The figure of the violent man in the African American imagination has a long history. He can be found in 19th-century bad man ballads like "Stagolee" and "John

Prison Life Writing is the first full-length study of one of the most controversial genres in American literature. By exploring the complicated relationship bet

Contesting Slave Masculinity in the American South demonstrates the significance of internal divisions, comparison, and conflict in shaping gender and status in

How have African American writers drawn on "bad" black men and black boys as creative touchstones for their evocative and vibrant art? This is the question pose

The proof of any group's importance to history is in the detail, a fact made plain by this informative book's day-by-day documentation of the impact of African