This is my list of must-read books over the past 4 or 5 years, and I wouldn’t recommend them to you if I hadn’t read them myself.

10.           A classic book on Adolph Hitler: Putsch! How Hitler Made Revolution. Richard Hanser (ISBN 77-130754). Can a dreamer and vocational failure become a petty-minded narcissist and then a mass-murderer? This book was written in 1970 by a former Psychological Warfare Specialist against the Third Reich. Hanser goes back deep into the history of a young boy who had aspirations of becoming an artist and poet, while his father tried pushing him into civil service. “It is tempting to speculate on how different the history of the world might have been if the young Hitler had been able to find fulfillment as an artist, if his gift for drawing and design had been great enough to absorb his energies and divert him from becoming the Shatterhand of European politics.”

Young Adolph grew up basically shy, friendless except for one or two, an introvert. When he left home to enter the Academy of Fine Arts to study painting, he thought he was on his way. The Academy thought otherwise; he failed the entrance exam: “Adolph Hitler took the tests twice, and failed completely both times.” Anger, frustration, poverty, homelessness and false consciousness followed young Adolph’s worst defeat. After a move to Munich Hanser noted: “Having failed in Vienna to make even a start as either painter or architect, he now represented himself as an ‘architectural painter’... he only added to his mounting store of hatreds and resentments by conceiving a boiling animosity against those who were succeeding where he was so obviously failing.” This book will astound you as to how such shockingly, devastating events as WWII and the Holocaust developed decades away from the beginnings of personal everyday setbacks, misinterpreted as the faults of others. Hmm... sounds dangerously like us.

9.    From Superman to Man: A Fearless and Penetrating Discussion of America’s Greatest Problem. (ISBN 0-9602294-4-2) J.A. Rogers. How did the black man go from being the “Superman” of ancient times to being just a man of the last 400 years? This book is actually a point / counterpoint discussion between a black passenger train porter and a white Southern Senator during the late ‘60s. Well written, it’s only 130 pages, but packed with historical information on black and African history, and you’ll marvel at how this sleeping car porter calmly overcomes the objections of the highly-bigoted and arrogant Senator. Conveniently, the Senator possesses in him every reason, from large to small and inconsequential, to think blacks are inferior. After the porter corrects him on one of his anti-black theories, he almost flies into a rage: “That’s all nonsense. It is not true of the Negro, for while the white red and yellow races have, or have had, civilizations of their own, the black has none. All he has accomplished has been driven by the whites. Indigenous to a continent of the greatest natural resources, he has all these ages produced absolutely nothing... Tell me, has the Negro race ever produced a Julius Caesar, a Shakespeare, a Montezuma, a Buddah, a Confucius? The Negro and all the Negro races are inherently inferior.”

This time he just so happens to allow himself to be led into a discussion with the porter, who just so happens to be highly educated and extremely well  read. He goes from his rant about black inferiority on pp.18 to being baffled by this porter on pp.66: “The Senator rose excitedly. This lecturing, this presumption on the part of the Negro, was more than he could stand. He started for the doorway, but his pride drew him back when halfway. No he could not leave the Negro master of the field much as the situation exasperated him... This porter he knew was telling the truth. Why, he asked himself, should he be angry at hearing the truth?”

8.    The Historical Origin of Christianity. ISBN798-1-881040-08-8). Walter Williams. From the same author who gave you “The Historical Origin of Islam,” Williams is among the first author / pundits who refutes the existence of Jesus and most of the Bible characters, and says Christianity is nothing more than a tool of distraction, invented during the middle-ages by Europeans, to prevent mankind and especially blacks from knowing that the ancient Egyptians were black, and understanding how important that Empire was and how important people of African decent are today. Having met Williams through talk show host and commentator, Pat Freeman, and having interviewed Williams a couple of times, I can honestly say he has done a lot of homework. He even offers a reward of $5,000 to any faithful churchgoer, historian, layman or anyone who can prove to him that there was ever a man who walked the earth named Jesus Christ.

7.    Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve - Even If It Means Picking a Fight. Dr. Steve Perry (ISBN 978-0-307-72031-3). The author of “Man Up! Nobodies coming to save you” comes out with another education-based work. If you think national recognition and being seen on networks like CNN has softened Perry’s passion on education and race, then you get an F. The co-founder of Capital Preparatory Magnet School continues with his take-no-prisoners attack and this time it’s against the American Public School system. If you think this is just a series of rants against urban schools and you live in the suburbs believing you’re Ok then you’re in for an eye-opener: “All America’s children are being offered an un-American education... To convince the community that the schools are in fact working, states and districts often focus on students’ performance being ‘proficient.’ The problem is that to be categorized as ‘proficient’ is to be performing below grade level.” Bet you never expected to hear that huh? He charges that the school system is sabotaging the futures of millions of children, black and white.

