ALAN McGUIRE welcomes a biography of the French semiologist and philosopher
Self-discovery as a black woman
MARJORIE MAYO enjoys an engaging biography of an exceptional African-American novelist, anthropologist and folklorist
CLUES TO THE PAST: Women of an African American family, photographed between 1918 and 1922
[DeGolyer Library - Southern Methodist University/CC] 
ALEX HALL is frustrated by a book that ducks a clear definition of terrorism and fails to perceive the role of the state in sponsoring it
JOE GILL wholeheartedly recommends an eloquent manifesto: how to change the world one local project at a time
Inspired by a photograph, a unique memorial in Michigan immortalises US true labour heroes. MICHAL BONCZA recalls a great story rarely told
MARIA DUARTE, LEO BOIX and ANGUS REID review Brides, Dead of Winter, A Night Like This, and The Librarians
MARIA DUARTE is entertained by a wry portrait of befuddled resistance to US authoritarianism
Zora Neale Hurston
Cheryl R Hopson, Reaktion, £12.99
THIS is the story of an exceptional African-American woman, a creative writer, an anthropologist and a folklorist, who grew up in the Deep South in the post-reconstruction period.
Although she was born into a virulently violent, white supremacist society, she succeeded in gaining artistic and professional success through sheer determination and talent, becoming a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
Cheryl R Hopson’s biography explores Zora Neale Hurston’s life and works, emphasising her remarkable achievements, whil recognising some of her inherent contradictions.
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JOE JACKSON explores how growing up black amid ‘the quiet racism of Scotland’ shaped the art and politics of Maud Sulter
JOHN GREEN marvels at the rediscovery of a radical US photographer who took the black civil rights movement to her heart