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History and Current Events March 2019
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| Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring by Richard GergelWhat it's about: On February 12, 1946, African American veteran Isaac Woodard was beaten and permanently blinded by Batesburg, South Carolina police chief Lynwood Shull after a dispute with a bus driver.
What happened next: President Truman established the President's Committee on Civil Rights, which led to the desegregation of the U.S. armed services in 1948. After Shull was acquitted, Judge J. Waties Waring, who had presided over the case, dedicated the rest of his career to fighting racial injustice. |
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| Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet by Will HuntWhat it is: A brisk, panoramic exploration of the history, science, and mythology of subterranean spaces, written by a self-proclaimed urban explorer and underworld enthusiast.
Featuring: Paris catacombs, Australian ochre mines, New York City subway tunnels, and Turkish underground cities.
For fans of: Unique and offbeat travelogues. |
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| Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy by Larry LoftisWho it's about: Odette Sansom, a French woman recruited by England's Special Operations Executive to spy for Britain during World War II.
Is it for you? Readers who enjoy fast-paced histories that read like thrillers will find much to appreciate in this dramatic tale.
Don't miss: Sansom's relationship with her commanding officer is "the stuff of romance novels" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David TreuerWhat it is: A vivid 125-year history of Native America that details the ways that tribes have survived -- and thrived -- in the face of adversity.
About the author: David Treuer is an Ojibwe novelist and historian who grew up on Minnesota's Leech Lake Indian Reservation. |
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| Camelot's End: Kennedy vs. Carter and the Fight That Broke the Democratic Party by Jon WardWhat it is: A captivating account of the 1980 Democratic primary battle between sitting president Jimmy Carter and Senator Ted Kennedy.
Did you know? Incumbent presidents seeking reelection have been challenged from within their own party "only a handful of times."
Why it's significant: Campaign tensions led to divisions within the Democratic party that continue to resonate. |
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Forgotten & Untold Histories |
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| Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America's Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe by Rebecca ErbeldingWhat it's about: The War Refugee Board (WRB), which was created by President Roosevelt in 1944 to aid thousands of European Jews.
How'd they do it? The WRB team smuggled supplies into concentration camps, forged identity cards, funded French Resistance efforts, and engaged in bribery and money laundering.
Author alert: Rebecca Erbelding, a curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, spent over ten years researching for this book. |
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Midnight in Chernobyl : The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
by Adam Higginbotham
What it's about: Draws on 20 years of research, recently declassified files and interviews with first-person survivors in an account of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster that also reveals how propaganda and secrets have created additional dangers.
Why you might like it: It is an indelible portrait of one of the great disasters of the twentieth century, of human resilience and ingenuity, and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will--lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary.
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Dead Reckoning : The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage
by Ken McGoogan
What it's about: With this book--his most ambitious yet--Ken McGoogan delivers a vivid, comprehensive recasting of Arctic-exploration history. Dead Reckoning challenges the conventional narrative, which emerged out of Victorian England and focused almost exclusively on Royal Navy officers. By integrating non-British and fur-trade explorers and, above all, Canada's indigenous peoples, this work brings the story of Arctic discovery into the twenty-first century.
Why not try: Other titles by McGoogan that delve into naval triumph and tragedy, Fatal passage : the untold story of John Rae, the Arctic adventurer who discovered the fate of Franklin, Ancient mariner : the amazing adventures of Samuel Hearne, the sailor who walked to the Arctic Ocean, or Race to the Polar Sea : the heroic adventures and romantic obsessions of Elisha Kent Kane.
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Hissing cousins : the Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth
by Marc N Peyser
What it's about: A provocative dual portrait of first cousins Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth discusses how their tangled lives were shaped by 20th-century history and politics, sharing insights into their childhoods, respective beliefs and adversarial relationship.
Look into: Other titles that explore this relationship including Eleanor and Hick : the Love Affair that Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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