History and Current Events
January 2021
Recent Releases
The last days of John Lennon
by James Patterson

Published to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Lennon’s assassination and based on insider interviews, a chronicle of the iconic music artist’s final days includes coverage of his last album and the life of Mark David Chapman. 
Unsinkable
by James Sullivan

Documents the true story of a U.S. Navy destroyer that inspired the writings of John Ford and Herman Wouk, drawing on the journals and other writings of five shipmates who witnessed the Anzio attacks and D-Day invasion. 
The Book Collectors : A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War
by Delphine Minoui

The award-winning journalist and author of I’m Writing You from Tehran documents the achievements of Syrian Civil War survivors who built a secret library from thousands of books that survived the four-year siege that decimated their community. 
The Last American Aristocrat : The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams
by David S. Brown

The author of Richard Hofstadter illuminates the less-recognized achievements the 20th-century writer and intellectual, discussing Adams’s relationships with political leaders inside and outside his family and his witness to the dawn of modern America.
Uncomfortable conversations with a black man
by Emmanuel Acho

"In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask--yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and 'reverse racism.' In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader's curiosity--but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight"
Some of the Best History Titles in 2020
The other Madisons : the lost history of a president's Black family
by Bettye Kearse

A Pushcart Prize-nominated writer and descendant of an enslaved cook describes the rich oral traditions that documented her shared ancestry with President James Madison and the human realities of rape and incest throughout the slave era. 
You never forget your first : a biography of George Washington
by Alexis Coe

A whimsically irreverent portrait of America’s first President includes coverage of Washington’s entitled upbringing by a single mother, his dog “Sweetlips,” his numerous military defeats, and the partisan nightmares that spun from his back-stabbing cabinet.
If then : how the Simulmatics Corporation invented the future
by Jill Lepore

The Pulitzer Prize-finalist author of These Truths traces the Cold War origins of today’s data-driven world to the Simulmatics Corporation, describing how its scientists mined data, targeted voters, manipulated consumers, and destabilized politics decades before the era of Silicon Valley.
Agent Sonya : Moscow's most daring wartime spy
by Ben Macintyre

The New York Times best-selling author of The Spy and the Traitor reveals the story of the female spy hidden in plain sight who set the stage for the Cold War—one of the last great intelligence secrets of the 20th century.
Children of Ash and Elm : A History of the Vikings
by Neil Price

A Viking Age historian from Sweden’s Uppsala University traces the unprecedented expansion of the Scandinavian populations between 750 and 1050 CE, drawing on archaeological and textual evidence to discuss their politics, culture, and beliefs. 
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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