The activist tradition in American literature has long testified to the power of words to change people and the power of people to change the world, yet in recent years many professional humanists have chosen to distract themselves with a postmodern fundamentalism of indeterminacy and instability rather than engage with social and political issues. Throughout her bold and provocative call to action, Elizabeth Ammons argues that the responsibility now facing humanists is urgent: inside and outside academic settings, they need to revive the liberal arts as a progressive cultural force that offers workable ideas and inspiration in the real-world struggle to achieve social and environmental justice.
      Brave New Words challenges present and future literary scholars and teachers to look beyond mere literary critique toward the concrete issue of social change and how to achieve it. Calling for a profound realignment of thought and spirit in the service of positive social change, Ammons argues for the continued importance of multiculturalism in the twenty-first century despite attacks on the concept from both right and left. Concentrating on activist U.S. writers—from ecocritics to feminists to those dedicated to exposing race and class biases, from Jim Wallis and Cornel West to Winona LaDuke and Paula Moya and many others—she calls for all humanists to link their work to the progressive literature of the last half century, to insist on activism in the service of positive change as part of their mission, and to teach the power of hope and action to their students.
      As Ammons clearly demonstrates, much of American literature was written to expose injustice and motivate readers to work for social transformation. She challenges today’s academic humanists to address the issues of hope and purpose by creating a practical activist pedagogy that gives students the knowledge to connect their theoretical learning to the outside world. By relying on the transformative power of literature and replacing nihilism and powerlessness with conviction and faith, the liberal arts can offer practical, useful inspiration to everyone seeking to create a better world.

This anthology of fiction by Rose Terry Cooke contains eleven stories, drawn together for the first time in one volume, that reflect the whole spectrum of Cooke's career from the 1850s to the 1890s. It restores to American literature the work of a writer highly admired in her own day and increasingly recognized today as an important figure in the development of realism, the evolution of regionalism as a literary form, and the emergence of women writers in nineteenth-century fiction.

Cooke's stories are rich literarily and historically; her command of dialect, ear for dialogue, dramatic sense, and ability to draw interesting, memorable characters all distinguish her work. This reissue of some of her best work represents an important contribution to the canon of American literature.

      "A product of literary recovery at its very best. These carefully
        researched essays help us to see how gender marginalized black intellectuals
        who happened to be women." -- Claudia Tate, George Washington University
      The Unruly Voice explores the literary and journalistic career
        of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, a turn-of-the-century African American writer
        who was editor in chief of the Colored American Magazine, though
        it was not acknowledged on the masthead. Hopkins wrote short fiction,
        novels, nonfiction articles, and a play believed to be the first by an
        African American woman. Versatile and politically committed, she was fired
        when the magazine was bought by an ally of Booker T. Washington's who
        disliked her editorial stands and unconciliatory politics.
      Even though more than a thousand pages of Hopkins's works have been brought
        back into print, The Unruly Voice is the first book devoted exclusively
        to her writings and the significance she holds for readers today. Contributors
        explore the social, political, and historical conditions that informed
        her literary works.