Michael Ralph – författare

A gorgeous full-color graphic historical novel, sure to become an instant classic, that explores the friendship and feud between Ida B. Wells and Frederick Douglass, offering new insights into slavery and incarceration in the United States.Told from the perspectives of statesman and orator Frederick Douglass, and journalist and activist Ida B. Wells, Before 13th is a story that illuminates the contradictions of freedom. Friends and rivals, Douglass and Wells clashed over how to grapple with the racism and exoticism that defined portrayals of African Americans at the 1896 Chicago World’s Fair, where Douglass was invited to speak after they had initially agreed to boycott the event. It uses the story of this real-life conflict as a lens through which we see the history of slavery and incarceration as never before.Historical anthropologist Michael Ralph joins forces with artist Jason Piperberg and acclaimed illustrator Laura Molnar to reimagine these two influential Black Americans and the controversies surrounding the Thirteenth Amendment—which some contend did not abolish slavery, claiming instead it was used to keep African Americans in a condition approximating bondage in the years immediately following Emancipation. Before 13th boldly takes on this issue, offering a provocative re-thinking that goes back years earlier than the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, to a practice known as convict leasing, an experiment in capitalist innovation and progressive legal reform, whose profound effects continue to be felt today.Before 13th features100 four color illustrations.

As one of Africa's few democracies, Senegal has long been thought of as a leader of moral, political, and economic development on the continent. We tend to assume that any such nation has achieved favorable international standing due to its own merits. In Forensics of Capital, Michael Ralph upends this kind of conventional thinking, showing how Senegal's diplomatic standing was strategically forged in the colonial and postcolonial eras at key periods of its history and is today entirely contingent on the consensus of wealthy and influential nations and international lending agencies. Ralph examines Senegal's crucial and pragmatic decisions related to its development and how they garnered international favor, decisions such as its opposition to Soviet involvement in African liberation - despite itself being a socialist state - or its support for the US-led war on terror - despite its population being predominately Muslim. He shows how such actions have given Senegal an inflated political and economic position and status as a highly creditworthy nation even as its domestic economy has faltered.Exploring these and many other aspects of Senegal's political economy and its interface with the international community, Ralph demonstrates that the international reputation of any nation-not just Senegal-is based on deep structural biases.

As one of Africa's few democracies, Senegal has long been thought of as a leader of moral, political, and economic development on the continent. We tend to assume that any such nation has achieved favorable international standing due to its own merits. In Forensics of Capital, Michael Ralph upends this kind of conventional thinking, showing how Senegal's diplomatic standing was strategically forged in the colonial and postcolonial eras at key periods of its history and is today entirely contingent on the consensus of wealthy and influential nations and international lending agencies. Ralph examines Senegal's crucial and pragmatic decisions related to its development and how they garnered international favor, decisions such as its opposition to Soviet involvement in African liberation - despite itself being a socialist state - or its support for the US-led war on terror - despite its population being predominately Muslim. He shows how such actions have given Senegal an inflated political and economic position and status as a highly creditworthy nation even as its domestic economy has faltered.Exploring these and many other aspects of Senegal's political economy and its interface with the international community, Ralph demonstrates that the international reputation of any nation-not just Senegal-is based on deep structural biases.