History and Current Events
November 2019
From the Collection: Civil War Map
This month's From the Collection was written by Joseph Sheppard.
 
This recently rediscovered map by Col. Stephen Decatur Thruston (1833-1906) and its accompanying 19-page report describe the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness. Written at least 21 years after the events that it describes, Thruston copied the report for Dr. Thomas Fanning Wood (1841-1892) of Wilmington. Both Thruston and Wood served together in the 3rd North Carolina Infantry during the Civil War, with Thruston commanding the regiment during the bloody battle in Virginia. The 3rd North Carolina Infantry was raised from Green, Duplin, Cumberland, Onslow, Bladen, New Hanover, and Beaufort Counties. Wounded four times during the war, Thruston moved to Dallas, Texas in 1872.
 
Returning to Wilmington after the war, Dr. Wood took charge of the Mount Tizrah Hospital to care for indigent African-American victims of a smallpox epidemic that ravaged the city during 1865-1866. Wood co-founded the North Carolina Medical Journal and its first principal editor. One historian has noted that “Wood was probably the greatest contributor to the development of North Carolina medicine in the last half of the nineteenth century.” Dr. Wood’s Wilmington residence sat on the site upon which the Main Library of the New Hanover County Public Library now sits in downtown Wilmington.
 
 
Recent Releases
The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
by Eric Foner

Discover how the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th constitutional amendments (also known as the Reconstruction amendments) impacted an America still reeling from the aftermath of the Civil War.  Don't miss an incisive and resonant look into how the Reconstruction amendments are interpreted and debated in contemporary political discourse, particularly in relation to voter rights.  

Library Journal calls Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner's latest "a must-read for anyone interested in U.S. history."  
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
by Garrett M. Graff

A heartwrenching collection of first-person accounts from survivors, first responders, and witnesses of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS
by Azadeh Moaveni

Read the stories of thirteen women and girls, with backgrounds as varied as their motivations, who left their homes in Europe and North Africa to join the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant
by Anne Gardiner Perkins

In 1969, 268 years after its founding, Yale University admitted women undergraduates for the first time (of the 575 accepted into the elite Ivy, 90% were white).  Isolated from (yet harassed by) their male peers and professors, the women of Yale advocated for institutional reforms like gender-blind admissions, racial equality, and inclusive healthcare.
Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation
by Steve Vogel

Immerse yourself in this a pulse-pounding and dramatic storyline about "Operation Gold," the ambitious endeavor between the CIA and MI5 to construct a tunnel into East Berlin to tap into Soviet communication lines.
 
Irreverent Histories
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
by Kurt Andersen

A provocative, no-holds-barred exploration of how superstition, self-delusion, charlatanism, and conspiracy theories have always been richly embedded in the fabric of American life and culture. Areas of interest include the Salem witch trials; Dr. Oz; P.T. Barnum; 1960s counterculture; Satanic Panic; and Donald Trump.
Whatever Happened to the Metric System?: How America Kept Its Feet
by John Bemelmans Marciano

Rich in political intrigue, this lively history chronicles four centuries' worth of attempts to convert America to the metric system.  In this book, the reader will get a sense of author John Bemelmans Marciano's clever sense of humor, including the use of fractions to denote chapter headings.

Did you know? The U.S. is one of only three countries in the world that doesn't use the metric system (Myanmar and Liberia are the other two).
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States
by Sarah Vowell

Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette's 1824 return to American soil, where he was received with great fanfare by more than 80,000 onlookers.

This snarky romp is "especially recommended to those who are convinced that history is dry" (Library Journal).
Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
by Jennifer Wright

A lighthearted yet gruesome survey of 13 diseases, including the bubonic plague, syphilis, cholera, and leprosy. 

Chapter titles include headings such as "Try Being Nice Instead of Burning People as Witches;" "Spread the Word That Vaccines Are the Best;" "Never Glamorize Ill Health." 
Contact your librarian for more great books!
New Hanover County Library
201 Chestnut Street
Wilmington, North Carolina 28401
910-798-6301
www.nhclibrary.org