|
History and Current Events July 2018
|
|
|
|
| Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America's Fifty-Year Fall by Steven BrillWhat it is: a searing and insightful treatise on how well-intentioned structural changes in politics and the economy have led to what the author sees as a deteriorating American democracy.
What's inside: inspiring profiles of individuals (such as Max Stier of the Partnership for Public Service) whose efforts and influence may help cure America of its current ills. |
|
|
Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement
by Janet Dewart Bell
A groundbreaking collection based on oral histories that brilliantly plumb the leadership of African American women in the twentieth-century fight for civil rights—many nearly lost to history—from the latest winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Lighting the Fires of Freedom is a vital document for understanding the Civil Rights Movement and an enduring testament to the vitality of women’s leadership during one of the most dramatic periods of American history.
|
|
|
Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age
by Stephen R Platt
In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to "open" China--traveling mostly in secret beyond Canton, the single port where they were allowed--even as China's imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country's decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China's advantage. The book paints an enduring portrait of an immensely profitable--and mostly peaceful--meeting of civilizations at Canton over the long term that was destined to be shattered by one of the most shockingly unjust wars in the annals of imperial history. Brimming with a fascinating cast of British, Chinese, and American individuals, this riveting narrative of relations between China and the West has important implications for today's uncertain and ever-changing political climate.
|
|
|
Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom: Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys and the American Revolution
by Christopher S. Wren
Chronicles the exploits of Ethan Allen and the much-loved Green Mountain Boys of Vermont and their role in the American Revolution—both the myth and the reality. Based on original archival research, this is a groundbreaking account of an important and little-known front of the Revolutionary War, of George Washington (and his good sense), and of a major American myth. Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom is an important contribution to the history of the American Revolution.
|
|
|
Superminds: The Surprising Power of People and Computers Thinking Together
by Thomas W. Malone
From the founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence comes a fascinating look at the remarkable capacity for intelligence exhibited by groups of people and computers working together. Drawing on cutting-edge science and insights from a remarkable range of disciplines, Superminds articulates a bold -- and utterly fascinating -- picture of the future that will change the ways you work and live, both with other people and with computers.
|
|
|
AIQ: How People and Machines are Smarter Together
by Nicholas G. Polson
AIQ is based on a simple premise: if you want to understand the modern world, then you have to know a little bit of the mathematical language spoken by intelligent machines. AIQ will teach you that language—but in an unconventional way, anchored in stories rather than equations. You will meet a fascinating cast of historical characters who have a lot to teach you about data, probability, and better thinking. Along the way, you'll see how these same ideas are playing out in the modern age of big data and intelligent machines—and how these technologies will soon help you to overcome some of your built-in cognitive weaknesses, giving you a chance to lead a happier, healthier, more fulfilled life.
|
|
| West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express by Jim DeFeliceWhat it's about: the oft-mythologized mail delivery enterprise that lasted less than two years before its operation was shuttered with the 1861 arrival of the transcontinental telegraph.
Why you might like it: Breezy and accessible, West Like Lightning brings to vivid life the major players of the Pony Express, including famous riders Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok.
Reviewers say: "Fans of the Old West will find many delightful nuggets in this fast-moving story" (Publishers Weekly). |
|
|
Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration
by Ana Raquel Minian
In the 1970s the Mexican government acted to alleviate rural unemployment by supporting the migration of able-bodied men. Millions crossed into the United States to find work that would help them survive as well as sustain their families in Mexico. They took low-level positions that few Americans wanted and sent money back to communities that depended on their support. But as U.S. authorities pursued more aggressive anti-immigrant measures, migrants found themselves caught between the economic interests of competing governments. The fruits of their labor were needed in both places, and yet neither country made them feel welcome. Ana Raquel Minian explores this unique chapter in the history of Mexican migration. Undocumented Lives draws on private letters, songs, and oral testimony to recreate the experience of circular migration, which reshaped communities in the United States and Mexico.
|
|
|
Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum
by Kathryn Hughes
In Victorians Undone, renowned British historian Kathryn Hughes follows five iconic figures of the nineteenth century as they encounter the world not through their imaginations or intellects but through their bodies. Or rather, through their body parts. Using the vivid language of admiring glances, cruel sniggers, and implacably turned backs, Hughes crafts a narrative of cinematic quality by combining a series of truly eye-opening and deeply intelligent accounts of life in Victorian England.
|
|
|
Show Trial: Hollywood, Huac, and the Birth of the Blacklist
by Thomas Doherty
In Show Trial, Thomas Doherty takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era. He details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified, and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist. Show Trial is a rich, character-driven inquiry into how the HUAC hearings ignited the anti-Communist crackdown in Hollywood, providing a gripping cultural history of one of the most transformative events of the postwar era.
