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History and Current Events January 2020
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| America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika LeeWhat it is: a sweeping yet accessible deep dive into America's fear and hatred of immigrants, from the Colonial era to the present.
Topics include: the 19th-century Know Nothing movement; the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; Japanese American internment during World War II; contemporary Islamophobia and anti-Mexican sentiments.
Author alert: Award-winning historian Erika Lee (The Making of Asian America) is the director of the Immigration History Research Center. |
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| Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Iain MacGregorWhat it's about: how Cold War tensions spurred the construction of Checkpoint Charlie, the border crossing separating East and West Germany that became a powerful symbol of the era.
Why you might like it: This dramatic, well-researched account was published to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
What sets it apart: never-before-seen interviews with border guards, intelligence operatives, and escapees. |
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| Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for... by Jessica McDiarmidWhat it is: a heart-wrenching exposé on British Columbia's Highway 16, known as the "Highway of Tears" because of the disappearances or murders of many Indigenous girls and women in the area.
Why it matters: Journalist Jessica McDiarmid's "powerful must-read" (Booklist) illuminates how these unsolved and underreported crimes are a microcosm of the systemic forces that continue to fail vulnerable Indigenous populations throughout Canada. |
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Mobituaries : Great Lives Worth Reliving
by Mo Rocca
The popular television correspondent and writer presents an irreverent celebration of the dead people who made life worth living, chronicling the stories of less-remembered notables, from political families and sitcom characters to a forgotten Founding Father.
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Labyrinth of Ice : the Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition
by Buddy Levy
Tells the gripping true story of Lt. A.W. Greely who, in July 1881, along with his crew of 24 scientists and explorers, embarked on a quest for fame and fortune that resulted in one of the most harrowing adventures in the annals of polar exploration. Read by Will Damron.
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| This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled... by David J. SilvermanWhat it's about: the complex 50-year alliance between the Wampanoag tribe and European colonizers that ended with King Philip's War, a three-year conflict that almost completely annihilated the Wampanoag.
Why you might like it: This impassioned narrative centers the Wampanoag people's experiences, offering insights into why the alliance was brokered and how the tribe persisted in the face of devastation.
Don't miss: profiles of Wampanoag activists, including Frank James (1923-2001), who established the National Day of Mourning in 1970. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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