An Escaped Slave who Fought for the Union and Whose Wartime Heroism was Finally Recognized with the Nation's Highest Honor for Military Valor

In 1862, Andrew “Andy” Jackson Smith, son of a white landowner and enslaved woman, es­caped to Union troops operating in Kentucky, made his way to the North, and volunteered for the 55th Massachusetts, one of the newly formed African American regiments. The regiment was deployed to South Carolina, and during a desperate assault on a Confederate battery, the color bearer was killed. Before the flag was lost, Smith quickly retrieved it and under heavy fire held the colors steady while the decimated regiment withdrew. The regiment’s commanding officer pro­moted Smith to color sergeant and wrote him a commendation for both saving the regimental flag and bravery under fire. Honorably discharged, Smith returned to Kentucky, where over the course of the next forty years he invested in land. In the early twentieth century, Burt G. Wilder, medical officer of the 55th, contacted Smith about his experiences for a book he was writing. During their correspondence, Wilder realized Smith was eligible for the nation’s highest award. In 1916, Wilder applied to the army, but his request for Smith’s medal was denied due to the “absence of records.” At Smith’s death in 1932, his daughter Caruth received a box of his papers revealing the extent of her father’s heroism. Her nephew took up the cause and through long and painstaking research located the lost records. With the help of historians, local politicians, and others, Andrew Jackson Smith received his long overdue Medal of Honor in 2001.

In Carrying the Colors: The Life and Legacy of Medal of Honor Recipient Andrew Jackson Smith, the riveting journey from slavery to a White House ceremony is revealed, with the indomitable spirit of Smith—slave, soldier, landowner, father—mirrored by the dogged pursuit of his grandson and his allies in the quest to discover the truth about an American who dedicated his life to the service of his community and country.

A principal coloration scientist offers a comprehensive and beautifully illustrated synthesis of coloration in mammals, weaving together contemporary research on evolution, underlying genetics, visual systems, and relevance to humans. 

Why are giant pandas black and white, mandrills red and blue, but mice brown? How do mammalian colors and patterns develop? And why do we see in three colors, but deer do not? A cadre of evolutionary scientists, including geneticists, behavioral ecologists, visual ecologists, and anthropologists have worked for over a century to answer these and other questions about the origin and functions of mammal coloration in nature. One of them is celebrated biologist Tim Caro, who has studied animal coloration for over three decades. In this landmark book, he presents a synthesis of experimental and observational studies to explain how and why animal coloration has evolved for three primary reasons: protection against predators, communication, and to respond to environmental factors. Furthermore, Caro provides accessible descriptions of the various genetic and visual mechanisms that have shaped mammals’ extraordinarily diverse colors and patterns. 

Victorian naturalists were the first to recognize that coloration influences individuals’ survival and reproduction, and this led to an explosion of research on its adaptive significance a century later. Then, at the beginning of the twentieth century, biologists began to work on the genomic and developmental basis of coloration. Since then, genetic studies on model organisms, particularly mice, have led to a deep understanding of the genes regulating the production of melanin pigments and lately, pattern formation. Simultaneously, scientists have studied organisms’ color perception. However, these functional, molecular, and mechanistic approaches rarely overlap, as they historically emanate from different areas of science. In this book, Caro ties these areas of research together for the first time. Caro outlines perception and production of color; teases apart different aspects of protective coloration; discusses social and sexual signaling; explores environmental drivers of coloration in nonhuman mammals, including domesticated species; and discusses human biology and our use of color in clothing. The resulting volume offers readers both a holistic view of today’s science and an honest assessment of the remaining questions for future research.

Demonstrates the role of Beirut’s postwar graffiti and street art in transforming the cityscape and animating resistance.

Over the last two decades in Beirut, graffiti makers have engaged in a fierce “war of colors,” seeking to disrupt and transform the city’s physical and social spaces. In A War of Colors, Nadine Sinno examines how graffiti and street art have been used in postwar Beirut to comment on the rapidly changing social dynamics of the country and region. Analyzing how graffiti makers can reclaim and transform cityscapes that were damaged or monopolized by militias during the war, Sinno explores graffiti’s other roles, including forging civic engagement, commemorating cultural icons, protesting political corruption and environmental violence, and animating resistance. In addition, she argues that graffiti making can offer voices to those who are often marginalized, especially women and LGBTQ people. Copiously illustrated with images of graffiti and street art, A War of Colors is a visually captivating and thought-provoking journey through Beirut, where local and global discourses intersect on both scarred and polished walls in the city.