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History and Current Events July 2024
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The Deerfield Massacre: A Surprise Attack, a Forced March, and the Fight for Survival in...
by James L. Swanson
Historian James L. Swanson's fast-paced latest chronicles "one of the most dramatic episodes in colonial American history" -- the 1704 attack on the Deerfield settlement in Massachusetts conducted by a party of 204 Native and French raiders. Try this next: Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace.
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| Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam HigginbothamJournalist Adam Higginbotham's evocative follow-up to his Carnegie Medal-winning Midnight in Chernobyl is a compelling and well-researched chronicle of how NASA's negligence and hubris led to the 1986 Challenger explosion. Try this next: Bringing Columbia Home: The Final Mission of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew by Michael D. Leinbach and Jonathan H. Ward. |
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| They Came for the Schools: One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for... by Mike HixenbaughPeabody Award-winning investigative journalist Mike Hixenbaugh adapts his Southlake podcast in this sobering exposé of how a public school system curriculum in suburban North Texas has been stymied by a right-wing evangelical takeover of the school board. Further reading: The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America by Cara Fitzpatrick; School Moms: Parent Activism, Partisan Politics, and the Battle for Public Education by Laura Pappano. |
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| Hip-Hop Is History by QuestloveGrammy Award-winning Roots drummer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Questlove's lively history explores the first 50 years of hip-hop music by spotlighting one song from each year since the genre's 1973 origins. Try this next: Chuck D Presents This Day in Rap and Hip-Hop History by Chuck D; The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop by Jonathan Abrams. |
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| The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George StephanopoulosPolitical commentator and former presidential advisor George Stephanopoulos offers a peek behind the curtain at America's most famous residence in this compelling history of the Situation Room, the White House communications hub where consequential decisions are made. Try this next: The Hidden History of the White House: Power Struggles, Scandals, and Defining Moments by Corey Mead. |
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Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War
by Edda L. Fields-Black
Most Americans know of Harriet Tubman's legendary life: escaping enslavement in 1849, she led more than 60 others out of bondage via the Underground Railroad, gave instructions on getting to freedom to scores more, and went on to live a lifetime fighting for change. Yet the many biographies, children's books, and films about Tubman omit a crucial chapter: during the Civil War, hired by the Union Army, she ventured into the heart of slave territory--Beaufort, South Carolina--to live, work, and gather intelligence for a daring raid up the Combahee River to attack the major plantations of Rice Country, the breadbasket of the Confederacy.
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Silk: A World History
by Aarathi Prasad
In a gorgeous history that spans continents and millennia, Aarathi Prasad weaves together the complex story of the queen of fabrics. Through the scientists who have studied silk, and the biology of the animals from which it has been drawn, Prasad explores the global, natural, and cultural history (and future) of a unique material that has fascinated the world for thousands of years. Silk—prized for its lightness, luminosity, and beauty—is also one of the strongest biological materials ever known. More than a century ago, it was used to make the first bulletproof vest, and yet science has barely even begun to tap its potential. As the technologies it has inspired—from sutures to pharmaceuticals, replacement body parts to holograms—continue to be developed in laboratories around the world, they are now also beginning to offer a desperately needed, sustainable alternative to the plastics choking our planet.
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The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq
by Steve Coll
From bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and a deeply researched and news breaking investigation into how human error, cultural miscommunication, and hubris led to one of the greatest geopolitical conflicts of our time. When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, its message was clear: Iraq, under the control of strongman Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction which, if left unchecked, posed grave danger to the world. But when no WMDs were found, the US and its allies were forced to consider that their political and intelligence failures had led to one of the most disastrous conflicts of our time. And a more integral question remained unsolved: Why had Saddam seemingly sacrificed his long reign in power by giving the impression that he possessed hidden stocks of dangerous weapons?
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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