Yolo County Library
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History and Current Events February 2017
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| The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty by Tracy BormanAccording to historian Tracy Borman, the private lives of the Tudors weren't so private -- at least, in the modern sense of "privacy." In this thoroughly researched book, drawing on contemporary journals and correspondence as well as official documents, Borman traces the monarchs' personal lives from Henry VII to Elizabeth I. No royal personage passed a single moment unattended -- even when using the chamber pot. Though the dynasty has been portrayed in reams of nonfiction and fiction, The Private Lives of the Tudors offers the first up-close and personal account of these rulers. For an intriguing and more general depiction of 16th-century English life, try Ian Mortimer's Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England. |
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| Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Transformed America by Jonathan ChaitJust as President Barack Obama leaves office, journalist Jonathan Chait provides an assessment of his presidency. Covering Obama's economic and foreign policies; his actions on health care, environmental protection, and education; and his leadership in financial reforms, Chait provides well-researched details about each area. He discusses initiatives in which Obama was unsuccessful, while giving him an overall positive rating. The book's title, Audacity, refers to Obama's firmness, clear vision, and willingness to maneuver strategically to accomplish his aims. While some immediate responses to Obama's achievements and Chait's evaluation may be negative, Kirkus Reviews calls this a "well-organized, clearly written case that will be valuable to future historians in their assessments." |
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| The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 by Richard J. EvansBetween 1815 and 1914, Europe saw significant changes in every area: science and the arts, politics and culture, industrialization, and views on individual liberty. In The Pursuit of Power, award-winning historian Richard Evans explores European developments during the 19th century, finding special significance in the quest for power by individuals in all social classes, by business leaders, and, of course, by governments. This thematically organized, accessible entry in the Penguin History of Europe series will please history buffs, especially those intrigued by the rise of modernism. |
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| How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David FranceBased on the Oscar-winning documentary of the same name, How to Survive a Plague details the battle to address and finally tame the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and '90s. While governments ignored the devastating effects of the disease, religious leaders blamed its victims, and the death toll mounted, activists refused to wait for public policy to catch up. Organizing on several fronts, gay and lesbian people and their supporters pushed their life-saving agenda forward, changing public opinion as they went. Profiling important figures in the movement (both behind the scenes and out front), journalist David France, who directed the documentary film, serves up a gripping historical tale. |
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Evicted : poverty and profit in the American city
by Matthew Desmond
A Harvard sociologist examines the under-represented challenge of eviction as a formidable cause of poverty in America, revealing how millions of people are wrongly forced from their homes and reduced to cycles of extreme disadvantage that are reinforced by dysfunctional legal systems.
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African Americans in History
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| The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. BaptistIn The Half Has Never Been Told, Cornell University historian Edward Baptist minutely examines the institution of slavery, demonstrating how it enabled the United States to become a global economic power through the production of cotton. Drawing on narratives of enslaved people, plantation records, and the words of slave owners, politicians, and escaped slaves, Baptist compellingly details the system of enslavement as well as the economic and social benefits it supplied to the industrializing North -- in addition to the South's plantation economy. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews credits Baptist's "staggering scholarship" with significantly improving our appreciation of slavery's role in U.S. history. |
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| A Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America [on order] by Jacqueline JonesBuilding on biographical sketches of six people of color to illustrate the devastating effects of the notion of "race," acclaimed historian Jacqueline Jones points out that race has no scientific basis and isn't a static concept. Despite the arbitrary and shifting definitions of race, however, people of color have consistently been denied social and economic rights that are automatically extended to white people. Jones' thought-provoking analysis eloquently demonstrates that, though race is a myth, it's a powerful one. She concludes by showing how the relative position of people of color in American society has declined even more since 2008. |
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Blood at the root : a racial cleansing in America
by Patrick Phillips
A harrowing testament to the deep roots of racial violence in America chronicles acts of racial cleansing in early 20th-century Forsyth County, Georgia, where the murder of a young girl led to mob lynchings, acts of terror against black workers and violent protests by night riders trying to enforce whites-only citizenship.
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The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race
by Jesmyn Ward, editor
In The Fire This Time, National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward brings together essays and poems by contemporary African American writers who offer thought-provoking examinations of racial issues in modern America. Referring to James Baldwin's 1963 classic The Fire Next Time, the anthology vividly portrays the black experience through the eyes of scholars, young college students, an expectant husband, and a mother of daughters. This book offers "freshly minted perspectives" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) on familiar subjects and another compelling read for those who appreciated Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me.
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| First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School by Alison StewartIn First Class, broadcast journalist Alison Stewart relates the over 140 years' history of America's first public high school for African Americans. Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. was for many years an outstanding preparatory school whose famous graduates included author Jean Toomer, scholars Anna J. Cooper and Carter G. Woodson, and jazz musicians James Reese Europe and Billy Taylor. However, since public schools were integrated, Dunbar has become like many other inner-city schools, with a high drop-out rate and unmotivated students. Stewart candidly reports Dunbar's contemporary problems in contrast with its stellar early years, accompanying an uplifting history with a sobering reminder of the burdens of racial discrimination on the current generation. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Yolo County Library
226 Buckeye St. Woodland, California 95695 530-666-8005
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