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History and Current Events April 2024
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Alexandria: The City That Changed the World
by Islam Issa
What It's About: An award-winning British-Egyptian writer presents an authoritative history of the first modern city and how it has shaped our modern world, including its role as a global capital of knowledge as well as the site of plagues and violence.
Reviewers Say: “An Alexandrian by birth, Issa relates his native city’s past principally through attention to its most famous figures and rulers. A well-researched, readable history of one of the world’s oldest and most consequential cities.” (Kirkus Reviews)
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book and an eBook.
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The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
by Michael Wolraich
What It's About: As 1930's investigators delved into the murder of Vivian Gordon, they discovered her death was related to a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes, leading them to wonder whether Gordon had been executed to bury secrets. These investigators came to learn that this trail of corruption led to the top of New York City's powerful political machine: the infamous Tammany Hall.
Reviewers Say: “Wolraich does a sterling job spinning the investigation into a portrait of wider New York society, all while keeping the pages turning as quickly as in any top-shelf mystery novel." (Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review))
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017
by Ian Black
What It's About: Ian Black, who has spent four decades studying and covering the Middle East, recounts over 100 years of the Israel-Palestine conflict, beginning in 1917 and ending in 2017. Drawing on a wide range of sources to offer new insights into major evens and present-day challenges, this is a major, engagingly written history covering the entire arc of the conflict up to the present, and Black has striven to cover the conflict impartially.
Reviewers Say: “Black goes beyond the ongoing political dialog to peer into the everyday life of average Israeli and Palestinian citizens...A valuable work for anyone interested in trying to untangle the complexities of this ceaseless struggle.” (Library Journal)
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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I Love Russia: Reporting From a Lost Country
by Elena Kostyuchenko
What It's About: Interweaving reportage from the past 15 years with personal essays, a journalist who refused to be silenced offers this intimate and unprecedented portrait of Russia as she crossed the border into Ukraine to ensure the Russians witnessed the horrors Putin was committing in their name.
Reviewers Say: “Sharp-edged...harrowing...Kostyuchenko’s journalistic integrity is unquestionable and the dangers she faces are very real. It’s a vivid and poignant account.” (Publishers Weekly (Starred Review))
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Lovers in Auschwitz
by Keren Blankfeld
What It's About: The incredible true story of two Holocaust survivors who fell in love in the notorious Auschwitz prison camp only to be separated after the end of the war, and how they were miraculously reunited 70 years later.
Reviewers Say: “A page-turning account of [an] unlikely love story… Fast-paced and novelistic, this is a moving demonstration of the ability to find love in the darkest places.” (Publishers Weekly)
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State
by Byron Tau
What It's About: Journalist Byron Tau exposes the U.S. government's alliance with data brokers, tech companies, and advertisers to reshape surveillance and privacy as we know it, in this sobering and eye-opening defining story of our era.
Reviewers Say: “Filled with shocking revelations and first-rate reporting, this will have readers thinking twice before they post.” (Publishers Weekly (Starred Review))
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment
by Allen C. Guelzo
What It's About: One of America's foremost experts on Lincoln captures the president's firmly held belief that democracy was the greatest political achievement in human history, providing us with a deeper understanding of this endlessly fascinating man and shows how his ideas are still sharp and relevant more than 150 years later.
Reviewers Say: “As the subject of thousands of studies, Lincoln is one of American history’s most written-about individuals. It is therefore a welcome surprise to read such fresh insights as Guelzo musters here.” (Booklist)
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America
by Jeffrey Rosen
What It's About: In this interpretation of the Declaration of Independence's famous phrase, the president of the National Constitution Center profiles six of the most influential founders to show what pursuing happiness meant in their lives and how it became the foundation of our democracy.
Reviewers Say: "With insight and wit, legal scholar Rosen shows how classical philosophy inspired the Founders...Rosen's noteworthy book offers a better understanding of philosophy and American history." (Booklist)
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Remembering Peasants: A Personal History of a Vanished World
by Patrick Joyce
What It's About: In this new history of peasantry, a social historian shines a light on this extraordinary culture and on people whose knowledge of the land is being irretrievably lost during our critical time of climate crisis and the rise of industrial agriculture.
Reviewers Say: “A first-class work combining social history and ethnohistory with an unerring sense for a good story.” (Kirkus (Starred Review))
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents With Commentary
by Melissa Murray
What It's About: Collecting the four unprecedented indictments against Donald Trump, this essential volume features extensive commentary by NYU law professors and MSNBC contributors Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann.
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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