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History and Current EventsFebruary 2015
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"At age sixty I was ordered to serve as a porter for a white person in a New York hotel, at age eighty to hang up a white guest’s coat at a Washington club where I was not an employee but a member." ~ John Hope Franklin (1915-2009), American historian, Mirror to America
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New and Recently Released!
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| The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power Behind... by Thomas AsbridgeMedieval chivalry required knights to engage in bloody warfare and brutal tournaments in addition to fulfilling the civil expectations of loyalty to their feudal lords. William Marshal was called the "greatest knight" because he excelled in all aspects of knighthood: prevailing in battle, supporting his sovereigns (including Eleanor of Aquitaine and England's Henry II), and managing his own wealth and estates. Historian Thomas Asbridge paints a vivid portrait of Marshal in The Greatest Knight while detailing the customs of chivalry and the 12th-century political context of Marshal's life. This biography will enthrall anyone interested in British history or fascinated by Arthurian chivalric romance. |
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| Men: Notes From an Ongoing Investigation by Laura KipnisIn Men, feminist and media critic Laura Kipnis collects essays she's written about particular types of people -- especially men who annoy her. The volume's well researched and wittily composed pieces examine four categories of outrageous or politically incorrect behavior. Starting with "The Scumbag," discussing the pornography publisher Larry Flynt, Kipnis ends the collection with "Women Who Hate Men," which describes offensive anti-male attitudes while also relating why some women hate all men. This thought-provoking volume will capture the imagination of anyone interested in gender politics and other contemporary cultural issues. For more of the author's challenging observations on men and women in society, read The Female Thing. |
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| When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II by Molly Guptill ManningDuring World War II, when American soldiers needed the morale boost that reading can supply, the War Department commissioned the production and shipment of over 1,300 titles in editions that fit into uniform pockets. The books included everything from Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to collections of popular comic strips to Plato. In When Books Went to War, author Molly Guptill Manning vividly details not only the Armed Services Editions project but the troops' responses to the books, recounted in letters home and later recollections. This fascinating slice of history will captivate both book lovers and World War II buffs. |
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| God'll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a... by John SafranIn 2010, a year after documentary maker John Safran interviewed white supremacist Robert Barrett, Barrett was murdered by a black man. Assuming the crime was racially motivated, Safran went to Jackson, Mississippi to learn more about the killer and his victim, only to discover that race wasn't the dominant factor. As he interviewed people, the Jewish Australian broadcaster felt like a fish out of water, continually surprised by wildly conflicting theories and unexpected responses to Barrett's death. God'll Cut You Down details Safran's riveting, confusing, and sometimes hilarious investigation. Readers who were beguiled by John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil will find Safran's book equally absorbing. |
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| America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder by Bret StephensIn this thought-provoking book, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Bret Stephens argues that the United States needs to increase its international engagement, instead of decreasing it as has been the case over the past decade. Reviewing the history of American isolationism and its consequences, he also cautions against a position of American domination of (and responsibility for) the whole world. Stephens suggests that the U.S. should take on a more moderate role of keeping international order. While many will find his proposals controversial, this well reasoned discussion offers "especially timely reading" (Publishers Weekly) for anyone interested in foreign policy. |
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Focus on: African American History
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| The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations by Ira BerlinThis 400-year history of the African-American experience traces four pivotal migrations: the transatlantic slave trade; the relocation of slaves from the coast to antebellum Southern plantations; the "great migration" of black Americans from the rural South to industrial cities in the North; and, since the late 1960s, the arrival of black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe. Historian Ira Berlin focuses on how these movements -- both forced and voluntary -- have shaped African-American history and culture, and his book provides an "insightful meditation on the physical and cultural journeys" (Kirkus Reviews) of African Americans. |
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| The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero's Life and Legacy Revealed Through... by Medgar Wiley Evers; Myrlie Evers-Williams and Manning Marable, editorsThe Autobiography of Medgar Evers depicts his life and his work with the NAACP in Mississippi in the 1950s and 1960s. Evers himself didn't have a chance to write his life story, since an assassin's bullet cut his life short in the midst of his efforts to promote voting rights for African Americans. This book, therefore, consists of letters, speeches, telegrams, and other documents, with background and contextual commentary by historian Manning Marable and Evers' widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams. It offers an informative, moving, and sobering account of civil rights work in the Deep South along with a portrait of Evers as a family man and diligent NAACP Field Secretary. |
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| Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New... by Gilbert KingIn this riveting account of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall's criminal defense work early in his legal career, author Gilbert King depicts a 1949 rape case whose ramifications went well beyond the courthouse to lynching and general destruction in the black community of Groveland, Florida. Devil in the Grove, which won a 2013 Pulitzer Prize, vividly depicts the racism and corruption that ruled parts of the South after World War II. For more on white bigotry in the 20th-century South, read David Beasley's Without Mercy. |
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| American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt by Daniel RasmussenThe New Orleans revolt of January 1811, which was the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history, is seldom recalled in history books. Historian Daniel Rasmussen, in this first book-length account of the events, details the massive uprising, its rapid suppression, and the subsequent reprisals against the rebels. Because officials and planters suppressed information about the events and labeled the insurrection a crime rather than a revolt, it neither led directly to other rebellions nor made a significant mark on American history. American Uprising brings this event out of the shadows and persuasively connects it to the larger picture of slavery and the plantation system. |
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| Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities by Craig Steven WilderBeginning in colonial times, American colleges and universities often relied on the financial benefits of slavery and promoted the view that Africans and Native Americans were inferior to Europeans. In Ebony & Ivy, historian Craig Steven Wilder details the strong connection between practices that supported white superiority and the economic and social success of leading schools, including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. This thoroughly documented, absorbing account offers a thought-provoking and arresting reassessment of the history of American higher education. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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