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History and Current Events February 2018
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The most dangerous man in America : Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon & the hunt for the fugitive king of LSD
by Bill Minutaglio
In September 1970, ex-Harvard professor and 'High Priest of LSD' Dr. Timothy Leary escaped from prison with the aid of the radical Weather Underground. Spanning twenty-eight months, President Nixon's careening, global manhunt for Dr. Timothy Leary winds its way among homegrown radicals, European aristocrats, a Black Panther outpost in Algeria, an international arms dealer, hash-smuggling hippies from the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, and secret agents on four continents, culminating in one of the trippiest journeys through the American counterculture.
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Age of anger : a history of the present
by Pankaj Mishra
A columnist at Bloomberg View and regular writer for The Guardian explores the rising tide of paranoid hatred in modern times and attributes it to our inability to fulfill the promises of a globalized economy.
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A More Beautiful and Terrible History : The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History
by Jeanne Theoharis
The civil rights movement has become national legend, lauded by presidents from Reagan to Obama to Trump, as proof of the power of American democracy. This fable, featuring dreamy heroes and accidental heroines, has shuttered the movement firmly in the past, whitewashed the forces that stood in its way, and diminished its scope. And it is used perniciously in our own times to chastise present-day movements and obscure contemporary injustice. In A More Beautiful and Terrible History award-winning historian Jeanne Theoharis dissects this national myth-making, teasing apart the accepted stories to show them in a strikingly different light. We see Rosa Parks not simply as a bus lady but a lifelong criminal justice activist and radical; Martin Luther King, Jr. as not only challenging Southern sheriffs but Northern liberals, too; and Coretta Scott King not only as a helpmate but a lifelong economic justice and peace activist who pushed her husband's activism in these directions. Theoharis challenges nine key aspects of the fable to reveal the diversity of people, especially women and young people, who led the movement; the work and disruption it took; the role of the media and "polite racism" in maintaining injustice; and the immense barriers and repression activists faced. Theoharis makes us reckon with the fact that far from being acceptable, passive or unified, the civil rights movement was unpopular, disruptive, and courageously persevering.
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| Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art by Sam WassonWhat it is: a sweeping, behind-the-scenes history of American improv comedy, which was born during the McCarthy era and counts Tina Fey and Steve Carell among its current stars.
Why you might like it: As you might expect, this is a funny and fast-moving read that will delight and entertain as it informs.
Reviewers say: “A remarkable story, magnificently told” (Booklist). |
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Focus on: Black History Month
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| The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation by David Brion DavisWhat it is: This final volume in historian David Brion Davis’ penetrating three-part chronicle of slavery and emancipation in the Western world covers topics ranging from the Haitian Revolution to U.S. efforts at colonizing freed people.
Why you should read it: Published to critical acclaim, this magisterial history won the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction and was shortlisted for the Cundill Prize for Historical Literature. |
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| Ghetto: The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea by Mitchell DuneierWhat it is: a sweeping history of ghettos, from 16th-century Venice to Nazi Europe to black inner-city America in the 21st century.
Read it for: Princeton sociologist Mitchell Duneier’s argument that a history of the physical spaces that have segregated groups since at least the Middle Ages should inform our understanding of current-day race relations and poverty in the United States.
Book buzz: This “timely and important” book was a New York Times Notable Book in 2016. |
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| Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad by Eric FonerWhat it is: a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian's enthralling chronicle of the Underground Railroad, which helped slaves escape from bondage in the South and also protected free blacks in the North.
What sets it apart: Author Eric Foner provides gripping accounts of death-defying journeys to freedom, including that of Winnie Patsy, who survived by hiding in a dark, unventilated crawl space with her daughter for five months in Virginia. |
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| The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated America's Military by Rawn JamesWhat it is: a chronicle of African Americans’ distinguished military service and the long struggle to desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces.
Why you might like it: Author Rawn James’ coverage is expansive -- covering nearly five centuries -- and also inspiring, touching on everything from black participation in the Revolutionary War to the long years of protests and legal maneuvering that finally culminated in President Truman’s Executive Order 9981 in 1948. |
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| March. Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate PowellWhat it is: U.S. Congressman and activist John Lewis’ stirring memoir of his experiences in the civil rights era from 1963-65, co-written with Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell.
What sets it apart: A living icon who participated in key moments in the movement, John Lewis’ firsthand account -- beginning with the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church -- is unflinchingly honest and deeply moving.
Further reading: For more about the civil rights movement and its leaders, check out Taylor Branch’s At Canaan’s Edge. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Prince George's County Memorial Library System 9601 Capital Lane Largo, Maryland 20774 301-699-3500www.pgcmls.info/ |
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