March 2017 list by Dan Berube
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| Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower's Final Mission by Bret BaierPolitical journalist Bret Baier details President Dwight Eisenhower's last three days in office. The transition to John F. Kennedy's administration came at a time when nuclear war seemed not just possible but (to many) imminent. Reviewing Eisenhower's entire presidency through the lens of his farewell address of January 17, 1961, Baier connects the issues that preoccupied Eisenhower with later events that Kennedy faced. He also sheds light on Eisenhower's growing respect for the much younger Kennedy. |
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| The New Odyssey: The Story of the Twenty-First-Century Refugee Crisis by Patrick KingsleyChronicling the experiences of a single Syrian migrant and documenting the journeys of thousands of refugees from several Middle Eastern countries, journalist Patrick Kingsley paints a gut-wrenching picture of the current humanitarian crisis. Zooming in on duplicitous smugglers who advertise their services on Facebook, comparing the numbers of refugees to the population of Europe (0.2%), and highlighting rescue work by particular volunteers, Kingsley includes his personal views on these migrations by people fleeing from danger, while backing up his observations with impersonal data. |
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| The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire by Stephen KinzerAccording to Stephen Kinzer, the 1898 Spanish-American War was the first American imperialist venture. Subsequently, Theodore Roosevelt and William Randolph Hearst, among several men who supported the war, lined up against anti-imperialists led by Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, and others in a vigorous debate that played out across American public life. Kinzer thoroughly reviews their arguments for and against a U.S. policy of intervention in foreign territories, then shows how relevant they remain today. |
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| Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad RiccaOne day in 1917, teenager Ruth Cruger disappeared in New York City, and traces of her whereabouts swiftly evaporated. Frustrated by the police detectives' failure to find Ruth, her father appealed to Grace Humiston, who had made a name for herself with her work for immigrants and the falsely accused, acquiring the nickname "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes." Though the police assumed that Ruth had eloped, Humiston disagreed, doggedly following up on clues the official detectives had overlooked until she solved the case. |
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| The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. TysonThough several books have covered the 60-year-old case of Emmett Till's lynching in Mississippi, historian Timothy Tyson's new history freshly illuminates the trial of Till's murderers. He analyzes the trial transcript, which had been missing since 1955, interviews the key witness (now 80 years old) to Till's allegedly inappropriate behavior, and provides details from a recent FBI investigation. This riveting account immerses readers in the case and offers the definitive summary of its impact on subsequent history. |
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| The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in the Gilded Age by Myra MacPhersonSisters Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee "Tennie" Claflin shocked and fascinated Gilded Age America and the world: together they opened the first woman-owned stock brokerage; Victoria ran for president, choosing Frederick Douglass to join her ticket; Tennie ran for Congress and became the honorary colonel of a black National Guard regiment. They also published a newspaper and exposed prominent citizens' misdeeds through their investigative reporting. For a compelling episode in 19th-century women's history, be sure to read this well-researched and engaging dual biography. |
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| The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys' Club by Eileen PollackIn 2005, Lawrence Summers, then the president of Harvard University, asked: why are there so few tenured women professors in the hard sciences? Physicist Eileen Pollack (now a creative writing teacher) decided to find the answer to his question. Relating her own reasons for abandoning her dream of becoming a theoretical physicist after earning a bachelor's degree in physics in the 1970s, she discusses her findings about 21st-century women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Their reasons for staying out of those fields are complex; her analysis is fascinating. |
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| Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate SummerscalePopular historian Kate Summerscale delves once more into Victorian society's dirty little secrets. Legal divorce was made available to England's common citizens for the first time in 1858. The same year, Henry Robinson sued for divorce after finding a secret diary in which his wife had allegedly penned erotic musings about her doctor. Isabella dared to counter-sue, presenting the court with (among other evidence of marital neglect) Henry's two illegitimate children as proof of his adultery. Summerscale seamlessly weaves private letters, newspaper stories, public documents, and Isabella's infamous diary into a moving portrait of history's real "Mrs. Robinson." |
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| Ashley's War by Gayle Tzemach LemmonDuring the early years of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, intelligence officers couldn't collect complete information from Afghan civilians because the male personnel weren't permitted to have any contact with women. Though high-level Army leaders were skeptical, Special Operations strategists convinced them in 2010 that they needed women to gather intelligence -- and that women were capable of the stringent physical demands of Special Ops. Journalist Gail Tzemach Lemmon relates the successful experiences of the first such female officer in the U.S. Army: First Lt. Ashley White. |
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Dust Bowl Girls
by Lydia Reeder
Traces the Depression-era efforts of a charismatic basketball coach from tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College who recruited talented young women to join his hope-giving basketball team in exchange for a prospect-bolstering college education.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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