You’ll notice a major recurring theme in the top read blog posts from the Broadside in 2018. Should it be any surprise? This year, readers were more than ready to come to terms with our country’s complex notions around racial identity and, most of all, white fragility. And we have Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility to thank! Dina Gilio-Whitaker extended the conversation of white fragility to address how settler colonialism manifests as settler privilege and settler fragility today. Her series on settler privilege went viral. Whatever the topic, we at Beacon Press can always turn to our authors for the critical lens we need to understand today’s most pressing social issues. Take a look at our other highlights of the Broadside. Read more →

By Mary Frances Berry and Josh Gottheimer | It’s fair to say that no one could have expected what resulted from Barack Obama’s prime-time speech at the July 2004 Democratic National Convention. Not the Senate candidate himself nor his two key aides and traveling companions, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, nor Mary Beth Cahill, the campaign manager for John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president. No one could have imagined how that seventeen-minute speech would catapult Obama into stardom and onto the national political stage and eventually into the White House itself. After all, no one had even heard of Barack Obama before he took the podium. On the morning of the speech, the Philadelphia Inquirer headlined, “Who the Heck Is This Guy?” Read more →

Renowned historian and civil rights activist Dr. Mary Frances Berry explains why reactions to President Johnson’s role in the film ‘Selma’ miss the point. Read more →

The latest media hits and mentions for Beacon books and authors. Read more →

A new book looks at the speeches of Barack Obama, from the moment he spoke out against the Iraq War Resolution to his victory speech on election night, 2008. Read more →

A member of Beacon's staff shares some photos from her parent's visit with Barack Obama. Read more →