Books always make fantastic gifts, and with the holiday season gearing up we know shopping is on the mind. We’re here to help you find the perfect title for everyone on your list!
Below we have a gift guide for your holiday gifting needs. From autobiographies about incredible leaders to deep dives into intense moments of history, these are books that will not only be memorable presents but find a permanent place on your loved one’s shelves.
Already have one of the titles listed, or want to look at similar books? Each suggestion has an additional title to pique your interest and fill out your stockings.
Happy holidays!
Barrio Boy
By Ernesto Galarza
Journey with Ernesto Galarza through time, place, and culture in this stunning memoir of Mexican American identity and acculturation. Barrio Boy is the remarkable story of one boy’s journey from a Mexican village so small its main street didn’t have a name, to the barrio of Sacramento, California, bustling and thriving in the early decades of the twentieth century. With vivid imagery and a rare gift for re-creating a child’s sense of time and place, Ernesto Galarza gives an account of the early experiences of his extraordinary life—from revolution in Mexico to segregation in the United States—that will continue to engage readers for generations to come.
Like Barrio Boy? What about…
Harvest of Hope
The Pilgrimage of a Mexican-American Physician
by Jorge Prieto
Harvest of Hope is the remarkable autobiography of Dr. Jorge Prieto, a respected physician and former president of the Chicago Board of Health. Prieto immigrated to the United States as a struggling intern from Mexico and dedicated his life to bringing medical care to the disadvantaged and displaced Hispanic community in the United States. It is this experience that lends so much credence and compassion to this book.
Notre Dame vs. The Klan
How the Fighting Irish Defied the KKK
by Todd Tucker
In 1924, two uniquely American institutions clashed in northern Indiana: the University of Notre Dame and the Ku Klux Klan. Todd Tucker’s book, published for the first time in paperback, Notre Dame vs. The Klan tells the shocking story of the three-day confrontation in the streets of South Bend, Indiana, that would change both institutions forever. When the Ku Klux Klan announced plans to stage a parade and rally in South Bend, hoping to target college campuses for recruitment starting with Notre Dame, a large group of students defied their leaders’ pleas to ignore the Klan and remain on campus. Tucker dramatically recounts the events as only a proficient storyteller can. Readers will find themselves drawn into the fray of these tumultuous times.
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Nazis in Skokie:
Freedom, Community, and the First Amendment
by Donald Alexander Downs
In 1977, a Chicago-based Nazi group announced its plans to demonstrate in Skokie, Illinois, the home of hundreds of Holocaust survivors. The shocked survivor community rose in protest and the issue went to court, with the ACLU defending the Nazis’ right to free speech. The court ruled in the Nazis’ favor. According to the “content neutrality doctrine” governing First Amendment jurisprudence, the Nazis’ insults and villifications were “neutral”–not the issue, as far as the law was concerned. But to Downs, they are at issue. In Nazis in Skokie he challenges the doctrine of “content neutrality” and presents an argument for the minimal abridgment of free speech when that speech is intentionally harmful.
Five Biblical Portraits
by Elie Wiesel
Introduction by Ariel Burger
Nobel Peace Prize–winner Elie Wiesel brings ancient religious leaders to literary life, framing his commentary with pressing and enduring questions as a survivor and witness to the Holocaust. Five Biblical Portraits represents an old-new approach to Jewish textual commentary. This sequel to Elie Wiesel’s Messengers of God continues the work done in that volume of bringing religious figures to life and studying their place both in the text and in our lives. Wiesel reflects on his own life as well as the tragedy of the Holocaust as he discusses each figure and adds personal framing and insight into the religious study.
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Elie Wiesel:
Messenger to All Humanity, Revised Edition
by Robert McAfee Brown
Upon presenting the 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace to Elie Wiesel, Egil Aarvick, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee, hailed him as “a messenger to mankind–not with a message of hate and revenge but with one of brotherhood and atonement.” Elie Wiesel: Messenger to All Humanity, first published in 1983, echoes this theme and still affirms that message, a call to both Christians and Jews to face the tragedy of the Holocaust and begin again.
God, Country, Notre Dame
The Autobiography of Theodore M. Hesburgh
by Theodore M. Hesburgh C.S.C.
Experience Father Hesburgh’s life story in his own words in God, Country, Notre Dame. As an adviser to presidents, special envoy to popes, theologian, author, educator, and activist, Father Hesburgh was considered the most influential priest in America for decades. His autobiography brings his phenomenal accomplishments to readers with his own voice and personal perspective. Father Hesburgh recounts his family history, describing the people who helped make him the man he became, as well as his own childhood and adolescence. He tells stories of his time at Notre Dame all the way to his retirement. “This is essentially a memory book,” he explains in the acknowledgements, and there is no better way to get to know the incredible man he was and the legacy he created.
Like God, Country, Notre Dame? What about…
Go Forth and Do Good
Memorable Notre Dame Commencement Addresses
Edited by Wilson D. Miscamble C.S.C.
Foreword by Theodore M. Hesburgh C.S.C.
Go Forth and Do Good: Memorable Notre Dame Commencement Addresses brings together twenty-four notable graduation speeches, ranging from the words General Sherman delivered in 1865 to President George W. Bush’s remarks in 2001. Also included in this fine collection is a letter sent to 1986 graduates by Mother Teresa and Father Theodore M. Hesburgh’s final charge to the graduating class of 1987. Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C. provides a delightful introduction that clarifies the importance of the selected speeches, and places them in the context of the history of both Notre Dame and the world.