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History and Current Events March 2023 |
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| The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America's Top Secrets by Matthew James ConnellyWhat it's about: how state secrecy in the United States bolsters the military industrial complex, leads to disinformation campaigns, and prevents oversight and accountability.
Did you know? Classifying government documents costs American taxpayers an estimated $18 billion annually.
Food for thought: "What do we, the people, need to know to do our job as citizens to keep our government accountable?" |
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| On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe by Caroline Dodds PennockWhat it is: a thought-provoking revisionist history that explores how Indigenous Americans who willingly traveled or were forcibly transported to Europe during the Age of Discovery impacted the politics and culture of their colonizers.
Read it for: a well-researched account of the Colonial period that eschews Eurocentric narratives and prioritizes the perspectives of colonized populations. |
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| Pirate Enlightenment, Or the Real Libertalia by David GraeberWhat it's about: the relationship between Malagasy people and European pirates in 17th- and 18th-century Madagascar.
Why you should read it: David Graeber's provocative history reveals how the creation of this progressive, multiethnic pirate society may have inspired the democratic ideals of the Enlightenment.
Author alert: Pirate Enlightenment is the final work of anthropologist and Occupy movement activist Graeber, who died in 2020. |
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| Children of the State: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System by Jeff HobbsWhat it is: a sobering look at how the juvenile detention system in the United States fuels the school-to-prison pipeline.
What's inside: empathetic profiles of child detainees and educators navigating juvenile detention facilities and diversion programs, each with varying degrees of success.
Is it for you? This latest from prizewinning journalist Jeff Hobbs (The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace) explores complex issues at the intersection of race, class, justice, and reform. |
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| In the Garden of the Righteous: The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During... by Richard HurowitzWho it's about: ten individuals throughout the globe who rescued countless Jewish people during the Holocaust, earning the honorific Righteous Among the Nations for their work.
For fans of: inspiring and little-known tales of wartime heroism.
Further reading: For more books about World War II resistance efforts, try The Bohemians by Norman Ohler or All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner. |
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| Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth KaraWhat it is: the first book-length exposé on the abusive and inhumane cobalt mining practices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is home to nearly 75% of the world's cobalt supply.
Why it matters: The demand for cobalt, an essential component of rechargeable batteries for laptops, cell phones, and more, comes at the expense of the Congolese people, who are exploited into child labor, forced labor, and slavery. |
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| A Woman's Life Is a Human Life: My Mother, Our Neighbor, and the Journey from... by Felicia KornbluhWhat it's about: how two women in 1960s New York led grassroots campaigns advocating for reproductive justice, sparking conversations that continue to resonate.
Featuring: lawyer Beatrice Kornbluh (the author's mother), who helped draft a state law decriminalizing abortion; physician and activist Helen Rodríguez Trías (the author's neighbor), who fought to criminalize involuntary sterilization performed primarily on women of color. |
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| Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon WooWhat it's about: In 1848 Georgia, young enslaved couple Ellen and William Craft made a daring 1,000-mile escape to freedom, with Ellen passing as a white man and William playing the role of her servant.
What happened next: Though their plan was initially successful, the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 put the pair in danger again, and they fled to Canada.
Reviewers say: "This novelistic history soars" (Publishers Weekly). |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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