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History and Current Events August 2019
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| Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill with Dan PiepenbringWhat it is: a provocative rejoinder to Vincent Bugliosi's 1974 true crime classic Helter Skelter.
Read it for: Tom O'Neill and Dan Piepenbring's deep dive into alternative theories behind the Tate-LaBianca murders, including the possibility that Charles Manson was a subject in the CIA's LSD experiments.
What's inside: interviews with over 500 witnesses; redacted and never-before-seen police reports, FBI documents, and CIA files. |
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| When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt by Kara CooneyWhat it is: a sweeping yet accessible survey of six queens who ruled in times of crisis throughout ancient Egypt's 3,000 year history.
Starring: "big three" queens Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut, as well as the little-known Merneith, Neferusobek, and Tawosret.
Reviewers say: This evocative history "will enchant those wishing to imagine what ancient Egyptian court life was like" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| The Civil War in 50 Objects by Harold Holzer and the New-York Historical SocietyWhat it is: a chronological and illustrated object history of the Civil War, featuring 50 New-York Historical Society artifacts curated by Abraham Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer.
Objects include: a child slave's shackles, a Confederate POW newspaper, a Union soldier's footlocker; a Zouave uniform; a recruitment petition for black troops; a draft wheel; prison art.
Did you know? The Civil War in 50 Objects is the American companion to the British Museum's A History of the World in 100 Objects, written by Neil MacGregor. |
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| Rome: A History in Seven Sackings by Matthew KnealeWhat it's about: how 2,000 years of the Eternal City's history have been shaped by invading forces, from the chariot-riding Gauls in 387 B.C.E. to the Nazi occupation during WWII.
Want a taste? "The city has changed so greatly that there have been many Romes, each of which would be largely unrecognizable to Romans of other times."
Read it for: lively pacing and a suspenseful tone. |
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| Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World by Tim MarshallWhat it's about: how the physical characteristics of a region (including topography, climate, and natural resources) impact international affairs.
Topics include: the Himalayas' significance in keeping China and India from warring with each other; how colonial powers' map-making efforts have resulted in nebulous regional borders; the division of the Koreas.
Try this next: Robert D. Kaplan's The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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