Anderson, Jervis, This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait, 1900-1950, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982.

Anderson's book offers an in-depth discussion of what life was like in Harlem in the first half of the twentieth century. This cultural study is organized into six parts, which reflect the major movements and historical trends in the city, including the conversion of Harlem into an African-American city, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Great Depression.

Balfour, Katherine Lawrence, The Evidence of Things Not Said: James Baldwin and the Promise of American Democracy, Cornell University Press, 2001.

In this book, Balfour discusses Baldwin's works published in the 1960s, within the context of the author's views about democracy. Balfour also examines the conflicts that these works created among various groups in the Civil Rights movement, compares Baldwin's works to contemporary works that discuss racial conflict, and discusses what role Baldwin's ideas can play in current racial...