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1. Frederick Douglass, “Pictures and Progress,” 1864-5 Speech

Incredible yet under-read and underrated speech by Douglass on the politically utopian possibilities of photography. Shout out to Professor and Douglass scholar John Stauffer for mentioning this speech in his lecture at Harvard in the Social Studies department, fall semester 2025.

2. “Dialogue Between Master and Slave,” in The Columbian Orator, 1800

The Columbian Orator is the book of speeches Frederick Douglass carried with him while enslaved. It is likely he had read this particular speech many many times before his famous fight with Covey.

3. Susan Buck-Morss and Marcus Raskin, 1973, Institute for Policy Studies, “Knowledge for Social Reconstruction: An International Encyclopedia.”

An incredibly hard-to-find yet critical statement by progressive think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies (Washington, DC), which was an attempt to institutionalize ideas and programs of the New Left. Co-authored by well-known Frankfurt School scholar Susan Buck-Morss.

4. Elizabeth Esch and David Roediger, “Overseers, Whiteness, and the Contradictions of the Slave System: An Introduction”

Introduction to an interesting Creighton Law Review issue on race and “scientific management”