|
|
|
|
History and Current Events May 2026 |
|
|
|
| Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to '90s Sitcoms by Geoff BennettPeabody Award-winning PBS NewsHour co-anchor Geoff Bennett's sweeping and incisive debut explores the origins and evolution of Black comedy in the United States, spotlighting individual performers like minstrel Billy Kersands, vaudevillian Stepin Fetchit, actress/comedian Hattie McDaniel, and more. Further reading: Black TV: Five Decades of Groundbreaking Television from Soul Train to Black-ish and Beyond by Bethonie Butler; Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers by Donald Bogle. |
|
| This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History by Beverly GagePulitzer Prize-winning historian Beverly Gage's engaging travelogue surveys 250 years of American history via visits to 13 places that have shaped the country, from Independence Hall to Disneyland and everything in between. Try this next: American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed by Isaac Fitzgerald. |
|
| London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden KeefeIn his richly detailed latest, award-winning journalist Patrick Radden Keefe (Say Nothing) chronicles the shocking death of 19-year-old Zac Brettler in 2019 London, revealing how Brettler's secret life posing as the son of a Russian oligarch led to his involvement in the city's seedy underworld. For fans of: Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade by Walter Kirn. |
|
| Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age by Ibram X. KendiNational Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi's (Stamped from the Beginning) thought-provoking latest details the origins and evolution of the great replacement theory -- the far-right conspiracy that claims white European people are deliberately being replaced by non-white immigrants -- and examines how leading politicians around the globe openly propagate these views. Further reading: The Great White Hoax: Two Centuries of Selling Racism in America by Philip Kadish. |
|
|
|
Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America's Future
by Fergus M. Bordewich
The grand spectacle that marked America's first century--and a moment of reckoning for a nation in flux Those who were there felt that the wheel of history itself had turned before their eyes.
Held at Fairmount Park, in Philadelphia, the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876 attracted 10 million Americans--nearly 20 percent of the population, among them P. T. Barnum, Frederick Douglass, and Mark Twain--and visitors from around the world.
On display were inventions that signaled the changing landscape of American life, from the typewriter to the telephone to Heinz Tomato Ketchup.
This celebration of America's first hundred years came at a moment when its future seemed more precarious than ever--as big money threatened to overwhelm the government, underpaid workers waged the first national labor strike, feminists demanded rights for women, Native tribes went to war to repel the advancing settlement in the West, and Black Americans struggled to exercise their hard-won freedom.
Looming over the fair was the presidential race of 1876--a highly contested election that would determine the fate of Reconstruction and permanently shape the Republican party as we know it today.
|
|
| The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control by Jacob SiegelManifesto! podcast host and former United States Army intelligence officer Jacob Siegel's wide-ranging debut examines how America's post-9/11 surveillance state has spurred the rise of disinformation and misinformation. Further reading: Lies that Kill: A Citizen's Guide to Disinformation by Elaine C. Kamarck and Darrell M. West. |
|
| True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color -- from Azure to Zinc Pink by Kory StamperIn her irreverent latest based on a decade of research, lexicographer Kory Stamper (Word by Word: The Secret Language of Dictionaries) traces Merriam-Webster staffers' surprisingly contentious efforts to define colors, which began with the 1931 establishment of the Inter-Society Color Council. Further reading: The World According to Color: A Cultural History by James Fox. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
Carrollton Public Library 1700 Keller Springs Road, Carrollton Texas 75006 4220 North Josey Lane, Carrollton Texas 75010 |
|
|