Derrick Spires, "The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2019)

With talk about birthright citizenship and border walls running rampant in Trump’s America, there are many scholars reaching back to antebellum America to historically ground today’s citizens in debates from the past that hold relevance now about both topics. Scholars like University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Associate Professor of English Derrick Spires is one of those scholars weighing in. Today on New Books in African American Studies, your host, Adam McNeil will help guide the conversation with Professor Spires about his brand new book The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).

Adam McNeil is a PhD Student in the Department of History at the University of Delaware.

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