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“ReVisioning History,” an award-winning series of books from Beacon Press, focuses on the stories and impact of marginalized people and communities in U.S. history.
Written by leading scholars personally connected to their subjects, “ReVisioning History” and its companion series, “ReVisioning History for Young People,” invite readers to encounter the American story with a curious, critical, and inclusive spirit, and to (re)discover U.S. history in its full power and complexity.
Bronksi traces the history and influence of LGBTQ+ people in American life, documenting personal stories and the impact of LGBTQ+ people and communities on our democracy, institutions, and culture, from the colonial period (including Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities) to the 1990s.
LGBTQ+ activism is one thread of Bronski’s project, including the Gay Liberation Movement of the 1970s (intersecting with the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Movements) through the 1990s and the visionary work of organizations like ACT UP and Queer Nation.
By exploring U.S. history through the lives of people with disabilities, Nielsen celebrates their personal experiences, communities, and activism, and connects them to ideas and traditions at the core of all American experience, including ableism, citizenship, community, (inter)dependence, and democracy.
Perceptions of (dis)ability, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and citizenship have been linked throughout American history, as evident during the height of U.S. immigration (1870–1924) when countless individuals were denied entry based on biased assessments of appearance, age, and perceived “health” and ability.
Covering pre-colonial times to the twenty-first century, Dunbar-Ortiz tells the American story from the perspective of Indigenous peoples, restoring fundamental layers of U.S. history. In addition to documenting genocide and oppression, the book celebrates ongoing Indigenous survival, resistance, and culture.
Watershed moments of Indigenous activism include the Trail of Broken Treaties (1972), which aimed to recognize and restore broken commitments of the U.S. government. The 2019 YA edition of the book includes the more recent story of protests at Standing Rock.
By approaching American history through the lens of African American and Latinx experiences, Ortiz places these stories, and all U.S. history, in a global context, connecting American struggles against “racial capitalism” to international freedom movements, from the Haitian Revolution to twenty-first-century workers’ rights.
One of many contemporary examples of intersectional coalition-building was the Great American Strike on May Day 2006, a massive protest organized by, and for, immigrant and minority activists and workers, demanding justice and recognition of their humanity.