Bonhomme, Edna. A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to Covid-19. One Signal. Mar. 2025. ISBN 9781982197834. 320p. $29.99. SOCIAL SCIENCES

Historian Bonhomme, coeditor of After Sex, offers a literary account of epidemics and how they create and deepen inequality. She takes readers to Port-au-Prince, explores the COVID era, and explicates the effects of Cholera, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and more.

Browne-Marshall, Gloria J. A Protest History of the United States. Beacon. Mar. 2025. ISBN 9780807010815. 360p. $29.95. SOCIAL SCIENCES

Browne-Marshall, professor of constitutional law and Africana studies at John Jay College (CUNY), explores the 400-year history of protest movements and rebellions in the U.S., from the earliest Indigenous resistance to current protests and marches—by considering both the causes and the personalities who participated in them.

Carstensen, Jeanne. A Greek Tragedy. One Signal. Mar. 2025. ISBN 9781668083147. 288p. $28.99. SOCIAL SCIENCES

Carstensen, an award-winning journalist, spent nearly a decade researching this work about the 2015 tragedy in which a boat meant to hold only a few dozen capsized into the Aegean Sea, tossing hundreds of refugees into the ocean to their deaths. Carstensen unravels what happened, and how, through first-hand accounts.

Feng, Emily. Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China. Crown. Mar. 2025. ISBN 9780593594223. 304p. $29. SOCIAL SCIENCES

Feng, an award-winning international correspondent for NPR, writes about the wide range of China’s population by sharing the stories of dozens of people who demonstrate the full scope of Chinese identity. She also reflects on those who resist the modern hegemonic state.

Goldstone, Brian. There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America. Crown. Mar. 2025. ISBN 9780593237144. 448p. $30. SOCIAL SCIENCES

Journalist Goldstone builds on his viral 2019 New Republic feature, “The New American Homeless,” following five families who struggle to remain housed even as they work for a living in Atlanta. Through focused portraits of each family, Goldstone explores the causes and consequences of the housing crisis.

McMorrow, Mallory. Hate Won’t Win: Find Your Power and Leave This Place Better Than We Found It. Hachette. Mar. 2025. ISBN 9780306835407. 288p. $30. SOCIAL SCIENCES

McMorrow is a state senator from Michigan whose viral speech in the face of right-wing slurs made national news. She expands on that speech here, detailing her life in politics and calling others to action—to build community, fight for what they believe in, and create change.

Rooks, Noliwe. Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children. Pantheon. Mar. 2025. ISBN 9780553387391. 240p. $28. SOCIAL SCIENCES

Rooks, the chair and L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, writes a nuanced history of school desegregation by tracing four generations of her own family history and suggesting a path for better experiences for future students.