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History and Current Events August 2026 |
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| On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear by Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-MeyerPulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Julia Angwin and former White House senior advisor Ami Fields-Meyer expand on their The New Yorker essay "So You Want to Be a Dissident?" in this inspiring and accessible book featuring profiles of people throughout the globe who have resisted tyrannical governments. Further reading: Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy by Joyce Vance. |
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| Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl: Essays by Amena BrownIn her upbeat and conversational essay collection celebrating Black womanhood, spoken-word poet Amena Brown offers pop culture commentary, advice, poetry, and personal reflections. For fans of: Samantha Irby and Phoebe Robinson. |
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Witness to War: The Story of the Civil War Told by Those Who Lived It
by J. Mark Powell
The Civil War was one of the great events of United States history, and the widespread literacy of the mid-nineteenth century made it possible for an unprecedented number of Americans to record their thoughts, observations, descriptions, and opinions of the war. This book prints more than 500 letters--all of them in print for the first time--to reveal life during the Civil War. Witness to War lets the participants speak for themselves, offering a fresh, human perspective on a war that still holds and haunts us more than 150 years later. Further reading: Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America by Eugene Robinson.
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Biography of a Dangerous Idea: A New History of Race from Louis XIV to Thomas Jefferson
by Andrew S. Curran
Over the course of the eighteenth century, Enlightenment natural historians and classifiers redefined what it meant to be human. By 1800, they had recast the very idea of humankind, sorting the world's peoples into rigid biological categories for the first time in history. Biography of a Dangerous Idea not only reveals the Enlightenment's entanglement with empire and oppression--it offers a bold reassessment of the era's most celebrated luminaries. Try this next: The Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment by Andrew Curran.
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I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month
by Jarvis R. Givens
In I'll Make Me a World, acclaimed Harvard scholar Jarvis R. Givens takes us on a personal and political journey through the 100-year history of Black History Month--from its radical beginnings in 1926 as Negro History Week to its role today as a celebration and flashpoint in America's cultural battles. Drawing on archival research, personal stories involving family and students, and especially the wisdom of Black educators, Givens recovers the legacy of Carter G. Woodson and many others who envisioned Black history as a liberatory force--knowledge that shapes who we are, how we resist, and what we dream.Try this next: American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation by Jarvis R. Givens.
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Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History
by Linford D. Fisher
Brown University historian Linford D. Fisher's sweeping and well-researched revisionist history reveals the enslavement of approximately 600,000 Indigenous North Americans between 1492 and the 19th century, detailing how the practice spurred land theft, forced removal, and the establishment of Indian boarding schools. Further reading: The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndez.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Forsyth County Public Library
660 W. Fifth St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101
336-703-2665forsythlibrary.org |
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