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History and Current EventsFebruary 2016
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"Even thinking about freedom could be dangerous." ~ from Betty DeRamus' Freedom by Any Means
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It ended badly : thirteen of the worst breakups in history by Jennifer Wright"A humorous, well-researched pop history of the disastrous love lives of prominent historical figures, from Lord Byron to Elizabeth Taylor. If you are lying in bed right now, a pint of ice cream in one hand, a bottle of scotch in the other, and this book clenched between your teeth (one tooth is missing from last night's bar fight), with tears streaming down your face over how much you loved, loved, loved your ex, let me commend you on how well you are coping. You could be doing so much worse. So much worse. You could be beheading your ex, or castrating strangers, or starting an exciting new life with a sex doll. In It Ended Badly, New York Observer columnist Jennifer Wright guides you through thirteen of the worst breakups of notable figures in history--from Emperor Nero (sadist, murderer several times over), to Viennese artist Oskar Kokoschka (he of the aforementioned sex doll), to Norman Mailer (public stabbing). With her conversational tone and considerable wit, Wright digs deep into the archives to bring these terrible breakups to life. It's fun, pop history that educates, entertains, and really puts your own bad breakup behavior into perspective. It Ended Badly is for anyone who's loved and lost and maybe sent one too many ill-considered, late-night emails to their ex--reminding us that no matter how badly we've behaved, no one is as bad as Henry VIII."
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| Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja RadenViewing the history of human desire for the rare and beautiful through eight stories about jewels, Aja Raden, a scientist, historian, and jeweler, offers fascinating tales of wars begun and crowns lost, as well as accounts of scientific advances. She places these historic events in the context of greed and envy; gem chemistry and geology; and the relationship between social expectations and intrinsic value. Using humor and vividly recounted anecdotes, Stoned offers a captivating narrative of how shiny objects have influenced history. |
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Queen Victoria's mysterious daughter : a biography of Princess Louise by Lucinda HawksleyIn Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter, Lucinda Hawksley delves into artistic and royal secrets to discover the life of Princess Louise, whose true story has either been lost in history or has been deliberately kept secret. The sixth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had a difficult childhood and troubled adolescence, a world away from the usual perception of the life of a privileged princess. For such a prominent public figure, much of her life story has been hidden away inside impenetrable walls. What was so scandalous about this princess that her files in the Royal Archives and at her husband's home, Inveraray Castle in Scotland, still need to be locked away? Can we believe, as many do, that Louise in fact gave birth secretly to an illegitimate royal child? An indomitable woman, Louise lived her life to the full, in a manner that few 21st-century readers would believe possible for a 19th-century woman. She lived through wars and revolutions. As well as being a prominent member of the Aesthetic art world, Princess Louise was a passionate campaigner for women's rights, health reform and education for all. She travelled widely, holidaying in Europe, Africa and North America, and she lived in Canada for five years as the wife of the Governor General. Here is our best evidence yet that Queen Victoria's many secrets have yet to be fully disclosed.
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The Lovers : Romeo and Juliet in Afghanistan by Rod Nordland Zakia and Ali grew up as neighbors and fell in love from afar. Defying their families and Afghan custom, the young lovers--both from different Muslim sects--eloped and went into hiding. When Rod Nordland came upon them, he felt obligated, having shared their story in the pages of the New York Times, to help them to safety--but there was a limit to how well he could protect them. Despite more than a decade of American good intentions, women in Afghanistan are still subjected to some of the worst human rights violations in the world. Rod Nordland tells a compelling tale of forbidden love, governmental bungling, and reckless disregard for basic human rights, and illustrates the degree to which mysogyny persists in traditional Afghan culture. The Lovers is a story of one couple's unshakable self-determination and the irrepressibility of human feeling in the face of a shockingly repressive society.
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Dynasty : the rise and fall of the House of Caesar by Tom HollandAuthor and historian Tom Holland returns to his roots in Roman history and the audience he cultivated with Rubicon --his masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of the fall of the Roman republic--with Dynasty , a luridly fascinating history of the reign of the first five Roman emperors.
