|
|
History and Current Events May 2023 |
|
|
|
|
| There Will Be Fire: Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History by Rory CarrollOctober 12, 1984: British prime minister Margaret Thatcher narrowly escaped an attempt on her life when the Irish Republican Amy (IRA) bombed the Brighton hotel where she was attending a Conservative Party conference.
What's inside: interviews with politicians, law enforcement officials, bomb disposal experts, former IRA members, and more.
Who it's for: Fans of histories that read like thrillers will enjoy this nail-biting, you-are-there account of a pivotal moment during The Troubles. |
|
| Poverty, by America by Matthew DesmondWhat it is: Pulitzer Prize-winning Evicted author and sociologist Matthew Desmond's incisive look at why America has more poverty than any other country in the developed world.
Topics include: affluent Americans' complicity in perpetuating poverty; the racial wealth gap; solutions for how to ameliorate poverty.
Try this next: Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream by Alissa Quart. |
|
| A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman... by Timothy EganWhat it's about: In 1920s Indiana, Ku Klux Klan leader and presidential hopeful D.C. Stephenson exerted a terrifying control over the state and local governments -- until he kidnapped, raped, and murdered his one-time employee, a young woman named Madge Oberholtzer.
What happened next: Oberholtzer's courageous deathbed testimony led to Stephenson's murder conviction and effectively ended Klan influence in Indiana politics. |
|
| Emotional Labor: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How to Claim Our Power by Rose HackmanWhat it's about: how gendered expectations of managing emotions for the benefit of others burden and exploit women, particularly women of color.
Why you might like it: This inspiring call to action challenges readers to acknowledge and celebrate the undervalued work women perform in their personal and professional lives.
Further reading: Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) by Eve Rodsky. |
|
| Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search... by Christine KenneallyWhat it is: a sobering exposé spotlighting how children in orphanages throughout North America, Europe, and Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries were subjected to horrific abuse and murder.
What's inside: firsthand accounts, court transcripts, and other documents that illuminate long-buried secrets.
Reviewers say: "A powerful work of sociological investigation and literary journalism" (Kirkus Reviews). |
|
|
|
Our America: A Photographic History
by Ken Burns; introduction by Sarah Hermanson Meister
What's inside: a chronological collection of both well-known and obscure photographs documenting nearly two centuries of American history, assembled by famed documentarian Ken Burns.
Why you might like it: Featuring richly detailed notes on each photo's context and origin, this moving collection celebrates the breadth of the American experience.
|
|
|
|
Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope, and Fallout of the 1921...
by R.J. Young
What it's about: the history and legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Tulsa, OK.
Author alert: FOX sports analyst and Tulsa native R.J. Young (Let It Bang) blends evocative history with impassioned personal reflections in this well-researched reckoning of systemic racism in America.
Try this next: For another compelling book exploring a pivotal event in Black history, check out Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth.
|
|
|
|
The Curse of the Marquis de Sade: A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the... by Joel WarnerHow it began: In 1785, while imprisoned at the Bastille, the Marquis de Sade penned his notorious erotic novel The 120 Days of Sodom on a 40-foot-long scroll.
What happened next: the novel's original manuscript changed hands numerous times over the next two centuries before playing a central role in the largest Ponzi scheme in French history.
For fans of: scandalous stranger-than-fiction tales. Also available on cloudLibrary |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|