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History and Current Events May 2021
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Craft : an American history
by Glenn Adamson
At the center of the United States' economic and social development, according to conventional wisdom, are industry and technology-while craftspeople and handmade objects are relegated to a bygone past. Renowned historian Glenn Adamson turns that narrative on its head in this innovative account, revealing makers' central role in shaping America's identity. Examine any phase of the nation's struggle to define itself, and artisans are there-from the silversmith Paul Revere and the revolutionary carpenters and blacksmiths who hurled tea into Boston Harbor, to today's "maker movement." From Mother Jones to Rosie the Riveter. From Betsy Ross to Rosa Parks. From suffrage banners to the AIDS Quilt. Adamson shows that craft has long been implicated in debates around equality, education, and class. Artisanship has often been a site of resistance for oppressed people, such as enslaved African-Americans whose skilled labor might confer hard-won agency under bondage, or the Native American makers who adapted traditional arts into statements of modernity. Theirs are among the array of memorable portraits of Americans both celebrated and unfamiliar in this richly peopled book. As Adamson argues, these artisans' stories speak to our collective striving toward a more perfect union. From the beginning, America had to be-and still remains to be-crafted.
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The Ravine: A Family, a Photograph, a Holocaust Massacre Revealed
by Wendy Lower
How it began: In 2009, historian Wendy Lower saw a World War II-era photograph capturing the execution of a Ukrainian Jewish family.
What happened next: Lower spent years researching the photograph's origins and the identities of the victims, perpetrators, and photographer, constructing a compelling narrative of what happened that day.
Further reading: For another heartwrenching investigation of the atrocities committed against Ukrainian Jews during the Holocaust, check out Esther Safran Foer's memoir I Want You to Know We're Still Here.
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The crooked path to abolition : Abraham Lincoln and the antislavery Constitution
by James Oakes
An award-winning scholar uncovers Lincoln's strategy for abolishing slavery in this groundbreaking history of the sectional crisis and Civil War. Some celebrate Lincoln for freeing the slaves; others fault him for a long-standing conservatism on abolition and race. James Oakes gives us another option in this brilliant exploration of Lincoln and the end of slavery. Through the unforeseen challenges of the Civil War crisis, Lincoln and the Republican party adhered to a clear antislavery strategy founded on the Constitution itself. All understood the limits to federal power in the slave states, and the need for state action to abolish slavery finally. But Lincoln and the Republicans claimed strong constitutional tools for federal action against slavery, and they used those tools consistently to undermine slavery, prevent its expansion, and pressure the slave states into abolition. This antislavery Constitution guided Lincoln and his allies as they navigated the sectional crisis and the Civil War. When the states finally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, it was a confirmation of a long-held vision..
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A worse place than hell : how the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg changed a nation
by John Matteson
Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Matteson illuminates three harrowing months of the Civil War and their ineradicable legacy for America. In December 1862, the Battle of Fredericksburg shattered Union forces and threatened to break apart Abraham Lincoln's government. Five extraordinary individuals experienced Fredericksburg's cataclysmic repercussions - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, John Pelham, and Arthur Fuller. Guided by duty, driven by desire, they moved toward lofty destinies: a young Harvard intellectual steeped in courageous ideals, a gay Brooklyn poet condemned by guardians of propriety, a struggling writer desperate to serve the cause and gain her philosopher father's admiration, a West Point cadet from Alabama excelling in artillery tactics, and a one-eyed minister seeking to prove his manhood. Because of what they saw and suffered, America, too, would never be the same. In A Worse Place Than Hell, John Matteson creates a gripping tale of the Civil War and profound cultural transformation. He etches an exquisite portrait, revealing through these lives how America was redefined by its most tragic conflict.
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Let the Lord sort them : the rise and fall of the death penalty
by Maurice Chammah
A history of the death penalty in Texas and its influence on the 1972 SCOTUS ruling examines the contributions of key prosecutors, judges and defendants while explaining how the state’s example reflects critical vulnerabilities in the American criminal justice system.
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The new climate war : the fight to take back the planet
by Michael E. Mann
Explaining how misleading environmental campaigns by major consumers of fossil fuels have primarily served to redirect responsibility to individuals, a leading climate scientist outlines recommendations for compelling governments and businesses to take action on a global level.
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The new normal : a roadmap to resilience in the pandemic era
by Jennifer Ashton
The Chief Medical Correspondent at ABC News presents a guide to resilience in the era of COVID, sharing insights into how to understand evolving medical updates, adapt to evolving norms and make responsible choices throughout the pandemic.
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Kill shot : a shadow industry, a deadly disease
by Jason Dearen
An award-winning AP investigative journalist documents the horrifying 2012 story of how thousands of drug vials produced by the NECC became contaminated with a deadly fungal microbe that was catastrophically injected into thousands of patients. Illustrations.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Iredell County Public Library 201 North Tradd Street Statesville, North Carolina 28677 704-878-3090www.iredell.lib.nc.us/ |
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