| 1917: On the brink of war and revolution by Will EnglundWorld War I began in August 1914, but the U.S. remained neutral until April 1917. In this riveting history, author Will Englund details President Woodrow Wilson's reasons for bringing his country into the war, illuminating other American leaders' arguments for and against war (including Congresswoman Jeannette Ranking, journalist H.L. Mencken, and former President Theodore Roosevelt). A major element in Wilson's thinking was Russian Tsar Nicholas II's March abdication, but the most significant factor was the escalating German submarine attacks on American shipping. Englund's discussion provides a "novel and persuasive point of entry" (Publishers Weekly) into the subject of U.S. participation in World War I. |
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| Killers of the flower moon: The Osage murders and the birth of the FBI by David GrannIn 1920s Oklahoma, the Osage Indian Nation possessed immense wealth because their land contained large petroleum reserves. In Killers of the Flower Moon, New Yorker staff writer David Grann portrays a series of murders on the reservation. Local authorities couldn't solve the crimes, but an investigation by the relatively new FBI (led by the young J. Edgar Hoover) identified and charged the killers, whose primary motivation was greed. In this thoroughly researched history, Grann also reveals conspiracy and corruption beyond what the FBI discovered. Whether you're interested in Native American history or fascinated by true crime stories, check out this thrilling narrative, complete with photographs. |
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The world remade: America in World War I
by G. J. Meyer
An investigation into America's controversial involvement in the Great War places events against a backdrop of the period's tumultuous politics while sharing insights into the personalities of top contributors, exploring how the war established America's position as a superpower and set the stage for future events.
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The lost story of the William and Mary: The cowardice of Captain Stinson
by Gill Hoffs
The loss of the emigrant ship William & Mary made news around the world not once but twice in 1853. First when her American captain reported the vessel lost before his eyes in the shark-infested waters of the Bahamas and the death of over 200 left on board, then again when the truth emerged - a tale of abandonment, desperation, and the incredible heroism of a wrecker and his crew. Discover the people involved in this mysterious shipwreck, including: Captain Timothy Stinson, the callous young mariner who attempted mass murder, Susannah Dimond, the English 19-year-old hoping for a new life in St.Louis with her family, husband and unborn child, Izaak Roorda, one of a group of 87 Dutch emigrants seeking to settle in Wisconsin, who found the lifeboat more perilous than the sinking ship. Over 160 years later, Gill Hoffs reveals the terrifying true events that drove one man to murder passengers with a hatchet and others to abandon their family and friends, and a wrecker to risk his life for total strangers.
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Petrograd 1917 : Witnesses to the Russian revolution
by John Pinfold
Drawing from the Bodleian Library's rich collections, this book features extracts from letters, journals, diaries and memoirs written by a diverse cast of onlookers the of the 1917 Revolution. Primarily British, the authors include Sydney Gibbes, English tutor to the royal children, Bertie Stopford, an antiques dealer who smuggled the Vladimir tiara and other Romanov jewels into the UK, and the private secretary to Lord Milner in the British War Cabinet. Contrasting with these are a memoir by Stinton Jones, an engineer who found himself sharing a train compartment with Rasputin, a newspaper report by governess Janet Jeffrey who survived a violent confrontation with the Red Army, and letters home from Labour politician, Arthur Henderson. Accompanied by seventy contemporary illustrations, these first-hand accounts are put into context with introductory notes, giving a fascinating insight into the tumultuous year of 1917.
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Café Neandertal: Excavating our past in one of Europe's most ancient places
by Beebe Bahrami
Centred in the Dordogne region of southwestern France, one of Europe's most concentrated regions for Neandertal and early modern human occupations, writer Beebe Bahrami follows and participates in the work of archaeologists who are doing some of the most comprehensive and global work to date on the research, exploration, and recovery of our ancient ancestors. In Cafe Neandertal, Bahrami follows this compelling riddle along a path populated with colorful local personalities and opinionated, polemical, and brilliant archaeologists working in remote and fascinating places across Eurasia, all the while maintaining a firm foothold in the Dordogne, a region celebrated by the local tourist office as a vacation destination for 400,000 years. From this prehistoric perch Bahrami gets to know first-hand the Neandertals and the people who love them -- those who have devoted their lives to them. She is thrown into a world debating not only what happened to these close cousins but also what legacy they have left for those who followed. Cafe Neandertal is also a detective story, investigating one of the biggest mysteries of prehistory and archaeology: Who were the Neandertals? Why did they disappear around 35,000 years ago?
