Recounts the author's Irish-Catholic upbringing in a 1960s Philadelphia housing project, discussing his alcoholic father's volatile temper and his struggles to forge a more promising future through his love for books and music.

"Journalist Janny Scott describes the world that shaped her father, Robert Montgomery Scott (whose mother, Helen Hope Scott, was said to have inspired Katherine Hepburn's character in the play and the film The Philadelphia Story), and provides a look at the weight of inheritance, the tenacity of addiction, and the power of buried secrets"--

Young Betsy Ross is upset when her brother tells her that she cannot make furniture because she is a girl, but her mother teaches her that she can still do important things.

"Mumia Abu Jamal, America's most famous political prisoner, is internationally known for his radio broadcasts and books emerging 'Live from Death Row.' In his youth Mumia Abu-Jamal helped found the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party, wrote for the national newspaper, and began his life-long work of exposing the violence of the state as it manifests in entrenched poverty, endemic racism, and unending police brutality. In We Want Freedom,...