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History and Current Events October 2020
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| Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. What it's about: how James Baldwin's writings on the failures of the civil rights movement remain just as relevant today.
Read it for: an impassioned and incisive blend of history, literary analysis, and own voices memoir.
Topics include: mass incarceration; the Black Lives Matter movement; Confederate monument removals; the election of Donald Trump. |
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| Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel WilkersonWhat it's about: the "shape-shifting, unspoken, race-based" caste system that has shaped four centuries of American history.
Read it for: a timely and thought-provoking exploration of how rigid social hierarchies dehumanize the people who live within them.
Book buzz: This impassioned latest from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson (The Warmth of Other Suns) was recently named an Oprah's Book Club pick. |
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| Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil PriceWhat it is: a demythologizing history of the Viking Age (750-1050 CE) written by archaeologist and longtime Viking scholar Neil Price.
Why you might like it: Aided by archaeological discoveries, this nuanced and well-researched account offers vivid recreations of Viking rituals that have often been misrepresented in popular culture.
Don't miss: a gruesome description of a Viking funeral. |
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| Show Them You're Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before College by Jeff HobbsWhat it's about: a year in the life of four college-bound Los Angeles high school seniors.
Starring: Carlos, an undocumented Ivy League hopeful; Tio, an aspiring engineer coping with his father's alcoholism; Sam, who longs to attend a college far away from his strict Chinese mother; and Owen, who's conflicted about his family's privilege and his mother's chronic illness. |
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U.S. Elections and Voting
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| Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the... by Tina CassidyWhat it's about: the antagonistic relationship between tireless Quaker suffragette Alice Paul and President Woodrow Wilson in the years before the passage of the 19th Amendment.
Why you might like it: This vivid and dramatic account offers an inspiring portrait of a pioneering yet underappreciated activist.
Don't miss: Wilson's first inauguration being upstaged by a suffragist parade organized by Paul. |
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Unrigged: How Americans are Battling Back to Save Democracy
by David Daley
What it is: A timely exposé of how a small cadre of Republican operatives rigged American elections. Daley reports on Pennsylvania’s dramatic defeat of a gerrymander using the research of ingenious mathematicians and the Michigan millennial who launched a statewide redistricting revolution with a Facebook post.
Read it for: a vivid portrait of a nation transformed by a new civic awakening, providing a blueprint for what must be done to keep American democracy afloat.
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| Deep State: Trump, the FBI, and the Rule of Law by James B. StewartWhat it is: a clear-eyed investigation of the FBI's activities in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
Who it's for: Though Deep State treads familiar ground, readers who found The Mueller Report lacking will want to check out this revealing behind-the-scenes account featuring interviews with key officials.
About the author: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart is a columnist for the New York Times. |
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Contact your librarian fore more great books!
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