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History and Current Events October 2018
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| Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts from the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History by Catharine ArnoldWhat it is: a stark collection of testimonies from victims and survivors of the influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people worldwide between 1918 and 1919.
Did you know? While reports of the disease were being censored by nations in the midst of WWI, neutral Spain publicized the affliction of its ruler, King Alfonso XIII, leading to the disease becoming known as the "Spanish flu" -- and the mistaken assumption that Spain was experiencing the largest outbreak. |
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The Library Book
by Susan Orlean
The acclaimed best-selling author of Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution—our libraries.
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| Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin DickeyWhat is it: a measured, cogent history of notable haunted houses, institutions, and towns in America.
Want a taste? "Ghost stories are how cities make sense of themselves: how they narrate the tragedies of their past, weave cautionary tales for the future."
Why you might like it: This intriguing road trip narrative poignantly grapples with what ghost lore reveals about thorny topics like race. |
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| The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured... by Peter ManseauWhat it's about: the work of controversial "spirit photographer" William Mumler, who was tried for fraud in a highly publicized 1869 case that featured showman P.T. Barnum as a witness for the prosecution.
Worth a thousand words: Mumler's most famous photograph, taken six years after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, purportedly shows Lincoln's ghost hovering behind his wife.
Why you might like it: This balanced account allows readers to draw their own conclusions about Mumler and his work. |
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| The Witches: Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem by Stacy SchiffWhat it is: a gripping and vivid retelling of the Salem witch trials and their aftermath, recounted with verve in a conversational tone.
About the author: Historian Stacy Schiff is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra: A Life.
Try this next: Marilynne K. Roach's Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and the Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. |
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