Edited by Laura Barraclough, Wendy Cheng, and Laura Pulido
Tourism is one of the largest and most profitable industries in the world today. Yet the vast majority of tourist guidebooks focus on a small, elite segment of the population and encourage consumption and spectacle as the primary way to experience a place. These representations do not reflect the reality of life for most urban residents—including people of color, the working class and poor, immigrants, indigenous people, and LGBTQ communities—nor are they embedded within a systematic analysis of power, privilege, and exploitation. We need a different kind of guidebook: one that explains power relations in a way everyone can understand, and which shares stories of struggle and resistance that inspire and educate activists, students, and critical thinkers.
A People’s Guide is a series of guidebooks that uncover the rich and vibrant stories of political struggle, oppression, and resistance in the everyday landscapes of major cities. Much as Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States infiltrated the standard history textbook with untold stories of the nation’s past, the series will reveal an alternative view through the format of a guidebook. These books will not only tell histories from the “bottom up,” but also show how landscapes are the product of struggle. Each book will include sites where the powerful have dominated and exploited other people and resources, as well as places where ordinary people have fought back in order to create a more just world. Entries will be accompanied by photographs, maps, personal reflections, and nearby sites of interest to create a resource that is both visually appealing and highly usable. People’s Guides are aimed at both locals and tourists, and are well suited for scholars and teachers of history and geography, activists, and those who seek a more authentic experience of place.
Currently, we are not accepting unsolicited proposals for this series.
Series Editors
Laura Barraclough is Professor of American Studies at Yale University.
Wendy Cheng is Associate Professor and Chair of American Studies at Scripps College.
Laura Pulido is the Collins Chair and Professor in Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies and Geography at the University of Oregon.
Advisory Board
Craig M. Dalton
Associate Professor of Global Studies and Geography, Hofstra University; co-founder, Counter-Cartographies Collective (3Cs)
Jen Jack Gieseking
Associate Professor of Geography, University of Kentucky
Mishuana Goeman (Tonawanda Band of Seneca)
Associate Professor of Gender Studies, Chair of American Indian Studies Interdepartmental Program and Associate Director of American Indian Studies Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles
Perla Guerrero
Associate Professor and Director of U.S. Latino(a) Studies Minor, American Studies, University of Maryland
Laura Harjo
Associate Professor of Native American Studies, University of Oklahoma
Matt Jacobson
Sterling Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University
Priscilla McCutcheon
Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Kentucky
Lorena Muñoz
Ethnic & Race Studies Director and Associate Dean for Inclusion, Equity & Engagement, California Lutheran University
Richa Nagar
Professor of the College, Russell M. and Elizabeth Bennett Chair in Excellence, University of Minnesota
Margaret Marietta Ramírez
Assistant Professor of Geography, Simon Fraser University
Ananya Roy
Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography and The Meyer and Renee Luskin Chair in Inequality and Democracy at the University of California, Los Angeles
Rosten Woo
Rosten Woo (he/him/his) is a designer, writer, and educator living in Los Angeles.
