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History and Current Events September 2017
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| The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II by Svetlana Aleksievich; translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa VolokhonskyIn this absorbing oral history, Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Aleksievich compiles firsthand reports of Russian women's military service in World War II. Noting that the women she interviewed were reluctant to discuss their experiences, she also reveals that their perceptions differ significantly from those of men, even though the women often performed similar duties (for example, as snipers or tank drivers). Evocatively weaving their accounts into a vivid tapestry, The Unwomanly Face of War brings previously unnoticed ordeals and achievements to light. |
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Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father
by Jonathan Hennessey
This complete graphic novel-style biography presents the life and legacy of one of the most influential figures in United States history. Alexander Hamilton was on hand for the Revolutionary War, the development of the Constitution, and the establishment of the Treasury and banking as we have come to know them today. Author Jonathan Hennessey and comic book illustrator Justin Greenwood team to bring the world of Alexander Hamilton to life in this fully-illustrated, graphic novel style biography that captures the period, people, and places of the birth of the United States.
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| Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment by Angela J. Davis, EditorIn Policing the Black Man, legal scholar and American University law professor Angela Davis assembles 11 essays that provide "lucid perspectives" (Kirkus Reviews) on the racial bias of the American law enforcement and criminal justice systems. Detailing the history of discrimination against African American men, racial profiling in legal policy and practice, and issues such as police as school security officers and poverty, these essays provide a sobering picture of the position of black males in the U.S. This is an enlightening presentation for readers interested in racial justice. |
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The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey
by Soner Cagaptay
In a world of rising tensions between Russia and the United States, the Middle East and Europe, Sunnis and Shiites, Islamism and liberalism, Turkey is at the epicentre. And at the heart of Turkey is its right-wing populist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Since 2002, Erdoğan has consolidated his hold on domestic politics while using military and diplomatic means to solidify Turkey as a regional power. His crackdown has been brutal and consistent – thousands of journalists arrested, academics officially banned from leaving the country, university deans fired and many of the highest-ranking military officers arrested. The New Sultan unpicks the ‘threats’ Erdogan has worked to combat – from the liberal Turks to the Gulen movement, from coup plotters to Kurdish nationalists – all of which have culminated in the crisis of modern Turkey.
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| Sons and Soldiers: The Untold Story of the Jews Who Escaped the Nazis... by Bruce HendersonOffering a riveting closeup of a specialized group of U.S. Army personnel in World War II, Sons and Soldiers brings to life the stories of German Jews who escaped the Nazi regime in the 1930s and subsequently made significant contributions to the Allied victory. Called the "Camp Ritchie Boys" from the camp where they were trained as interrogators, they were deployed in Europe with major combat units from D-Day on. Featuring six of the men, historian Bruce Henderson chronicles the Ritchie Boys' service. World War II buffs and readers interested in Jewish history shouldn't miss this inspiring account. |
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| American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica HesseBeginning in November 2012, an arson spree terrorized a rural county in Virginia for six months. In American Fire, journalist Monica Hesse traces the fiery trail of Charlie Smith and Tonya Bundick, who torched unoccupied buildings near where they lived in economically depressed but tightly knit Accomack County. Like Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, the deadly pair were romantically entwined; their motives remained elusive until after their capture. True crime aficionados and those interested in the economic fates of rural communities will want to pick up this compelling story. |
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Churchill the Young Warrior: How He Helped Win the First World War
by John Harte
Reveals Winston Churchill as a capable young man in his 20s and 30s who, during the first World War, gained experience in battle, and developed a killer instinct and a mature worldview that would serve him well as a future leader of the free world. By the author of How Churchill Saved Civilization.
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The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
by Richard Rothstein
In this thoroughly researched analysis, housing policy expert Richard Rothstein traces the development of America's restrictive residential codes back to the early 20th century. He shows that modern segregation is built on overlapping local, state, and federal laws -- not just on prejudice-based social customs. Whether you're looking for a comprehensive review of law and policy or an accessible discussion of the history, you'll find The Color of Law both informative and sobering.
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The Six-Day War: The Breaking of the Middle East
by Guy Laron
This history examines the Six-Day War, its causes, and its enduring consequences against its global context. The Six-Day War effectively sowed the seeds for the downfall of Arab nationalism, the growth of Islamic extremism, and the animosity between Jews and Palestinians. In this new work, Laron's interdisciplinary perspective and extensive archival research offer a significant reassessment of a conflict-and the trigger-happy generals behind it-that continues to shape the modern world.
