Over the past year, the IHR Library has acquired a number of new titles on various aspects of Black history. In this blog, we highlight seven of these new titles which reflect the diversification of our collections across Black history, from Caribbean museology to Brazilian women’s stories. These books offer new perspectives from a range of periods, cultures, and geographies. Drop by the library to browse these titles and more!

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Matter of Black Lives: Writings from The New Yorker (edited by Jelani Cobb and David Remnick)

Matter of Black Lives is a collection of essays, reportage, and reflections from The New Yorker covering Black life, justice, culture, and identity across multiple decades. Edited by Jelani Cobb and David Remnick and including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, and Zadie Smith, the volume charts how the magazine has engaged with issues such as policing, mass incarceration, race and media, the Black intellectual tradition, and protest movements. The value of this collection lies not only in the critical reflections of the writings themselves, but also in its documentary aspect: it preserves how a major cultural magazine has received, framed, and mediated Black experiences for a broad readership.

UF.751/Cob – IHR Floor 2 Americas

Critical Issues in Caribbean Museums: Understanding Theory through Applied Practice (edited by Daniela Fifi)

This edited volume bridges theory and practice to explore the challenges of museology in the context of Caribbean history. By bringing together museum professionals, historians, cultural critics and community stakeholders, each chapter grapples with questions of representation, decolonisation, identity politics, heritage, and community participation. Presented through case studies from a variety of cultural heritage spaces in the Caribbean, the book also includes important reflections on postcolonial museology, the politics of display, and contested heritage. Critical Issues in Caribbean Museums provides a pivotal framework for rethinking conventional museum narratives.

CB.9380/Fif – IHR Floor 3

Let’s See What Happens: The Last Mayor of Bristol (Marvin Rees)

In 2016, Marvin Rees was elected as Mayor of Bristol, the first time a major European city had elected a mayor of Black African heritage. His eight-year tenure saw the city through everything from Brexit to Covid, the cost of living crisis to the fall of the Colston statue. In Let’s See What Happens, Rees offers a first-hand account of his leadership, reflecting on the political challenges as well as the racism and classism he experienced.

BC.6391/Ree – IHR Floor 1 Wohl

Vozes insurgentes de mulheres negras: do século XVIII à primeira década do século XXI (Bianca Santana)

Bianca Santana’s Vozes insurgentes de mulheres negras compiles voices of Black women from the eighteenth century through to the early 2000s in Brazil (and the Lusophone diaspora). It centres the experiences, struggles, and resistances of Black women across several centuries and amplifies often-overlooked voices in Brazilian history and Black feminism, making it an important contribution to researchers studying Brazilian women’s history and Brazil more generally.

LAG.15/San – IHR Onsite Store

My country Africa: autobiography of the Black Pasionaria (Andrée Blouin)

Andree Blouin was a Pan-African political activist from the Central African Republic. My country Africa is an account of Blouin’s life documenting not only Blouin’s political life but her personal one as well. Whilst not necessarily a household name, Blouin was a strong and revolutionary advocate for anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism. Her close personal and professional relationship with Patrice Lumumba is also detailed in this book. My country Africa is an important text to for understanding not only Pan-Africanism at large but also the role of women in the movement.

CLB.418/Blo – IGR Onsite Store

Red and Black in Harlem and Jamaica: The Revolutionary Life and Selected Writings of W. A. Domingo (edited by Peter Hulme and Leslie James)

Editors Peter Hulme and Leslie James have compiled a selection of the writings of W. A. Domingo to provide a full and complete image of his life and works. Domingo was a prominent figure in the New Negro movement based in Harlem in the early 1900s. Born in Jamaica, he remained a committed Jamaican nationalist and an important figure in the movement as well as a socialist. This book underscores Domingo’s importance in these movements and sheds light on his political commitments and beliefs at varying stages throughout his life, not only through his writings but also through Hulme and James’ introductory writings at the beginning of each chapter.

CLAC.442/Dom – IHR Floor 2 Americas

Voices of the race: Black newspapers in Latin America, 1870-1960 (edited and translated by Pauline Laura Alberto, George Reid Andrews and Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof)

This collection of newspapers offers English translations of over 100 works published in Black newspapers in Latin America between 1870 and 1960. It offers valuable insight into both Black communities and thought, primarily in Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. The editors of this work have grouped the articles into chapters centred on themes such as diaspora and Black internationalism, politics and citizenship, and arts and literature, with illuminating annotations enabling readers to gain as much as possible from these fascinating and insightful sources.

LA.1821/Alb – IHR Floor 2 Americas

The theme of Black History Month for 2025 is Standing Firm in Power and Pride. This theme invites reflection on the strength, resilience, and enduring contributions of Black communities. Uncovering new histories and amplifying diverse voices is an important part of celebrating this. Alongside our existing titles, these recent acquisitions speak to key themes in historical scholarship: voice, representation, language, and the politics of storytelling.

Our Black History Collections Guide provides a helpful overview of the collections, signposting the types of collections available and where to find them.

This blog post was written by Sasha Pond and Sarah Snelling, the 2025-2026 Graduate Trainee Library Assistants at the IHR Wohl Library.

The post Black History Month 2025 – Recent Acquisitions in the IHR Library appeared first on On History.