Books To Get You Thinking
The Pulitzer Prize is one of the highest honors bestowed each year to outstanding works in journalism, the literary arts and musical composition. Its founder, Joseph Pulitzer, immigrated to the United States from Hungary and rose to become an eminent speaker, writer and editor, passionate about using the power of the press to launch a crusade against public and private corruption. Pulitzer had a vision that “the power to mould the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.” A year after his death, the Columbia School of Journalism was founded on Pulitzer’s ideals and the first Pulitzer Prize was awarded in 1917. Since then, prize winners in different genres of fiction, nonfiction, history, biography, and poetry are selected by the Pulitzer Prize Board and announced in a ceremony that has become a prestigious and highly anticipated annual event. You can find many of the Pulitzer Prize winning titles in the Mercer County Library System!
Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack Davis
Jack Davis, Professor of History at University of Florida was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in History for his expansive study on the Gulf of Mexico, the largest gulf and the tenth largest body of water in the world. In this remarkable book, Davis traces back the history of the Gulf from the time it was created a hundred and fifty million years ago, encompassing environmental, socio-political and economic narratives about the region. Highlighting the importance of the Gulf as an integral part of US history, the author traces the many indigenous tribes, cultures and people intricately connected with the area who have shaped the evolution of the region as well as the rich assortment of plants, sea life and animals that have thrived in and around its waters. Early Spanish and European invaders who came in search of gold and silver, raw materials and new riches brought destruction and disease that wiped out large numbers of the aboriginals who inhabited this area. Over time, its rich population of oysters and birds was decimated in the interests of commerce while its pristine lands saw increasing use for oil drilling and real estate development. In one of the most serious environmental disasters, the Deepwater Horizon accident of 2010 spilled millions of gallons of oil into the waters of the Gulf. Despite the presence of continuing environmental assault, the author ends with the hope that we celebrate this “American Sea (that) has long been and will continue to be a gift to humankind. It brings beauty into our lives and invigorates the human spirit. It gives us food, moderates our climate, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and puts oxygen we breathe into the same. It is the wholeness of living things, the dynamic energy moving from sun to plant to animal, a ceaseless flow that in the long scheme of things is far more important than mineral deposits to our future existence.”
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
James Foreman, Jr., the son of 1960s civil rights activist James Foreman, pens this thought-provoking book that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Despite the many gains following the Civil Rights movement, an area of concern has been the steady rise in the number of Black men in prisons - the percentage rose from one third in 1954 to fifty percent by 1994. James Foreman, Jr. was inspired to confront this issue through his role as public defender in Washington, DC. Examining the history of the American criminal justice system, the author’s analysis suggests that besides racism, it was also influential Black leaders who in the 1960s and 1970s supported the zero tolerance policies against drug peddling and violence of Blacks against Blacks that resulted in punitive punishment and convictions for even minor and nonviolent offences. The reasoning behind the advocacy of such stringent measures stemmed from the inherent fear that the environment of drugs, crime and violence within Black communities would stifle and offset the gains achieved through the Civils Rights Movement. Ironically, the instigation of these iron-fisted policies only resulted in escalating mass incarceration of Blacks, including young Blacks sent to juvenile detention centers for trivial infractions. Foreman points to the absence of adequate policy measures directed towards education, healthcare and job creation in these communities, which - had they been implemented simultaneously with the harsh gun and drug laws - would have been successful in bringing about positive change. Interwoven throughout the book are real-life poignant stories of people the author encountered during his tenure as public defender that bring to the forefront the urgent need to reform parts of the American criminal justice apparatus, making it more “forgiving, tailored and individualized,” towards offenders. “Our challenge as Americans is to recognize the power each of us has in our own spheres to push back against the harshness of mass incarceration.”
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
Caroline Fraser’s engrossing biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. It also received the National Book Critics Circle Award. Fraser is a former editorial staff member of the New Yorker and editor of the Library of America’s two-volume edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on The Prairie series of books. Using rigorous archival research of unpublished documents, diaries and letters, Fraser pens a new comprehensive historical biography of the popular author – a biography that readers will find dispels some of the myths that surround the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the portrait she painted of pioneer life in the 1800s with her books. The Little House series of novels have led to an iconic characterization of Frontier history, rooted in beliefs about the grit, tenacity and self-sufficiency of the early settlers and pioneers. While much of the narrative contained in the Little House books was based on real-life experiences of Laura Ingalls Wilder growing up as part of a loving, caring family, many of the harsh realities of pioneer life in the Great Plains of the 1800s are not reflected in the books. This compelling biography goes back in time, exploring the author’s childhood spent with her family, facing the hardships that accompanied the constant onslaught of droughts, tornadoes, blizzards, and wildfires. It was a struggle for Laura’s father to build a sustainable farm and they had to move many times in search for better land and living conditions. Married at the age of eighteen, Laura built a life for herself with her husband, moving south from the Dakotas, but it was only in her fifties that she began seriously writing and the start of her memoir. Fraser gives new insights into Laura’s troubled relationship with her daughter, Rose Wilder, who left home as a teenager and became a successful celebrity biographer in San Francisco. She encouraged her mother to turn to the writing trade and was instrumental in convincing her to fictionalize the story of her life with the books reflecting core American values. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s story, spanning ninety years, is a revealing portrait of an iconic American literary author and the story of an important era in American history.
