{"title":"MassBudget Author Series","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"getting-to-reparations-how-building-a-different-america-requires-a-reckoning-with-our-past-hardcover-january-20-2026-by-dorothy-a-brown-author","title":"Getting to Reparations: How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past Hardcover – January 20, 2026 by Dorothy A. Brown (Author)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA bold manifesto arguing that there is a clear precedent for paying reparations to atone for America’s original sin of slavery, offering a compelling legal strategy to achieve this goal—from the acclaimed author of \u003cem\u003eThe Whiteness of Wealth.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe idea of reparations is not a new or original one; it is one that is baked into American history.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen the District of Columbia Emancipation Act of 1862 went into effect, wealthy slaveowners like Margaret Barber were compensated for the loss of their enslaved workers. Barber received $9,000—an equivalent to $250,000 today. When a group of Italian immigrants were lynched in 1892, President Harrison compensated Italy a total of $25,000 for their deaths—an equivalent to almost $766,000 today. The Indian Claims Commission, an arm of the federal government, paid Indigenous Americans $818 million for underhandedly stealing their land in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—an equivalent to almost $350 billion today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDorothy A. Brown addresses the glaring question: if reparations can be achieved for others, why not for Black Americans? If lynching can be remedied for Italian immigrants, and slaveholders compensated for losses associated with abolition and emancipation, then the government’s failure to provide such remedies to Black communities harmed by similar violence, loss, and destruction is long overdue. The fight for reparations is truly a fight for the soul of America, to produce the country our founding fathers idealized but never achieved.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eGetting to Reparations \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003emakes a logical and necessary case for reparations for Black Americans. It lays out a path as to how we might achieve this, built on the frameworks used throughout U.S. history by the government to pay restitution. It is now time to do the same for America’s Black population.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52742203375932,"sku":"9780593593615","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0273\/2005\/files\/71SrT5n6hOL._SL1500.jpg?v=1771104905"},{"product_id":"escape-from-capitalism-an-intervention-by-clara-e-mattei","title":"Escape from Capitalism An Intervention By Clara E. Mattei","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCapitalism isn’t inevitable, scientific, or natural—it's a relatively young system that \u003cem\u003ecan \u003c\/em\u003ebe replaced.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe live in a world where cuts to social programs are deemed necessary, unemployment is considered natural, and rising living costs are accepted as normal. We’re told that change isn’t possible—the markets know best and there’s no alternative to capitalism. But what if mainstream economics itself is the problem?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn this groundbreaking manifesto, economist Clara E. Mattei shows us how the dogma that rules our economies is not only delusional but also detrimental to our societies and livelihoods and fundamentally hostile to working people. Pseudoscientific models are used to justify enduring problems such as poverty and inequality in order to support a system that unfairly rewards people who already have the most resources.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday’s economic institutions, from the Federal Reserve to the International Monetary Fund, wield immense power over monetary policy yet are shielded from democratic scrutiny. All the major problems we face—from a health care system that prioritizes profits over well-being to the rise of ultranationalism—are rooted in an economic system that fails to serve the common good.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhy should we accept this? In this urgent intervention against capitalism, Mattei shows how escaping this system begins with understanding the economy from a fundamentally different perspective. The time has come to challenge the broken economics of our modern age—to achieve true economic freedom and finally escape from capitalism.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53104575742268,"sku":"9781668085141","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0273\/2005\/files\/escape-from-capitalism-9781668085141_xlg.jpg?v=1780496720"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0273\/2005\/collections\/image001.png?v=1780497338","url":"https:\/\/frugalbookstore.net\/collections\/massbudget.oembed","provider":"Frugal Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}