Part of The World in a Life series, this brief, inexpensive text provides insight into the life of slave soldier Malik Ambar. Malik Ambar: Power and Slavery across the Indian Ocean offers a rare look at an individual who began in obscurity in eastern Africa and reached the highest levels of South Asian political and military affairs in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Ambar's rise from slavery in East Africa to ruler in South Asia sheds light on the diverse mix of people, products, and practices that shaped the Indian Ocean world during the early modern period. Originally from Ethiopia--historically called Abyssinia--Ambar is best known for having defended the Deccan from being occupied by the Mughals during the first quarter of the seventeenth century. His ingenuity as a military leader, his diplomatic skills, and his land-reform policies contributed to his success in keeping the Deccan free of Mughal imperial rule. We live in a global age where big concepts like "globalization" often tempt us to forget the personal side of the past. The titles in The World in a Life series aim to revive these meaningful lives. Each one shows us what it was like to live on a world historical stage. Brief, inexpensive, and thematic, each book can be read in a week, fit within a wide range of curricula, and shed insight into a particular place or time. Four to six short primary sources at the end of each volume sharpen the reader's view of an individual's impact on world history.

Malik Ambar: Power and Slavery across the Indian Ocean (The World in a Life Series)

Biographies & Memoirs

Ali, Omar H.

Historical

Oxford University Press

In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third-Party Movements in the United States

Historically, most black voters in the United States have aligned themselves with one of the two major parties: the Republican Party from the time of the Civil War to the New Deal and, since the New Deal—and especially since the height of the modern civil rights movement—the Democratic Party. However, as In the Balance of Power convincingly demonstrates, African Americans have long been part of independent political movements and have used third parties to advance some of the most important changes in the United States, notably the abolition of slavery, the extension of voting rights, and the enforcement of civil rights. Since the early nineteenth century, there has been an undercurrent of political independence among African Americans. They helped develop the Liberty Party in the 1840s and have continued to work with third parties to challenge the policies of the two major parties. But despite the legal gains of the modern civil rights movement, elements of Jim Crow remain deeply embedded in our electoral process. In the Balance of Power presents a history and analysis of African American third-party movements that can help us better understand the growing diversity among black voters today.

History

Africa

Ohio University Press

Historically, most black voters in the United States have aligned themselves with one of the two major parties: the Republican Party from the time of the Civil War to the New Deal and, since the New Deal—and especially since the height of the modern civil rights movement—the Democratic Party. However, as In the Balance of Power convincingly demonstrates, African Americans have long been part of independent political movements and have used third parties to advance some of the most important changes in the United States, notably the abolition of slavery, the extension of voting rights, and the enforcement of civil rights. Since the early nineteenth century, there has been an undercurrent of political independence among African Americans. They helped develop the Liberty Party in the 1840s and have continued to work with third parties to challenge the policies of the two major parties. But despite the legal gains of the modern civil rights movement, elements of Jim Crow remain deeply embedded in our electoral process. In the Balance of Power presents a history and analysis of African American third-party movements that can help us better understand the growing diversity among black voters today.

Review\n“In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third-Party Movements in the United States by Dr. Omar Ali is as relevant today as is the long struggle to dismantle systemic racism in America. The book is about Black people’s resistance to barriers to full democracy and inclusion and the variety of tactics inside and outside of the major parties that were used to pursue voting rights, racial justice, and equality. Reading this book is a lesson and an inspiration to continue forward the building of the independent multiracial democracy movement of today.”—Dr. Jessie Fields, Harlem physician and board member at Independent Voting and Open Primaries\n“Ali’s profound scholarship has finally given the disciplines of political science, history, sociology, and African American studies a holistic political portrait. It is a landmark work.”—National Political Science Review\n“Impressively informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking … provides invaluable insights into the current political divisions of American politics on a national level with profound implications for the near term and long term political clima\n“One of the many virtues of Omar Ali’s account lies in highlighting the variety of political structures and strategies blacks have chosen over the course of American history in pursuing the goal of racial justice. Independent politics… has a long history, which, as Ali shows, has at many points energized the black community and helped to make America a better place for all its people.”—Eric Foner, from the foreword\n“Captures the most important nuances of the ways that African Americans have fought for their own political and economic interests.”—Journal of African American Studies\nREVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION 
Reveals the multiple independent political tactics and strategies that African Americans have used to expand democracy and uphold civil and political rights since the founding of the nation. 
This new edition of Ali’s groundbreaking narrative includes an epilogue by independent political analyst and leader Jacqueline Salit. New material addresses the historic presidencies of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, as well as the rising tide of independent and anti-party sentiments.

Americas

The Independent Voter

Independent voters―the 40–50 percent of Americans who reject identification with either of the two major parties or with any party―are increasing in number and impact. Independents are determining the outcome of major elections, upending the long-held categories of political science. Drawing on historical and contemporary data (including survey data, participant observation, interviews, and current writings and scholarship) and providing timely new analysis, the authors argue that independents are an engine for a transformation of US democracy, perhaps even its saviors. Rather than “leaning” to a party or an ideology, independents vary on issues but share a deep distrust of the partisan system. What are the consequences of this distrust? What about shifting trends among Black, Latino, and Asian communities regarding party loyalty? What of young voters who eschew party identification wanting a different kind of political culture? For a wide variety of audiences, this book gives students, scholars, campaign professionals, activists, and media analysts an insight into current voting dynamics and future possibilities.

Politics & Social Sciences

Salit, Jacqueline S.

Reilly, Thom

Sociology

Routledge

In the Lion's Mouth: Black Populism in the New South, 1886-1900

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI

In the Lion's Mouth: Black Populism in the New South, 1886-1900 (Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies)

Following the collapse of Reconstruction in 1877, African Americans organized a movement―distinct from the white Populist movement―in the South and parts of the Midwest for economic and political reform: Black Populism. Between 1886 and 1898, tens of thousands of black farmers, sharecroppers, and agrarian workers created their own organizations and tactics primarily under black leadership. As Black Populism grew as a regional force, it met fierce resistance from the Southern Democrats and constituent white planters and local merchants. African Americans carried out a wide range of activities in this hostile environment. They established farming exchanges and cooperatives; raised money for schools; published newspapers; lobbied for better agrarian legislation; mounted boycotts against agricultural trusts and business monopolies; carried out strikes for better wages; protested the convict lease system, segregated coach boxes, and lynching; demanded black jurors in cases involving black defendants; promoted local political reforms and federal supervision of elections; and ran independent and fusion campaigns. Growing out of the networks established by black churches and fraternal organizations, Black Populism found further expression in the Colored Agricultural Wheels, the southern branch of the Knights of Labor, the Cooperative Workers of America, the Farmers Union, and the Colored Farmers Alliance. In the early 1890s African Americans, together with their white counterparts, launched the People's Party and ran fusion campaigns with the Republican Party. By the turn of the century, Black Populism had been crushed by relentless attack, hostile propaganda, and targeted assassinations of leaders and foot soldiers of the movement. The movement's legacy remains, though, as the largest independent black political movement until the rise of the modern civil rights movement.

African Diasporan Communities Across South Asia

Robbins, Kenneth X.

Asia

Independently published

Black Ambassadors of Politics, Religion, and Jazz in India

Shroff, Beheroze

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