfect for anyone who wants to hone their communication skills—college-bound or in the working world. Fully revised and updated with new examples, quizzes, and tips, Sin Boldly! is not only a comprehensive guide, but also a fantastic, fun read for anyone who wants to write clearly and effectively.

Bright Lights, Biggest Cities

In 2020, urban residents represented 55% of the world’s population and their numbers were expected to reach 66% by 2050, even in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Between population growth and accelerating population shifts into cities, the ranks of city-dwellers will swell by 2.5 billion people. Meanwhile, the world’s rural population is shrinking, and over the next three decades it is set to decline, not only in proportion but also in total size.

Nearly 90% of the increase in urban residents will happen in Africa and Asia. And the largest nations in that region – India, China, and Nigeria – will be responsible for about a third of the growth. The United Nations projects that by 2050, India will add 416 million people to its alreadycrowded urban areas.

In her new book, Bright Lights, Biggest Cities: The Urban Challenge to India’s Future, Alyssa Ayres explores what this urban transformation means for India by looking at how seven megacities – Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad – are currently grappling with aspects of unchecked growth. Their stories – and their successes and failures – have much to tell us about the way this economic and social shift will play out worldwide.

The Chosen and the Damned

The national discussion about race in America has garnered a lot of attention, and deservedly so. But, as David Silverman points out in his new book, The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States, that discussion has not yet grappled with the place of Indigenous people in that four hundred year history.

A book that Professor Silverman has, in many ways, been writing for his entire career, The Chosen and the Damned is a gripping account that follows the ways in which systemic racism has informed the history of Native Americans since the very beginnings of European colonization. From the bloody wars that were waged across the colonies, to the racist roots of the American Revolution, to Jacksonian Indian Removal, and the war of extermination in the west that was justified by the ideology of Manifest Destiny, the threats against the existence of Indigenous people have been unrelenting. And the result has been pervasive oppression. Indeed, by any measure—among them education, health, income, voter suppression, crime—racism has been as insidious among Native Americans as among the members of any other community.

It is past time to add this narrative to the history of race and racism in this country. Our indigenous people’s story needs to be told in full.

David

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