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New History & Biography APRIL |
Click on the title to check availability or to log in and place holds online. To place holds by phone, please call us at (708) 366-5205, ext. 316. |
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This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History by Beverly GageRide along with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Beverly Gage as she travels the country to see the museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments, and souvenir shops where Americans learn--and fight--about our history. From the birth of the nation in Philadelphia to Disneyland and the California dream, This Land Is Your Land offers a guided tour of thirteen places and thirteen key moments that define America's greatest successes and challenges. The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document that proclaimed the liberty and equality of all human beings, but produced a country that often failed to agree upon, or live up to, those ideals. Gage shows that Americans can face their past and still love their country.
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Those Who Are about to Die: A Day in the Life of a Roman Gladiator by Harry SidebottomWhat did a gladiator feel when he stepped out onto the sand of the Colosseum, his life in the balance? What ran through the minds of the masses there to witness his likely execution? And how did this bloodthirsty ritual come to exist in the first place? In Those Who Are About to Die, Harry Sidebottom pulls us into the arena, and into the homes and forums of ancient Rome, taking the reader on an eye-opening, twenty-four-hour tour through Roman life at the height of the gladiatorial games, from the first century BC to the second century AD.
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This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark by Craig FehrmanA fresh and more accurate account of one of the most important episodes in American history, humanizing forgotten figures and shattering long-held myths. In 1806, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark return from their yearslong journey--having led the Corps of Discovery across eight thousand miles of rapids, mountains, forests, and ravines--they bring an incredible tale starring themselves as courageous explorers, skilled survivalists, underrated scientists, and peaceful ambassadors. While there is truth in those descriptions, there is also distortion. From one of the most exciting new historians to emerge in the past decade, This Vast Enterprise offers a bold and novel take on the expedition: a gripping narrative that draws on lost documents, stunning analysis, and Native perspectives. More than just a work of history, This Vast Enterprise a testament to the power of innovative research and emotional storytelling, and a thrilling reminder that even the most familiar moments in history can still surprise us.
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Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945 by Ian BurumaAn astonishing account of life under a murderous regime amid a great city's descent into utter annihilation In 1939, when Ian Buruma's epic opens, Berlin has been under Nazi rule for six years, and its 4.3 million people have made their accommodations to the regime, more or less. When war broke out with Poland in September, what was most striking at first was how little changed. Unless you were Jewish. Then life, already hard, was soon to get unfathomably worse. This is a book full of tenderness and genuine heroism, but it is by no means sentimental: again and again we see that most people do not do the hard thing most of the time. Most people go along. It's a lesson that has not lost its timeliness.
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The Lost Cities of El Norte: Coronado's Quest, the Unconquered West, and the Birth of American Indian Resistance by Peter StarkIn 1540, the grandest exploring expedition ever assembled in the Americas paraded north from the ruins of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, a glittering column of 2,000 men heading into the unknown. Their destination was El Norte Misterioso, present-day United States, where fabulous cities of gold were rumored to shine beyond the horizon. Two years later, survivors began stumbling back, half dead. Lost to poisoned arrows, brutal deserts, starvation, cold, desertion, and countless other hardships. Led by Francisco Coronado and backed by the full weight of the Spanish empire, they had expected to seize the land, steal its riches, and subjugate its peoples, but instead they encountered the unconquered American West, populated by complex societies of indigenous nations who fiercely resisted this European incursion onto their lands. After leading the largest exploring cavalcade ever assembled in the New World, Coronado retreated back to Mexico City two years later, a broken man. America's Southwest and Plains would remain unconquered for the next 300 years.
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Intimate Audrey: An Authorized Biography by Wendy HoldenThe deeply personal official biography of Audrey Hepburn, full of untold stories, exclusive photos, and cherished memories from her son Sean Hepburn Ferrer, one of the people who knew her best. To those who appreciate her work and legacy, Audrey Hepburn was many things. But perhaps her greatest contribution to the world was as a selfless humanitarian in the final years of her life, proving that fear and trauma can be transmuted into kindness and art. For Sean Hepburn Ferrer, Audrey was also his mother. Featuring never-before-seen photographs and excerpts from her personal letters, this book is an intimate portrait of Audrey: as an icon, as a mother, and as an altruist who drew on her own experience of hunger and suffering to advocate fiercely for children in war-torn and famine-stricken countries.
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Labor: One Woman's Work by Mary Fariba AfsariA powerful memoir of medicine, identity, and family secrets from an esteemed ob-gyn as she unravels her grandmother's mysterious death while reimagining women's health care from a mobile clinic. Set against the vivid backdrops of Portland, Oregon, and Shiraz, Iran, this powerful memoir intertwines the complexities of her professional life with the hidden truths of her family's past, exploring the intersection of medicine, identity, and the enduring search for agency.
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Revenge for the Sixties: Sam Alito and the Triumph of the Conservative Legal Movement by Peter S. CanellosThe first-ever biography of the most pivotal Justice on the Supreme Court whose decisions, like the overturning of Roe, will drive the reshaping of America, by prize-winning journalist Peter Canellos. When the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, the landmark case overturning Roe v. Wade, it marked a turning point in the lives of millions of Americans. It was also the culmination of a decades-long movement whose grievances were embodied by the man who wrote the court's opinion: Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. His ethnic and religious background, his intellectual confidence, and his unyielding determination are all illustrative of a group of men and women who embarked on a decades-long mission to change the rules that govern society.
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Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried about: A Memoir by Isabel KleeFrom the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. In this honest and moving memoir, Isabel weaves together the stories of her foster dogs--and the challenges she helped them overcome--with tales of complicated relationships, hard decisions, and great loves in New York City, all leading to a happy ending not only for the rescue pups, but for Isabel herself.
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