|
|
|
A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America's Schools
by Rachel Devlin
The struggle to desegregate America's schools was a grassroots movement, and young women were its vanguard. In the late 1940s, parents began to file desegregation lawsuits with their daughters, forcing Thurgood Marshall and other civil rights lawyers to take up the issue and bring it to the Supreme Court. After the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, girls far outnumbered boys in volunteering to desegregate formerly all-white schools. In A Girl Stands at the Door, historian Rachel Devlin tells the remarkable stories of these desegregation pioneers. Highlighting the extraordinary bravery of young black women, this bold revisionist account illuminates today's ongoing struggles for equality.
|
|
|
Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power
by Claudia Renton
The three dazzlingly beautiful, wildly rich Wyndham sisters, part of the four hundred families that made up Britain's ruling class, at the center of cultural and political life in late-Victorian/Edwardian Britain. Here are their complex, idiosyncratic lives; their opulent, privileged world; their romantic, roiling age.
|
|
|
Energy: A Human History
by Richard Rhodes
Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes reveals the fascinating history behind energy transitions over time—wood to coal to oil to electricity and beyond. Human beings have confronted the problem of how to draw life from raw material since the beginning of time. Each invention, each discovery, each adaptation brought further challenges, and through such transformations, we arrived at where we are today. In Rhodes’s singular style, Energy details how this knowledge of our history can inform our way tomorrow.
|
|
|
The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
by Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester takes us back to origins of the Industrial Age, to England where he introduces the scientific minds that helped usher in modern production: John Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. It was Thomas Jefferson who later exported their discoveries to the fledgling United States, setting the nation on its course to become a manufacturing titan. Winchester moves forward through time, to today’s cutting-edge developments occurring around the world, from America to Western Europe to Asia.
|
|
| Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, & Criminal in 19th-Century New York by Stacy HornWhat it is: a somber study of New York City's Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island), purchased in 1828 for utopian aims but quickly overrun by corrupt officials. Poorly maintained hospitals, prisons, and an insane asylum housed residents who were punished and mistreated.
Did you know? Several authors visited the island -- Charles Dickens referred to it as "a lounging, listless madhouse;" journalist Nellie Bly's 1887 exposé Ten Days in a Mad-House recounts her undercover stint at the Women's Lunatic Asylum. |
|
| Ruthless Tide: The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood by Al RokerWhat it's about: On May 31, 1889, the poorly engineered South Fork Dam -- built for a lake resort frequented by wealthy guests (including Andrew Carnegie) -- burst after a heavy rainfall, engulfing Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 20 million tons of water. The disaster killed over two thousand people and remains the deadliest flood in U.S. history.
What sets it apart: Al Roker combines a page-turning disaster epic with an informative morality tale, exploring how class and privilege played a part in facilitating the tragedy. |
|
| Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna by Edith ShefferWhat it's about: Psychiatrist Hans Asperger's early benevolent work with autistic children turned sinister as he fell in line with the Nazi regime, experimenting on -- and eventually killing -- children deemed "inferior."
About the author: Historian Edith Sheffer is the parent of a child with autism.
Is it for you? Readers who enjoy surveys of medical ethics like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks will appreciate this thought-provoking cautionary tale. |
|
| Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous by Gabriella ColemanWhat it is: an eye-opening, immersive investigation of the worldwide Internet "hacktivist" collective, tracing its evolution from satirical trolling to legitimate political player in the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements, among others.
Featuring: leaked documents, chat logs, court records, and interviews.
What sets it apart: Considered the world's foremost scholar on Anonymous, anthropologist Gabriella Coleman writes humorously of the blurred lines between insider and outsider in this engrossing study. |
|
| Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure... by David DayenWhat it is: an absorbing and sympathetic portrait of three ordinary home buyers who, at great personal sacrifice, pooled their resources to fight back against illegal foreclosures and raise public consciousness about the corrupt financial industry.
Reviewers say: David Dayen "elevates a muckraking exposé of fraudulent foreclosures to Hitchcockian levels of suspense" (Publishers Weekly). |
|
| No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn GreenwaldWhat it's about: In this exciting analysis, journalist Glenn Greenwald recalls being the recipient of Edward Snowden's leaked National Security Agency (NSA) documents, triggering widespread debates over surveillance programs and rights to privacy -- and spurring personal and professional repercussions for Greenwald himself.
Is it for you? Accessible writing, paired with graphics and slides, makes the technical subject matter palatable to a wide readership; fans of Luke Harding's The Snowden Files will enjoy this similarly fast-paced work. |
|
| War of the Whales: A True Story by Joshua HorwitzWhat it's about: In March 2000, the largest recorded whale stranding occurred in the Bahamas, prompting an epic battle between a devoted group of whistleblowing environmental activists and the U.S. Navy, whose covert use of sonar had led to the strandings.
Why it's significant: The case (Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council) ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court, raising questions about the unchecked use of military power.
Book buzz: War of the Whales won the 2015 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature. |
|
| The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI by Betty MedsgerWhat it's about: In 1971, a small group of activists broke into the Pennsylvania offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and stole documents confirming that director J. Edgar Hoover was running his own shadow FBI, in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
About the author: Betsy Medsger was a journalist at the Washington Post who received the leaked documents in 1971; here, her detailed reflections and contemporary contextualizing add credence to a riveting resistance caper and its resonant political implications. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|