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History and Current Events May 2017
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| March 1917: On the Brink of War and Revolution by Will EnglundWorld War I began in August 1914, but the U.S. remained neutral until April 1917. In this riveting history, author Will Englund details President Woodrow Wilson's reasons for bringing his country into the war, illuminating other American leaders' arguments for and against war (including Congresswoman Jeannette Ranking, journalist H.L. Mencken, and former President Theodore Roosevelt). A major element in Wilson's thinking was Russian Tsar Nicholas II's March abdication, but the most significant factor was the escalating German submarine attacks on American shipping. |
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| Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David GrannIn 1920s Oklahoma, the Osage Indian Nation possessed immense wealth because their land contained large petroleum reserves. In Killers of the Flower Moon, New Yorker staff writer David Grann portrays a series of murders on the reservation. Local authorities couldn't solve the crimes, but an investigation by the relatively new FBI (led by the young J. Edgar Hoover) identified and charged the killers, whose primary motivation was greed. In this thoroughly researched history, Grann also reveals conspiracy and corruption beyond what the FBI discovered. |
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| No One Cares about Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America by Ron PowersIn No One Cares about Crazy People, bestselling author Ron Powers combines a well-researched discussion of the social history of mental illness with an account of his two sons' schizophrenia. Sharply critiquing recent political comments about the mentally ill (as reflected in the book's title), Powers traces the treatment of these patients from 18th-century Britain's Bedlam hospital to 21st-century American practices. By describing his sons' ordeals, Powers makes the too-often ignored failures of mental health care heart-rendingly visible. This clear and powerful discussion updates and confirms the findings presented in Pete Earley's Crazy. |
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| A Fine Mess: A Global Quest for a Simpler, Fairer, and More Efficient Tax System by T.R. ReidAccording to acclaimed Washington Post correspondent T.R. Reid, the U.S. income tax code is a complete failure, bloated with loopholes and intelligible only to tax lawyers. In A Fine Mess, Reid reports on his exploration of taxation systems around the world, offering simpler approaches he says would work in the American economy. Pointing out that the income tax code has been completely reworked every 32 years since its 1913 inception, he argues that it's time for another overhaul. |
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Janesville : An American Story
by Amy Goldstein
A Washington Post reporter provides an intimate account of the fallout from the closing of a General Motors’ assembly plant in Janesville, Wisconsin—Paul Ryan’s hometown—and a larger story of the hollowing of the American middle class.
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