History and Current Events
April 2025
Recent Releases
Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash
by Alexander Clapp

Journalist Alexander Clapp's disturbing and well-researched debut explores the history of the global trash trade. Further reading: Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future by Oliver Franklin-Wallis.
Presidents at War:  How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents, from Eisenhower and JFK through Reagan and Bush
by Steven M. Gillon

A New York Times bestselling author examines what John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush learned from World War II and how they applied it to Cold War policy that changed America, and the world, forever.  Try this next:  The Accidental President:  Harry S. Truman and the Four Months that Changed the World by A. J. Baime.  
Murder the Truth:  Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful
by David Enrich

It seemed like a throwaway line in a forgettable opinion: In 2019, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect of challenging the legendary Warren Court decision New York Times v. Sullivan. Though hardly a household name, Sullivan is one of the most consequential free speech decisions, ever. Fundamental to the creation of the modern media as we know it, it has enabled journalists and writers all over the country-from top national publications to revered local newspapers to independent bloggers-to pursue the truth aggressively and hold the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt to account. Thomas's words were a warning-the public awakening of an idea that had been fomenting on the conservative fringe for years. With that opinion, Thomas took mainstream the ongoing, secret efforts of right-wing politicians, activist lawyers, and moneyed elites who had been seeking to overturn Sullivan in order to muzzle the media and their critics. From the Florida statehouse to small town New Hampshire to Donald Trump himself, this movement consists of powerful individuals who believe they should be above scrutiny-and are using threats, subterfuge, and legal warfare to get their way. In this masterwork of investigative reporting, David Enrich, New York Times Business Investigations Editor, traces the roots and reach of this new threat to our modern democracy. Laying bare the stakes of losing our most sacrosanct rights, Murder the Truth is a story about power-the way it's used by those who have it, and the lengths they will go to avoid it being questioned.  
On Air:  The Triumph and Tumult of NPR
by Steve Oney

This riveting account is an epic, decade-long reported history of National Public Radio that reveals the unlikely story of one of America's most celebrated but least understood media empires. 
Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS
by Lisa Rogak

Bestselling biographer Lisa Rogak's evocative blend of history and collective biography chronicles the courageous exploits of four women who worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II: American reporter Betty MacDonald, Czech polyglot Zuzka Lauwers, American navy wife Jane Smith-Hutton, and German American film star Marlene Dietrich. For fans of: Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham.
Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America
by Russell Shorto

Drawing on never-before-seen archival materials, bestselling author Russell Shorto's (The Island at the Center of the World) lively social history explores the early days of New York City, from its 1626 purchase by the Dutch to its capture by the English four decades later. For fans of: The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village by John Strausbaugh.
Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy
by Katherine Stewart

Journalist Katherine Stewart's (The Power Worshippers) thought-provoking latest is an eye-opening exploration of the often disparate factions that comprise the American far right and "offers urgently needed background on the 2024 election results" (Publishers Weekly). Try this next: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta.
American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice
by Daniel Stone

In this lively and unputdownable account, science writer Daniel Stone (Sinkable) spotlights physician and researcher Alice Hamilton's courageous but ultimately doomed efforts to ban leaded gasoline in the 1920s, a battle that pitted her against the booming automotive industry. Try this next: The Cancer Factory: Industrial Chemicals, Corporate Deception, and the Hidden Deaths of American Workers by Jim Morris.
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