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Popular Culture January 2021
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Inspired By Current Events |
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American coup : how a terrified government is destroying the constitution
by William M Arkin
When we think of a military coup, the first image that comes to mind is a general, standing at a podium with a flag behind him, declaring the deposing of elected leaders and the institution of martial law.
Think again. In American Coup, William Arkin reveals the desk-bound takeover of the highest reaches of government by a coterie of "grey men" of the national security establishment. Operating between the lines of the Constitution, this powerful and unelected group fights to save the nation from "terror" and weapons of mass destruction while at the same time modifying and undermining the very essence of the country. Many books are written about secrecy, surveillance, and government law-breaking; none so powerfully expose the truth of everyday life in this state of war.
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The coup : 1953, the CIA, and the roots of modern U.S.-Iranian relations
by Ervand Abrahamian
In August 1953, the Central Intelligence Agency orchestrated the swift overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected leader and installed Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in his place. When the 1979 Iranian Revolution deposed the shah and replaced his puppet government with a radical Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the shift reverberated throughout the Middle East and the world, casting a long, dark shadow over United States-Iran relations that persists. In this authoritative new history of the coup and its aftermath, noted Iran scholar Ervand Abrahamian uncovers little-known documents that challenge conventional interpretations and sheds new light on how the American role in the coup influenced diplomatic relations between the two countries, past and present. Drawing from the hitherto closed archives of British Petroleum, the Foreign Office, and the US State Department, as well as from Iranian memoirs and published interviews, Abrahamian’s riveting account of this key historical event will change America’s understanding of a crucial turning point in modern United States-Iranian relations.
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Wilmington's lie : the murderous coup of 1898 and the rise of white supremacy
by David Zucchino
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Myth of the Welfare Queen documents the events of the 1898 Wilmington Insurrection and its unrecognized role in reversing the city’s mixed-race advances, overthrowing local government and promoting white-supremacist agendas.
“The dumbfounding, true story in David Zucchino’s Wilmington’s Lie [is] so lacerating, so appalling you often can’t believe what you’re reading. I hope this powerful book helps preserve this bad memory for a long time… Zucchino is your ideal guide. The Pulitzer Prize-winner and former Inquirer staffer is a tireless, resourceful reporter, an incisive social analyst, and a direct, often elegant writer.”―Philadelphia Inquirer
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Coup : the day the Democrats ousted their governor, put Republican Lamar Alexander in office early, and stopped a pardon scandal
by Keel Hunt
Coup is the behind-the-scenes story of an abrupt political transition, unprecedented in US history. Based on 163 interviews, Hunt describes how collaborators came together from opposite sides of the political aisle and, in an extraordinary few hours, reached agreement that the corruption and madness of the sitting Governor of Tennessee, Ray Blanton, must be stopped. The sudden transfer of power that caught Blanton unawares was deemed necessary because of what one FBI agent called "the state's most heinous political crime in half a century" -- selling pardons for cash.
On January 17, 1979, driven by new information that some of the worst criminals in the state's penitentiaries were about to be released (and fears that James Earl Ray might be one of them), a small bipartisan group chose to take charge. Senior Democratic leaders, friends of the sitting governor, together with the Republican governor-elect Lamar Alexander (now US Senator from Tennessee), agreed to oust Blanton from office before another night fell. It was a maneuver unique in American political history.
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All the Shah's men : an American coup and the roots of Middle East terror
by Stephen Kinzer
Traces the events leading to the 1953 coup in Iran, noting the reasons behind the U.S.'s covert operations under the joint authority of Eisenhower and Churchill, the orchestrations of prime minister Mossadegh and CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt, and the coup's ongoing consequences.
"An exciting narrative. [Kinzer] questions whether Americans are well served by interventions for regime change abroad, and he reminds us of the long history of Iranian resistance to great power interventions, as well as the unanticipated consequences of intervention." —The Los Angeles Times
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2020 National Book Awards, Fiction |
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Interior Chinatown
by Charles Yu
A stereotyped character actor stumbles into the spotlight before uncovering surprising links between his family and the secret history of Chinatown. By the award-winning author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.
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Leave the world behind : a novel
by Rumaan Alam
Sheltering in a New York beach house with a couple that has taken refuge during a massive blackout, a family struggles for information about the power failure while wondering if the cut-off property is actually safe.
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A children's bible : a novel
by Lydia Millet
Contemptuous of the equally neglectful and suffocating parents who would pass the summer in a stupor of drugs and sex, one dozen eerily mature children run away as a dangerous storm descends and subjects them to apocalyptic chaos, and devastating consequence.
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The secret lives of church ladies
by Deesha Philyaw
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a reprieve from being good. The stories in this collection feature four generations grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.
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Shuggie Bain : a novel
by Douglas Stuart
A young boy growing up in a rundown 1980s Glasgow public housing facility pursues some semblance of a normal life as his older siblings move on and his mother increasingly succumbs to alcoholism.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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