Books for Adults

Learning new ideas and concepts, relearning old ideas and concepts are at the heart of the ministry of Reconciliation Mission. It is imperative that we begin to test the "truths" given to us. History as we know it and understand it has been presented from the perspective of the conquerors. If Reconciliation is to be attainable stories from the underside of history must be discovered. Then from the perspective of these stories we can begin to assess and evaluate what we now call truth. Our objective is to introduce authors who dare to tell the story from the underside of history.

Recommended Books For Adults

Loewen, James. Lies My Teacher Told: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Touchstone, 1996.

After surveying 12 leading high school American history texts, Professor James Loewen reveals and attempts to correct in this 10-chapter book "blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies." For example, contrary to what many are taught in school, Ponce de Leon went to Florida mainly to capture Native Americans as slaves for Hispaniola, not to find the mythical fountain of youth; and the first colony to legalize slavery was not Virginia but Massachusetts. Expect surprises.

Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492 - Present . New York: Harper Collins, 2001.
A People's History of the United States chronicles American history from the bottom up, focusing on the street, the home and the workplace. Hear from America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor and immigrant laborers. Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History (American Book Award nominee in 1981 after the first edition was published) reveals the grassroots efforts from which emerged fair wages, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights and racial equality.

Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans . Boston: Little Brown, 1998.
Takaki, descended from a Japanese-American family who labored on Hawaiian plantations, and now an ethnic studies professor at UC Berkeley, offers a broad, multi-ethnic survey of Asian American experience in this culture. Personal accounts of pain and struggle make this book powerful and the era it covers real to the reader.

Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. New York: Viking, 2000.
Gonzalez, a columnist for the New York Daily News, takes a few editorial liberties in his book Harvest of Empire. Studying the arrival of Latino people to the United States, Gonzalez challenges U.S. policy from border patrol to language studies in U.S. schools. Expect a left-leaning account of Hispanic immigration, and a thorough look at the diversity present in the people labeled "Hispanic."

Kivel, Paul. Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice. New Society Publishers: Gabriola Island, B.C. 2002.
Uprooting Racism explores the manifestations of racism in politics, work, community and family life and suggests ways for individuals and groups to challenge the structures of racism. Discover how we learn racism, what effects it has on our lives, its costs and benefits to white people, and what we can do about it.