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History and Current Events August 2020
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Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams What it is: a well-researched history of voter suppression and disenfranchisement in the United States.
Is it for you? Policy wonks and progressives looking for a hopeful rejoinder to current political discourse will be inspired by politician and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams' proposals to end suppression tactics.
Author alert: 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Abrams made history in 2019 by becoming the first African American woman to deliver the response to the State of the Union address. | | Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward... by Robert M. Gates What it is: an incisive exploration of the uses and misuses of American power, written by former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.
Topics include: the 2003 invasion of Iraq; China's rise as a global superpower; North Korea's nuclear capabilities; Russia's destabilizing influence.
Reviewers say: "a judicious yet bracingly contrarian take on military and foreign policy from the ultimate insider" (Publishers Weekly). | | The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy by Thomas Penn What it's about: As the Wars of the Roses raged on in 15th-century Europe, three men at the center of the conflict -- House of York brothers Edward, George, and Richard -- saw their fragile unity upended by shifting alliances, greed, and paranoia.
Read it for: a dramatic and vivid narrative that reads like fiction, full of court intrigue, conspiracy plots, battles, and betrayals.
For fans of: Game of Thrones and Shakespeare's Richard III. | |
Driving while black : African American travel and the road to civil rights
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Gretchen Sullivan Sorin
What it's about: The true story behind the award-winning film of the same name explores the role of travel in civil rights, the specific impact of the automobile on African-American life and the cultural importance of Victor and Alma Green’s famous Green Book.
What the critics are saying: “The sweeping story of African Americans and automobiles―a tale of mobility and mobilization that helped fuel the Civil Rights Movement.” - Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian
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Four friends : promising lives cut short
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William D Cohan
What's inside: The award-winning author of The Last Tycoons shares a powerful portrait of four of his fellow Andover boarding-school graduates, including John F. Kennedy, Jr. It is an elegant, poignant, arresting story, showing us two descendants of American Presidents and two of their classmates close up at a legendary boarding school and how their lives later ended with sudden accident and violence.
Why you might like it: The account is an immersive, wide-ranging, tragic, and ultimately inspiring account of promising lives cut short, written with compassion, honesty, and insight.
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Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the... by Eva Dillon Who it's about: Russian double agent Dimitri Polyavok and his handler, American CIA operative Paul Dillon (the author's father), two men on opposite sides of the Cold War who nonetheless struck up a lifelong friendship.
Why you might like it: Eva Dillon's intimate and well-researched account alternates between both men's experiences and explores the surprising commonalities in their home lives and career trajectories. | | The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics That Helped America Win the Cold War by Antonio & Jonna Mendez with Matt Baglio What it is: a fast-paced account of husband-and-wife duo Antonio and Jonna Mendez's time spent working as CIA agents in 1970s Moscow.
Don't miss: the gadgets (including a rappelling tool nicknamed "the Spiderman") and techniques (disguises, sleight of hand, and misdirection taught by magicians) the pair utilized in their spycraft.
Movie buzz: Ben Affleck portrayed Antonio Mendez in the Oscar-winning Argo. | |
To Build a Better World : Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth
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Condoleezza Rice
What's inside:Two of America's leading scholar-diplomats, Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, have combed sources in several languages, interviewed leading figures, and drawn on their own firsthand experience to bring to life the choices that molded the contemporary world.
What critics are saying: "An important behind-the-scenes account of how East Germany was folded into West Germany at breakneck speed -- an event that precipitated the demise of the Soviet Union."―The New Yorker
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Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation
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Steve Vogel
What it's about: "Operation Gold," the ambitious yet ultimately doomed endeavor between the CIA and MI5 to construct a tunnel into East Berlin to tap into Soviet communication lines.
What happened: Thanks to the efforts of double agent George Blake, Soviet authorities had been aware of the tunnel's existence since its inception in 1951, but to protect Blake, waited until 1956 to "discover" it.
Read it for: a pulse-pounding and dramatic storyline reminiscent of a John le Carré novel.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Forsyth County Public Library 660 W 5th Street Winston Salem, North Carolina 27101 336-703-3030www.forsythlibrary.org |
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