6.    I Choose To Stay: A Black Teacher Refuses to Desert the Inner City. Salome Thomas-El with Cecil Murphy (ISBN 0-7582-0187-7). This is one of the best books of the decade, and should be made into a major film because this book deals with the success of a group of black kids instead of one, even more numerous than the team on “The Great Debaters.” Hollywood does not want to give American inner city educators any ideas, never did. The very subtitle of this book makes it different in itself, Thomas-El comes from a good traditional family in Philadelphia, went to good schools and East Stroudsburg University during the Reagan years. Some time after graduating he was eager to go back to Philadelphia and teach the inner city kids in the community from where he came. After some time, he opted to go to one of the toughest schools in Philly, Vaux Middle School.

This was 1989 and he would be a special education teacher: “I would convince my kids to come to school early and to leave late. This gave me more time to catch up on their work.” Many of them made extremely fine progress. During the summer, he and his mom started Saturday academy, opening her home to a few who wanted to catch up on math or reading or even black history. When his 3rd year at Vaux began, he started a learning program called “Second Chance Program.” Students who got into trouble were sent to the basement for some attitude adjustment. Not only was it working, but the students enjoyed it: “One thing I saw was that whenever students learned to read, they developed a significant level of self-confidence. More than anything else, I was convinced that the ability to read made the difference in their level of self-confidence.”

After Vaux’s basketball coach left for another school, Thomas-El became the basketball coach. But it wasn’t basketball that he would use to inspire the students. He wanted something more encompassing for them, and for that he would have to reach back into one of the school’s best and long-dead traditions, chess. He found one of the school’s volunteers whom he knew was a very good chess player. They set up a table in the lunchroom and began to play each other. “In the advertising industry and in public relations they talk about creating a need. That’s what Ishmael and I decided to do. We would create a need for the kids. Then they would come to us.” What happened was the formation of one of the best chess teams in the world, and it inspired the academic turnaround for countless students.

5.    An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King (Updated). William Pepper (ISBN 1-85984-695-5). This book is the ending of 25 years of research into the killing of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Pepper knew him personally. The names you’ll read that he links to the assassination aren’t what you’ve heard of over the news: Loyd Jowers, Betty Spates, Frank Holt, Willie Atkins, Raul, H.L. Hunt, The Reverend Samuel “Billy” Kyles (who admitted in court that he spent that last hour of Dr. King’s life in his hotel room with him, but later on the balcony stepped aside so the shooter could get a clear shot), Frank C. Liberto, and the ones who basically started the ball rolling, Army intelligence. “I met with Steve Tompkins, the former Commercial Appeal investigative reporter who had spent 18 months researching a front-page piece on the role of army intelligence in surveying and infiltrating black organizations and civil rights groups. It had been published on March 21 1993. Army intelligence had spied on Dr. King’s family for three generations.” Powerful, but a little on the redundant side, the book is, overall, a good 2nd look at the King Assassination.

4.    Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone the First Woman to Play Professional Baseball in the Negro League. Martha Ackmann (ISBN 978-1-55632-796-8). The Negro Leagues weren’t always for men only, some women owned or co-owned a team, others coached one girl who defied convention and became the first female player.

3.    Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity. Tim Wise (ISBN 978-0-87286-508-2). This book explores President Obama’s most glaring weak point; his fear of appearing too black, and the issues surrounding the philosophy the author sees him as adopting. Wise is a brilliant author / columnist / lecturer, free of delusion or illusion. Dr. Joyce King says this book is “the clearest thinking on race I’ve seen in a long while written by a white guy.” He identifies Post-Racial liberalism as a race-neutral and color blind public policy that has attempted to succeed civil rights; it means well, but just doesn’t cut the mustard: “Because of a steady drumbeat of racially coded conservative propaganda concerning government programs for those in need, even universal public policy approaches (with regard to education, health care or job creation) will likely be seen as disproportionately benefiting people of color.” By this, I’d say a corresponding example is a house on a block being on fire. The post-racial liberation fire dept. comes and sprays water on all the houses. What eventually will happen to the house on fire? A good read.

