The school careers of two teenage girls who lived across town from each other—one black, one white—were altered by a court-ordered desegregation plan for Durham, NC in 1970. LaHoma and Cindy both found themselves at the same high school from different sides of a court-ordered racial “balancing act.” This plan thrust each of them involuntarily out of their comfort zones and into new racial landscapes. Their experiences, recounted in alternating first-person narratives, are the embodiment of desegregation policies, situated in a particular time and place. Their intertwining coming of age stories are part of a bigger story about America, education, and race—and about how the personal relates to the political.

This dual memoir covers the two women’s trajectories from early school days to future careers working in global public health and challenging gender biases, racial inequities, and health disparities. LaHoma and Cindy tell their stories aware of the country’s return to de facto school segregation, achieved through the long-term dismantling of policies that initially informed their school assignments. As adults, they consider the influence of school desegregation on their current lives and the value of bringing all of us into conversation about what is lost or gained when children go to school in black and white.

After the Allied D-Day landings in June 1944, Paris was liberated in late August, and the rest of France was freed in the following weeks. However, two pockets of German occupation in Royan and La Rochelle, both cities along the Atlantic coast, remained occupied for several months more.

Blocking access to Bordeaux, the city of Royan would end in martyrdom under a carpet of Allied bombs on January 5, 1945. But the fortress of La Rochelle, with its port, submarine base, and German garrison of 14,000 soldiers guarding the historic city and its 30,000 civilians, would later be delivered intact to Allied forces by its occupier.

By what perilous negotiations were two enemy officers able to avoid disaster in the besieged city? Two men of honor, French Commander Hubert Meyer and German Admiral Ernst Schirlitz, strove to see beyond the war toward reconciliation and the reconstruction of Europe.

Step into a vividly illustrated confrontation with history—where the darkness of the 20th century looms large. Drawing on pivotal moments and influential figures, from the chaos of World War I to the rise of totalitarian regimes, D.E. Davis compellingly tells how humanity found itself teetering on the brink of nuclear annihilation. With insights gained from the likes of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Hannah Arendt, and George Orwell, When the World Dies examines the philosophical underpinnings of evil and the moral obligations of the living.

This timely look at what led civilization to the brink of nuclear war and the societal steps required to back away from that ledge asks readers to consider the Age of Infamy from a perspective informed by history. Join D.E. Davis on this eye-opening journey as he challenges us to reflect on our past in order to confront our present and cultivate a future of possibility.