Spring Trade Paperbacks: Contemporary Affairs

Arcade

Africa Doesn’t Matter: How the West Has Failed the Poorest Continent and What We Can Do About It (May; $14.99, cloth $26.99) by Giles Bolton proposes remedies to better a population’s lot.

Beacon Press

First Freedom First: A Citizen’s Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Apr., $14) by Rev. C. Welton Gaddy and Rev. Barry W. Lynn serves as a rallying cry for progressives.

Brookings Institution Press

Twenty-first Century Gateways: Immigrant Incorporation in Suburban America (Mar.; $22.95, cloth $54.95), edited by Audrey Singer, assesses the situation in such areas as Atlanta, Dallas and Portland.

Cornell Univ. Press

To Plead Our Own Cause: Personal Stories by Today’s Slaves (June, $18.95), edited by Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd, assembles 95 narratives from around the world, including the U.S.

Wm. B. Eerdmans

The Kings and Their Gods: The Pathology of Power (May, $20) by Daniel Berrigan compares today’s climate of war to the biblical era of kings.

Georgetown Univ. Press

Analyzing Intelligence: Origins, Obstacles, and Innovations (Apr., $29.95), edited by Roger Z. George and James B. Bruce, probes the state of intelligence analysis since 9/11.

House of Anansi Press

(dist. by PGW)

The Lost Massey Lectures: Recovered Classics from Five Great Thinkers (Mar., $18.95) collects the writings of Martin Luther King Jr., John Kenneth Galbraith and others.

Loyola Press

They Come Back Singing: Finding God with the Refugees (Mar., $14.95) by Gary Smith recounts a priest’s life-changing experience among displaced Sudanese. Author tour.

Nation Books

(dist. by Perseus)

Ideas Matter: Paths to a New America (June, $14.95) by Katrina vanden Heuvel and Robert Borosage sets forth a manifesto for the upcoming election season. 4-city author tour.

New Society Publishers

(dist. by Perseus)

Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects (June, $18.95) by Dmitry Orlov defines what the Soviet experience can teach us about the collapse of the U.S.

New York Review Books

The Supreme Court Phalanx: The Court’s New Right-Wing Bloc (May, $14) by Ronald Dworkin asserts that Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas are bent on rewriting constitutional law.

Olive Branch Press

(dist. by Interlink)

9/11 Contradictions: A Primer for Congress and the Press (Mar., $15) by David Ray Griffin asks why the official story of 9/11 is so muddled.

Phoenix Press

(dist. by Sterling)

Selling Olga: Stories of Human Trafficking (Apr., $12.95) by Louisa Waugh reports that this is the world’s fastest-growing illegal industry.

Pluto Press

(dist. by Univ. of Michigan Press)

Sick Planet: Corporate Food and Medicine (May; $21.95, cloth $65) by Stan Cox charges that food and drug companies are destroying Earth.

Regnery

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization (June, $19.95) by Anthony Esolen considers who we were, who we are and where we are going.

Soft Skull Press

(dist. by PGW)

The War Nerd (Apr., $15.95) by Gary Brecher examines the world’s wars and the powers that conduct them.

Univ. of Arizona Press

Arab/American: Landscape, Culture, and Cuisine in Two Great Deserts (Apr., $16.95) by Gary Paul Nabhan. The conservationist explores common ground between the Middle East and North America, and exposes deep cultural linkages.

Univ. of Michigan Press

Owning the Olympics: Narratives of the New China (Mar.; $26.95, cloth $70), edited by Monroe E. Price and Daniel Dayan, studies global events in a time of global media.

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

(dist. by Sterling)

Go! Go! Go!: 17 Minutes That Changed the World (July, $24.95) by Nigel McCrery recalls how the British army’s Special Air Services reacted to the terrorists who seized the Iranian embassy in London in 1980.