Dynasty continues Rubicon 's story, opening where that book ended: with the murder of Julius Caesar. This is the period of the first and perhaps greatest Roman Emperors and it's a colorful story of rule and ruination, running from the rise of Augustus through to the death of Nero. Holland's expansive history also has distinct shades of I Claudius , with five wonderfully vivid (and in three cases, thoroughly depraved) Emperors--Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero--featured, along with numerous fascinating secondary characters. Intrigue, murder, naked ambition and treachery, greed, gluttony, lust, incest, pageantry, decadence--the tale of these five Caesars continues to cast a mesmerizing spell across the millennia.
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Focus on: African American History |
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Showdown : Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court nomination that changed America by Wil HaygoodThe author of The Butler presents a revelatory biography of the first African-American Supreme Court justice—one of the giants of the civil rights movement, and one of the most transforming Supreme Court justices of the 20th century. Using the framework of the dramatic, contentious five-day Senate hearing to confirm Marshall as the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Haygood creates a provocative and moving look at Marshall's life as well as the politicians, lawyers, activists, and others who shaped--or desperately tried to stop--the civil rights movement of the twentieth century. This galvanizing book makes clear that it is impossible to overestimate Thurgood Marshall's lasting influence on the racial politics of our nation.
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| Freedom by Any Means: True Stories of Cunning and Courage on the... by Betty DeRamusThe slave trade brutally separated families by selling wives, husbands, and children away from each other. Desperate to maintain their relationships, African Americans used myriad strategies to stay together -- not only running away or buying their freedom, but also resorting to lawsuits and risky schemes to outwit slavecatchers. The detailed accounts in Freedom by Any Means bring to life many of the people who struggled for freedom and family stability. Against the rich background of conflicts over slavery and abolition, author Betty DeRamus dramatizes a little-told aspect of African-American history. |
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| It Is Well with My Soul: The Extraordinary Life of a 106-Year-Old Woman by Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson with Patricia MulcahyThe daughter of former slaves, Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson was born in 1904 and lived to attend Barak Obama's first inauguration as President. Her remarkable life included earning a degree in social work from Case Western Reserve University, surviving the Great Depression, living through Jim Crow segregation, and inspiring people through her compassion and good works. This uplifting autobiography portrays a century of African-American history through the lens of Johnson's insights and accomplishments. |
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| Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name... by Chris TomlinsonIn Tomlinson Hill, Associated Press foreign correspondent Chris Tomlinson reports on the history of the Tomlinsons of Texas -- who include white descendants of slaveholders and African Americans descended from slaves. From before the Civil War to the early 21st century, black and white Tomlinsons lived on land that began as a large plantation called Tomlinson Hill. Tomlinson engagingly weaves the families' stories together, including his own life and that of NFL player LaDainian Tomlinson, a descendant of slaves. He also explores the history of slavery and racism in America, into which the Tomlinson families offer a "riveting glimpse" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Emmett Till : the murder that shocked the world and propelled the civil rights movement by Devery S. Anderson Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement offers the first truly comprehensive account of the 1955 murder and its aftermath. It tells the story of Emmett Till, the fourteen-year-old African American boy from Chicago brutally lynched for a harmless flirtation at a country store in the Mississippi Delta. His death and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury set off a firestorm of protests that reverberated all over the world and spurred on the civil rights movement. Like no other event in modern history, the death of Emmett Till provoked people all over the United States to seek social change. For six decades the Till story has continued to haunt the South as the lingering injustice of Till's murder and the aftermath altered many lives. Fifty years after the murder, renewed interest in the case led the Justice Department to open an investigation into identifying and possibly prosecuting accomplices of the two men originally tried. This book will stand as the definitive work on Emmett Till for years to come. Incorporating much new information, the book demonstrates how the Emmett Till murder exemplifies the Jim Crow South at its nadir. The author accessed a wealth of new evidence. Anderson has made a dozen trips to Mississippi and Chicago to conduct research and interview witnesses and reporters who covered the trial. In Emmett Till Anderson corrects the historical record and presents this critical saga in its entirety.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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