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Fractured lands: How the Arab world came apart
by Scott Anderson
A world-renowned war correspondent, through the personal stories of six individuals, presents a gripping, human account of the unraveling of the Arab world, revealing the complex causes of the widespread war and instability and the reality of the unspeakable tragedies occurring in the Middle East.
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| City of light, City of poison: Murder, magic, and the first Police Chief of Paris by Holly TuckerDuring the reign of King Louis XIV of France, Paris suffered from a crime wave that culminated in the murders of two judicial officials. The second murder impelled Louis to appoint a crime czar to clean up the (literal) filth and corruption in the City of Light. As Paris' first police chief, Nicolas de la Reynie uncovered a crime ring that involved high-level French aristocrats, brought them to trial, and executed many. After de la Reynie's death, Louis himself destroyed a lot of the records, but author Holly Tucker mines other historical sources to chronicle the entire operation -- the cleanup of Paris, the crimes, and the punishments -- enriching her fascinating picture with details of Parisian daily life. |
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| The way of the knife: The CIA, a secret army, and a war at the ends of the Earth by Mark MazzettiAfter the 9/11 attacks, the CIA changed its practice of shunning violence in its operations and adopted covert paramilitary techniques to carry out White House orders to assassinate specific enemies. In The Way of the Knife, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Mazzetti reviews the policy shift that now permits the use of predator drones, paramilitary contract agents, and similar operations, obscuring the distinction between espionage and acts of war. Focusing on less-well-known operations in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, Mazzetti details the CIA's work and explains how these maneuvers prompt increased anti-Americanism abroad. This is "a well-reported, smoothly written" account, says Kirkus Reviews. |
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| Every man in this village is a liar: An education in war by Megan K. StackWhen Megan Stack was a child, she learned from a Marine veteran that people affected by war could "survive and not survive, both at the same time." In this eloquent memoir, she herself goes to war as a young journalist. Covering the time between September 11, 2001 and the end of 2006, Stack describes her encounters with warlords, CIA operatives, and regular people, as well as how she witnessed death and carnage, dealt with innocent people being killed, and heard government officials lie to the public. Stack visited Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel, among other places, and this evocative, personal book (a National Book Award finalist) provides much food for thought about the strife-filled Middle East. |
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The ghost warriors: Inside Israel's undercover war against suicide terrorism
by Samuel M. Katz
Beginning in late 2000, as black smoke rose from burning tires and rioters threw rocks in the streets, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Arafat s Palestinian Authority embarked on a strategy of sending their terrorists to slip undetected into Israel s towns and cities to set the country ablaze, unleashing suicide attacks at bus stops, discos, pizzerias wherever people gathered. But Israel fielded some of the most capable and cunning special operations forces in the world. The Ya mas, Israel National Police Border Guard undercover counterterrorists special operations units, became Israel s eyes-on-target response. Launched on intelligence provided by the Shin Bet, indigenous Arabic-speaking Dovrim, or Speakers, operating in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza infiltrated the treacherous confines where the terrorists lived hidden in plain sight, and set the stage for the intrepid tactical specialists who often found themselves under fire and outnumbered in their effort to apprehend those responsible for the carnage inside Israel. This is their compelling true story: a tale of daring and deception that could happen only in the powder keg of the modern Middle East.
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Sudan: The failure and division of an African state
by Richard Cockett
Over the past two decades, the situation in Africa's largest country, Sudan, has progressively deteriorated: the country is in second position on the Failed States Index, a war in Darfur has claimed hundreds of thousands of deaths, President Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, a forthcoming referendum on independence for Southern Sudan threatens to split the country violently apart. In this fascinating and immensely readable book, the Africa editor of the Economist gives an absorbing account of Sudan's descent into failure and what some have called genocide. Drawing on interviews with many of the main players, Richard Cockett explains how and why Sudan has disintegrated, looking in particular at the country's complex relationship with the wider world. He shows how the United States and Britain were initially complicit in Darfur-but also how a broad coalition of human-rights activists, right-wing Christians, and opponents of slavery succeeded in bringing the issues to prominence in the United States and creating an impetus for change at the highest level.
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