2.    Madden: A Biography. Brian Burwell (ISBN 978-1-60078-379-1). A timely release considering the recent death of Madden’s former longtime boss Al Davis. Having read Madden’s first two autobiographies during the ‘80s titled, “Hey Wait a Minute! I Wrote a Book!” or something along those lines, I got really more than I expected, because I was unaware then of how much time the Madden family had devoted to the care and rehabilitation of the late New England Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley, considering it was one of Madden’s players that paralyzed him during an exhibition game (called preseason games today). So what I got was a look into what’s really in the heart of the man who helped mold what would become known as the most ruthless team of players in any sport, the Raiders.

Burwell, a veteran columnist, offers an historical and up-to-date look at Madden beyond the Raiders, and beyond the multi-million dollar sports video game. If you’ve read Raider books and heard all the Charles Philyaw, Kenny Stabler, Skip Thomas, Ted Hendricks and John Matuszak, and want to know how it began for Madden the man, then this is the book you need to read.

1.    Hype & Soul: Behind the Scenes at Motown. Al Abrams (ISBN 978-0-9569593-0-0). “Sometimes I think I should have been paying Berry just for letting me come into work at Hitsville everyday and mingle with geniuses like Smokey, The Supremes, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Marvin, Stevie, Esther Edwards, Mickey Stevenson and Berry himself.” Who else can lay claim to such a dream job as this but Motown Publicist / Press Agent Al Abrams? This beautifully-bound book is full of pictures and press-clipping from the earliest days of R&B from its best known record company. Motown records opened doors for talented young black urban Detroit performers looking to make it big in show business. A black-owned and dominated business, Motown cut through the northern racist blue-collar auto and steel industry of that city to become a household word during a local newspaper strike. But it was with newspapers and white radio stations where Abrams scored Motown’s greatest victories in terms of getting them crossover, exposure and play. Abrams was around nineteen at the time when the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press were battling for supremacy. Even though the Free Press gave Motown good exposure, the News simply wasn’t going to acknowledge Motown acts as major artists by doing articles on them. This was especially true of their weekend insert TV magazine (back then the News rationalized that white customers didn’t want to see black faces on their coffee tables for a whole week- something for hip-hop performers today to think about).

When the editor of the magazine asked him in private what a “nice Jewish boy” was doing working for a bunch of n-----s, when it should be the other way around, Abrams gave him a very clever hard-luck story that had him as the real founder of the company, but having lost it to Gordy during a crap game. “The editor sat there wide-eyed. Again he repeated, ‘you did?’ After what seemed like hours he said, ‘that’s the saddest thing I ever heard. Sit here a minute.’ He got up and went into the hall where he called out the names of the entertainment editor, the TV editor and the features editor. when they entered his office he repeated his comment telling the others, ‘I’ve just heard the saddest story I’ve ever heard. From now on, I want you to do everything you can for this guy.’ When I got back to Hitsville I told Berry and we fell on the floor laughing.”

“Hype & Soul” is 288 pages of mostly glossy pictures as well as news clips, important letters and memos that Abrams collected over the years and saved for just this occasion. You certainly won’t be ashamed to sit on your living room table. Like many of you, my favorite Motown acts are the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and the Supremes. These and many others are featured throughout the book.

Motown was an inspiration to millions around the world; it was without question Berry Gordy’s biggest triumph. In a few years he would make his worst decision, leaving the motor city for Los Angeles. It took him forever to realize ain’t no such animal as Motown West or “MoWest.” Not being from Detroit I don’t know if this decision was based just on following the auto-industry, or if he took off before Detroit’s structural decline. But it’s my honest belief that if he had stayed, other businesses would have stayed. Detroit was long seen by whites around the country as too black. Motown’s departure could only be interpreted by them as, ‘well if he don’t care about his own people, why should we?’ Having been to the city numerous times, I sense the air of desertion. Not Gordy’s fault of course, but Detroit is just closed plants, ghettos and the police. Make sure you buy this and a couple more on this short-list. Read and understand.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist Chris Stevenson is a syndicated columnist, his articles also appear on his blog; the Buffalo Bullet. Follow him on Twitter @pointblank009) and Facebook (pointblank009). Support his petition to permanently Abolish the Death Penalty in the US the Troy Davis Bill, HR92111. Click here to contact Mr. Stevenson.