We are pleased to announce that A House for the Struggle: The Black Press and the Built Environment in Chicago by E. James West has received Honorable Mention for the 2021-22 RSAP Book Prize (Research Society for American Periodicals).

This recognition comes with $1,000 and a one-year membership to the Research Society for American Periodicals, which includes a subscription to the society’s journal, American Periodicals.

Here is prize committee’s commendation for the book:

“The Research Society for American Periodicals awards an honorable mention for the 2021-22 Book Prize to E. James West’s A House for the Struggle: The Black Press and the Built Environment in Chicago. West explores the contexts of Black periodical production with an expansive lens—including the people, places, and practices—placing periodical studies in conversation with the architecture of Chicago’s urban landscape and the cartography of Black political struggles. Buildings and city blocks carry symbolic and political meaning, which A House for the Struggle explores, deepening our understanding of the impact of the publishers’ physical locations: their offices conveyed meaning about the content of the periodicals, became sites of political ambivalence, and built a sense of community beyond the sphere of Black print culture.”

Congratulations, Dr. West!