|
History and Current Events January 2021
|
|
|
|
| Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism by Sharyl AttkissonWhat it is: a sobering and provocative investigation into the ways in which modern news media is manipulated.
About the author: Sharyl Attkisson is a five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and a recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award.
Is it for you? Readers may see Attkisson's discussion of Donald Trump's presidential misdeeds as apologia. |
|
| The Killer's Shadow: The FBI's Hunt for a White Supremacist Serial Killer by John Douglas and Mark OlshakerWhat it's about: serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin's three-year crime spree, which began with a shooting at a St. Louis synagogue in 1977.
Read it for: FBI profiler John Douglas' breakneck pursuit of Franklin; the pair's confrontation once the latter was imprisoned.
Reviewers say: "This is a must read for those looking for insight into the minds of those instigating racial violence today" (Publishers Weekly). |
|
| Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History by Paul FarmerWhat it is: medical anthropologist and Partners in Health cofounder Paul Farmer's chronicle of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
What's inside: a disturbing (and often gruesome) firsthand account of a public health crisis spurred by government neglect, bureaucracy, resource exploitation, and colonialism.
Featuring: heartrending testimonies from Ebola survivors and first responders; an epilogue detailing Farmer's work combatting COVID-19. |
|
| Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen... by Rachel Maddow and Michael YarvitzStarring: disgraced vice president Spiro Agnew, who resigned in 1973 after he was caught committing tax fraud and running a bribery and extortion ring in his office.
Why you might like it: This well-researched examination of a lesser-known political scandal, which happened concurrently (but unrelatedly) with Watergate, offers striking parallels to current events.
Media buzz: Bag Man is an engaging expansion of the authors' podcast of the same name, which was nominated for a Peabody Award in 2018. |
|
|
Flash of light, wall of fire : Japanese photographs documenting the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
by Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
"In 1945, American forces authorized the release of photographs taken by Japanese citizens in the immediate aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many of these images survived as a result and became part of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Photographs Archive, now housed at the Briscoe Center for American History. The archive consists of more than eight hundred photographs, over one hundred of which are collected here. Accompanying a major exhibition at the Briscoe Center in 2020 to be held on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the bombings, Flash of Light, Wall of Fire features the work of twenty-three Japanese photographers who risked their lives to capture the devastation. These harrowing images serve as visual documentation of nuclear blast damage and destruction, the burnt human flesh, the horrific after effects of radiation, and the mass human suffering that ensued. An introductory essay from Michael B. Stoff and an afterword by Japanese journalist Michiko Tanaka--who grew up in post-war Hiroshima--explore how the images were obtained and how they helped provoke calls for peace and the abolishment of nuclear weapons."
|
|
| The Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks; illustrated by Caanan WhiteWhat it is: a well-researched, lightly fictionalized account of the Harlem Hellfighters, the highly decorated all-Black Army regiment who fought in World War I.
Art alert: Caanan White's dark and detailed artwork doesn't shy away from gory imagery, starkly conveying the chaos and violence of war.
Book buzz: This New York Times bestseller from World War Z author Max Brooks was named a Library Journal Best Graphic Novel in 2014. |
|
|
Oak Flat : a fight for sacred land in the American west
by Lauren Redniss
Three generations of an Apache family of activists race against time in a legal and cultural battle to protect sacred land from corrupt government officials and a multinational mining corporation. By the National Book Award finalist author of Radioactive. Illustrations.
|
|
|
Sapiens : A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind
by Yuval Noah Harari
A full-color illustrated adaptation of the Oxford historian’s groundbreaking best-seller traces the dominance of homo sapiens above other species while explaining how evolution has shaped our understanding of what it means to be human. Original. 200,000 first printing. Illustrations.
|
|
|
The comic book history of comics
by Fred Van Lente
Presents a history of the comic book from 1896 to the present, exploring how the medium has been reshaped over time
|
|
| Showa: A History of Japan, 1926-1939 by Shigeru Mizuki; translated by Zack DavissonWhat it is: the first of a four-part series exploring the personal and political history of Japan's Showa era (1926-1989), written and illustrated by beloved manga artist Shigeru Mizuki.
Topics include: the author's childhood in rural Sakaiminato; the Nanjing Massacre; Japan's entry into World War II.
Art alert: Mizuki contrasts realistic illustrations (for newsworthy events) with cartoony ones (for scenes of everyday life); fans of his previous works will enjoy the appearances from GeGeGe no Kitaro's Rat Man. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|