Jack Davis, Professor of History at University of Florida was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in History for his expansive study on the Gulf of Mexico, the largest gulf and the tenth largest body of water in the world. In this remarkable book, Davis traces back the history of the Gulf from the time it was created a hundred and fifty million years ago, encompassing environmental, socio-political and economic narratives about the region. Highlighting the importance of the Gulf as an integral part of US history, the author traces the many indigenous tribes, cultures and people intricately connected with the area who have shaped the evolution of the region as well as the rich assortment of plants, sea life and animals that have thrived in and around its waters. Early Spanish and European invaders who came in search of gold and silver, raw materials and new riches brought destruction and disease that wiped out large numbers of the aboriginals who inhabited this area. Over time, its rich population of oysters and birds was decimated in the interests of commerce while its pristine lands saw increasing use for oil drilling and real estate development. In one of the most serious environmental disasters, the Deepwater Horizon accident of 2010 spilled millions of gallons of oil into the waters of the Gulf. Despite the presence of continuing environmental assault, the author ends with the hope that we celebrate this “American Sea (that) has long been and will continue to be a gift to humankind. It brings beauty into our lives and invigorates the human spirit. It gives us food, moderates our climate, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and puts oxygen we breathe into the same. It is the wholeness of living things, the dynamic energy moving from sun to plant to animal, a ceaseless flow that in the long scheme of things is far more important than mineral deposits to our future existence.”
James Foreman, Jr., the son of 1960s civil rights activist James Foreman, pens this thought-provoking book that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Despite the many gains following the Civil Rights movement, an area of concern has been the steady rise in the number of Black men in prisons - the percentage rose from one third in 1954 to fifty percent by 1994. James Foreman, Jr. was inspired to confront this issue through his role as public defender in Washington, DC. Examining the history of the American criminal justice system, the author’s analysis suggests that besides racism, it was also influential Black leaders who in the 1960s and 1970s supported the zero tolerance policies against drug peddling and violence of Blacks against Blacks that resulted in punitive punishment and convictions for even minor and nonviolent offences. The reasoning behind the advocacy of such stringent measures stemmed from the inherent fear that the environment of drugs, crime and violence within Black communities would stifle and offset the gains achieved through the Civils Rights Movement. Ironically, the instigation of these iron-fisted policies only resulted in escalating mass incarceration of Blacks, including young Blacks sent to juvenile detention centers for trivial infractions. Foreman points to the absence of adequate policy measures directed towards education, healthcare and job creation in these communities, which - had they been implemented simultaneously with the harsh gun and drug laws - would have been successful in bringing about positive change. Interwoven throughout the book are real-life poignant stories of people the author encountered during his tenure as public defender that bring to the forefront the urgent need to reform parts of the American criminal justice apparatus, making it more “forgiving, tailored and individualized,” towards offenders. “Our challenge as Americans is to recognize the power each of us has in our own spheres to push back against the harshness of mass incarceration.”
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline FraserCaroline Fraser’s engrossing biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. It also received the National Book Critics Circle Award. Fraser is a former editorial staff member of the New Yorker and editor of the Library of America’s two-volume edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on The Prairie series of books. Using rigorous archival research of unpublished documents, diaries and letters, Fraser pens a new comprehensive historical biography of the popular author – a biography that readers will find dispels some of the myths that surround the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the portrait she painted of pioneer life in the 1800s with her books. The Little House series of novels have led to an iconic characterization of Frontier history, rooted in beliefs about the grit, tenacity and self-sufficiency of the early settlers and pioneers. While much of the narrative contained in the Little House books was based on real-life experiences of Laura Ingalls Wilder growing up as part of a loving, caring family, many of the harsh realities of pioneer life in the Great Plains of the 1800s are not reflected in the books. This compelling biography goes back in time, exploring the author’s childhood spent with her family, facing the hardships that accompanied the constant onslaught of droughts, tornadoes, blizzards, and wildfires. It was a struggle for Laura’s father to build a sustainable farm and they had to move many times in search for better land and living conditions. Married at the age of eighteen, Laura built a life for herself with her husband, moving south from the Dakotas, but it was only in her fifties that she began seriously writing and the start of her memoir. Fraser gives new insights into Laura’s troubled relationship with her daughter, Rose Wilder, who left home as a teenager and became a successful celebrity biographer in San Francisco. She encouraged her mother to turn to the writing trade and was instrumental in convincing her to fictionalize the story of her life with the books reflecting core American values. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s story, spanning ninety years, is a revealing portrait of an iconic American literary author and the story of an important era in American history.
- Nita Mathur, West Windsor Branch
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