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History and Current Events October 2020
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| Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. What it's about: how James Baldwin's writings on the failures of the civil rights movement remain just as relevant today.
Read it for: an impassioned and incisive blend of history, literary analysis, and own voices memoir.
Topics include: mass incarceration; the Black Lives Matter movement; Confederate monument removals; the election of Donald Trump. |
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| Ghost Flames: Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950-1953 by Charles J. HanleyWhat it is: a sweeping yet intimate history of the Korean War.
What sets it apart: This richly detailed account explores the war's devastation as experienced by 20 different people, including soldiers and military leaders from both sides, refugees, students, religious figures, and journalists.
About the author: Journalist Charles J. Hanley won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for his reportage on the No Gun Ri massacre. |
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The Contamination of the Earth : A History of Pollutions in the Industrial Age
by Francois Jarrige
What it is: A social and political history of industrial pollution, mapping its trajectories over three centuries, from the toxic wastes of early tanneries to the fossil fuel energy regime of the twentieth century.
The take-away: Viewing the history of pollution though a political lens, the authors offer lessons for the future of the industrial world.
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On Their Own Terms : True Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island
by Haley Kuntz
What it's about: Vancouver Island has been home to an astounding number of inspiring women. On Their Own Terms celebrates the achievements of seventeen amazing heroines, from world-famous artists to social activists to groundbreaking scientists and quietly defiant labourers.
Who you'll meet: Pioneer and midwife Tuwa ‘hwiye Tusium Gollelim, Mary Ann Gyves; world-renowned algae botanist Josephine Tilden; undiscovered aviatrix Lilian Bland; Vancouver Island’s first African-Canadian teacher, Emma Stark; and entrepreneur and bounty hunter Ada Annie Rae-Arthur, better known as Cougar Annie.
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Field Notes from a Pandemic : A Journey Through a World Suspended
by Ethan Lou
What happens: Visiting Beijing in January to see his dying grandfather, Canadian journalist Ethan Lou unknowingly walks into a state under siege. In his journey out of China and into other hot zones in Asia and Europe, he finds himself witnessing the very earliest stages of a virus that will forever change the world as we know it.
What the author argues: Lou argues that Coronavirus will have a far greater impact than SARS, because China is now many more times integrated with the increasingly interconnected world. Globalization has crafted a world painfully sensitive and susceptible to shocks such as this pandemic. A crisis like it has thus been long overdue--and we have yet to see it unfold fully.
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War : How Conflict Shaped Us
by Margaret MacMillan
What it's about: War is all around us, from the metaphors we use to the names on our maps. As books, movies, and television series show, we are drawn to the depiction of war. Nevertheless, we think of war as the breakdown of the normal state of peace. This is comforting but wrong. War is woven into the fabric of human civilization.
What's inside: Margaret MacMillan analyzes the tangled history of war and society and our complicated feelings towards it and towards those who fight. It explores the ways in which changes in society have affected the nature of war and how in turn wars have changed the societies that fight them.
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| Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil PriceWhat it is: a demythologizing history of the Viking Age (750-1050 CE) written by archaeologist and longtime Viking scholar Neil Price.
Why you might like it: Aided by archaeological discoveries, this nuanced and well-researched account offers vivid recreations of Viking rituals that have often been misrepresented in popular culture.
Don't miss: a gruesome description of a Viking funeral. |
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The Rat People : A Journey Through Beijing's Forbidden Underground
by Patrick Saint-Paul
What it's about: China is the second largest economy in the world, poised to overtake the US, its rapid growth achieved on the backs of its workforce, many of whom were peasant farmers turned into urban migrant workers. A million of them and their descendants live underground in Beijing under inhuman conditions.
Who are the "Rat People?" Patrick Saint-Paul spent two years living among the “rat people” (shizu) of Beijing. They come to Beijing from all parts of the country for jobs, but cannot afford their own homes on their meager salaries. For them, China’s dream of prosperity for all is a bitter fallacy.
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| Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel WilkersonWhat it's about: the "shape-shifting, unspoken, race-based" caste system that has shaped four centuries of American history.
Read it for: a timely and thought-provoking exploration of how rigid social hierarchies dehumanize the people who live within them.
Book buzz: This impassioned latest from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson (The Warmth of Other Suns) was recently named an Oprah's Book Club pick. |
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