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Lincoln's Notebooks: Letters, Speeches, Journals, and Poems
by Abraham Lincoln
Arranged chronologically into topics such as family and friends, the law, politics and the presidency, story-telling, religion, and morality, Lincoln's Notebooks includes his famous letters to Ulysses S. Grant, Horace Greeley, and Henry Pierce as well as personal letters to Mary Todd Lincoln and his note to Mrs. Bixby, the mother who lost five sons during the Civil War. Also included are full texts of the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, both of Lincoln's inaugural addresses, and his famous "A House Divided" speech. Rarely seen writings like poetry he composed as teenager give insight into Lincoln's personality and private life.
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The History of the Future: American Essays
by Edward McPherson
In The History of the Future, McPherson reexamines American places and the space between history, experience, and myth. Private streets, racism, and the St. Louis World's Fair; fracking for oil and digging for dinosaurs in North Dakota boomtowns-Americana slides into apocalypse in these essays, revealing us to ourselves.
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The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: An Untold Story of the Revolutionary War
by Robert P. Watson
Drawing on hundreds of accounts culled from old newspapers, diaries and military reports, the author of The Nazi Titanic and America's First Crisis follows the lives and ordeals of the survivors of the HMS Jersey, the most infamous prison ship of the American Revolution, and its role in the fight for independence.
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| Putin: His Downfall and Russia's Coming Crash by Richard LourieIn Putin, Russian affairs expert Richard Lourie offers a sobering analysis of Vladimir Putin's rise to power and the reasons why Lourie predicts disaster for Putin's regime. Cataloguing Putin's failure to assure the diversification of Russia's economy, his craving for personal power, and his desire to recreate the Russian empire, Lourie proposes a variety of possible outcomes while arguing that Putin's leadership is making the Russian economy unsustainable. This is a thought-provoking and eye-opening discussion for Russia-watchers. For additional insight into Putin and Russia, try Steven Lee Myers' The New Tsar. |
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The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution
by Yuri Slezkine
On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the epic story of an enormous apartment building where Communist true believers lived before their destruction. The book begins with their conversion to Communism and ends with their children's loss of faith and the fall of the Soviet Union. The House of Government weaves together biography, literary criticism, architectural history, and fascinating new theories of revolutions, millennial prophecies, and reigns of terror. The result is an unforgettable human saga of a building that, like the Soviet Union itself, became a haunted house, forever disturbed by the ghosts of the disappeared.
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Award-Winning History Books
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| Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven BeckertWinner of Columbia University's 2015 Bancroft prize and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Empire of Cotton portrays in riveting detail how cotton production and manufacture transformed global economics. This extensively researched, vividly described history depicts the contrast between pre-industrial and industrial labor and reveals the relationships over millennia between warfare, slavery, and cotton. Harvard University historian Sven Beckert's "highly detailed, provocative" (Booklist) work offers a must-read portrayal of the development of capitalism. |
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| Shot All to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape by Mark Lee GardnerIn Shot All to Hell, historian Mark Lee Gardner explores the careers of celebrity outlaws Jesse and Frank James and their gang. Focusing on their best-known raid, an 1876 deadly bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, Gardner writes a page-turner "that's as entertaining as it is historically accurate" (Publishers Weekly). Explaining the gang's origins as Confederate-sympathizing bushwhackers, depicting their flamboyant taste in clothing and horses, and graphically characterizing their ruthlessness, this volume won the 2014 Spur Award for Western History (given by the Western Writers of America). |
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| Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik LogevallIn a narrative highlighted with vivid portraits of Vietnamese and French leaders, Embers of War chronicles the last four decades of French dominion in Indochina, leading up to the U.S. military's involvement in Vietnam. Focusing on the intricate diplomatic and political situation in Southeast Asia, acclaimed historian Fredrik Logevall exposes French colonial administrators' missteps and traces the Western powers' failure to grasp Vietnamese nationalists' desire for independence and self-rule. Though this 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning history ends where the U.S. war in Vietnam begins, Logevall's analysis explains why American intervention there was doomed before it started. |
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| KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus WachsmannWhile many accounts of Nazi concentration camps have focused on particular prisons or their devastating human consequences, historian Nicolaus Wachsmann is the first to analyze the entire system of labor camps and extermination centers. This gripping, revelatory study, which won multiple awards for history writing, draws on massive collections of documents, some of which have only become available over the past 25 years. KL doesn't just detail Nazi Germany's methodology of slave labor and genocide: it reveals how it was integral to the Third Reich's economic and political system. For additional insight into the politics behind the concentration camps, try Timothy Snyder's Black Earth. |
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| The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea WulfDid you know that the U.S. state of Nevada was almost named "Humboldt," after the Enlightenment-era German explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt? During his lifetime, Humboldt was the "most famous man in the world after Napoleon," but is hardly remembered today. This multiple award-winning book restores Humboldt to his rightful place in history, describing his life as well as his many contributions to science. For example, Humboldt came up with the concept of climate zones, discovered the magnetic equator, and redefined our concept of nature itself -- as a web of life connecting every organism on Earth. |
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Never be without a book you love! |
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