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History and Current Events May 2019
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| Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt, PhDWhat it's about: supplemented with research and the author's own experiences with prejudice, this eye-opening work explores how readers can combat unconscious racial bias in their everyday lives.
Author alert: MacArthur fellow Jennifer L. Eberhardt is a Stanford University psychology professor and an expert on the topic of racial bias.
Book buzz: Just Mercy author Bryan Stevenson calls Biased "groundbreaking." |
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| Murder by the Book: The Crime That Shocked Dickens's London by Claire HarmanLondon, 1840: Penny dreadfuls are surging in popularity and are believed to be a corrupting influence on the city’s lower-class residents. When aristocrat Lord William Russell is brutally murdered in his home, is a book to blame?
Starring: prime suspect François Corvoisier, a valet of Russell's who claimed in court that William Harrison Ainsworth's crime novel Jack Sheppard drove him to the violent deed. |
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| The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Story by Cara RobertsonWhat it is: a fast-paced account of the notorious 1893 Lizzie Borden murder trial that utilizes court transcripts, newspaper accounts, and recently discovered letters written by Borden herself to argue that the jury who acquitted her got it wrong.
About the author: Debut author Cara Robertson is a lawyer and former Supreme Court clerk who spent 20 years researching the Borden case.
Who it's for: true crime aficionados and amateur sleuths. |
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Closing time : prohibition, rum-runners, and border wars by Daniel FrancisCanadians have long associated Prohibition with the colourful history of the Jazz Age in the United States. But even before the American ban that was in place from 1920 to 1933, Canada initiated its own Prohibition during World War I. The so-called Cold Water Army was led by zealots and prudes preaching hellfire and damnation, but also by committed social reformers who recognized the ill effect excessive drinking was having on family and social life in Canada. In March 1918, the federal government banned the manufacture and importation of liquor, making it illegal to have a drink anywhere in the country. For the next twenty-one months, Canada was as dry as any law could make it, which admittedly was not very dry. Closing Time: Prohibition, Rum-Runners, and Border Wars tells the story of this fascinating attempt by both provincial and federal governments to control the social habits of Canadians.
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The Irish War of Independence by Michael HopkinsonThe war was prosecuted ruthlessly by the Irish Republican Army which, paralleling the political efforts of Sinn Féin, hoped to break Britain's will to rule Ireland and create an independent Irish republic. The British retaliated by introducing two new irregular forces into Ireland, the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries. Fighting took place principally in counties Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Monaghan, Armagh, Clare, Kerry, and Longford. It was sporadic but vicious, with fewer than 2,000 IRA volunteers facing over 50,000 crown forces. The IRA depended upon energetic local leaders -- where there were none, there was little fighting.
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Defiant spirits : the modernist revolution of the Group of Seven
by Ross King
Recounts the story of the Group of Seven, Canadian painters who wanted to create an art movement based on the country's landscape, including the group's first meeting, the obstacles they faced from the local art community, disbandment, and legacy
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| One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill BrysonWhat it's about: how a single pivotal season signaled American's ascent to the world stage.
Topics include: Charles Lindbergh's ambitious transatlantic flight; Babe Ruth's career-best record of 60 home runs; the production of The Jazz Singer (the first "talking picture"); Al Capone's reign of terror.
Read it for: Bill Bryson's sly humor and unusual factoids (for instance, Calvin Coolidge enjoyed having Vaseline applied to his head). |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Lambton County Library 787 Broadway St. Wyoming, Ontario N0N1T0 519-845-3324www.lclibrary.ca |
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