American Roots: Nonfiction

Carrie Gibson is the author of the acclaimed Empire’s Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean From Columbus to the Present Day. She received a PhD from Cambridge University, focusing on the Spanish Caribbean in the era of the Haitian Revolution, and has worked as a journalist for the Guardian and contributed to other publications, as well as the BBC. El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America (Atlantic Monthly Press) chronicles the sweeping and dramatic history of Hispanic North America from the arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th century to the present―from Ponce de Leon’s initial landing in Florida in 1513 to Spanish control of the vast Louisiana territory in 1762 to the Mexican-American War in 1846 and up to the more recent tragedy of post-hurricane Puerto Rico and the ongoing border acrimony with Mexico. Interwoven in this stirring narrative of events and people are cultural issues that have been there from the start, but which are unresolved to this day: language, belonging, community, race, and nationality. Seeing them play out over centuries provides vital perspective at a time when it is urgently needed.

Christina Proenza-Coles holds a dual doctorate in sociology and history from the New School for Social Research. Her ancestors include Daughters of the American Revolution, Portuguese conversos, Cuban pirates, a Confederate sergeant, and a governor of Alabama. In American Founders (NewSouth Books)  Proenza-Coles reveals men and women of African descent as key protagonists in the story of American democracy. Challenging conventional notions about the roles of African Americans in American history, American Founders notes how African-descended people contributed to every facet of it, be it as explorers, settlers, soldiers, and sailors, or as lawyers, artists, mathematicians, scientists, pirates, poets and more. American Founders underscores that black and white Americans share the same history, and in many cases, the same ancestry. Joel Dinerstein, Clark Chair of American Civilization, Tulane University, and author praised American Founders, suggesting that “It can stand as a model of a new kind of hemispheric history, as defined by the slave trade and European contact, a counternarrative to help guide historical change.”

Marie Arana was born in Lima, Peru. She is the author of the memoir American Chica, a finalist for the National Book Award; two novels, Cellophane and Lima Nights; and The Writing Life, a collection from her well-known column for The Washington Post. She is the author of Silver, Sword, and Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story (Simon & Schuster). Against the background of a thousand years of vivid history, acclaimed writer Marie Arana tells the timely and timeless stories of three contemporary Latin Americans whose lives represent three driving forces that have shaped the character of the region: exploitation (silver), violence (sword), and religion (stone). In Silver, Sword, and Stone Marie Arana seamlessly weaves these stories with the history of the past millennium to explain three enduring themes that have defined Latin America since pre-Columbian times: the foreign greed for its mineral riches, an ingrained propensity to violence, and the abiding power of religion. What emerges is a vibrant portrait of a people whose lives are increasingly intertwined with our own.