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As the default color of our built environment, it asks us to believe that it’s neutral—that it has no signifiers or, perhaps more troublingly, that what it \u003ci\u003edoes\u003c\/i\u003e signify, whether it be calmness, cleanliness, blankness, or purity, is unassailable and value-free. In this expansive, impassioned examination, cultural critic Wendy S. Walters interrogates all that we have taken for granted about the substance that colors, or fails to color, the structures and objects that surround us—and what the collective impulse toward white paint can tell us about culture, politics, and individual desire.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Tracing the unquantifiable impact of white paint on our lived environment and in our collective imaginary, \u003ci\u003eA Dead White\u003c\/i\u003e braids together multiple narrative threads and associations. Exploring the role of white paint in art history, architecture, and consumer culture, it follows its influence into the home, the halls of the workplace, the galleries and studios of the contemporary art world, and larger forums of mass culture and national identity, never losing sight of how this cultural inclination manifests in our choices and habits as individuals. Deeply investigated and anchored by Walters’s immediate sensory experiences and instincts, her intelligence and lucid prose ground this encompassing, utterly fresh work of cultural criticism.","brand":"None","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46717613867218,"sku":"9781982178550","price":42.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Kobo eBook","offer_id":46717123133650,"sku":"260fd4d1-4026-365e-91de-60031229b818","price":20.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0655\/8980\/5233\/files\/image_f677eb89-9bac-4929-b8a4-f7c687d80ea0.jpg?v=1771686123"},{"product_id":"the-evolution-of-fire-essays-on-crisis-and-becoming","title":"The Evolution of Fire: Essays on Crisis and Becoming","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglisted in the 2026 National Book Awards\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eKatie Couric Media\u003c\/i\u003e Summer Reading Selection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Evolution of Fire\u003c\/i\u003e is stunningly written—vivid in imagery, in the braiding together of language, and in the honoring of every person it shines a light on.\"—Hanif Abdurraqib, author of \u003ci\u003eThere's Always This Year\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the celebrated author of \u003ci\u003eLimber\u003c\/i\u003e, a luminous collection of essays about crisis, hope, and the decision to resist or embrace evolution—a book about time, for our time.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCrisis is an agent of evolution, and Angela Pelster knows what it means to evolve. As a child, she burned grass to keep weeds at bay and watched tadpoles transform. She basked in the warmth of her father’s love but was burned by his rage, and she witnessed a sudden, unnamable change occur in her older sister after an encounter with a stranger in a white van. In adulthood, she survived the explosion of her marriage, the destruction of her burning home, and a year spent as the single mother of a toddler without a home of their own. And like us all, she has weathered the upheaval of our current atmosphere—political instability, climate change, mass extinction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut in spite of the world’s violence, Pelster manages to remain open to its beauty, deciding not to resist change, but to give herself over to it and let evolution make her into a new animal. She plumbs the depths of ancestral knowledge to uncover the scale of our ancient capacity for adaptation, from humankind’s early harnessing of fire to the grandmothers responsible for our continued existence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeditative and curious, pulsing with fascination, fear, and the untamable human spirit, \u003ci\u003eThe Evolution of Fire\u003c\/i\u003e contemplates who we are now and what we still might become. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"None","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46816880820434,"sku":"9781639551231","price":30.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Kobo eBook","offer_id":46815696093394,"sku":"36dac965-662b-3584-a7f0-7419ff398101","price":12.09,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0655\/8980\/5233\/files\/image_26703144-5db8-4856-9194-d4c9e1213cba.jpg?v=1775660470"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.indigo.ca\/collections\/national-book-awards-non-fiction.oembed","provider":"Indigo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}