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History and Current Events December 2018
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| In My Father's House: A New View of How Crime Runs in the Family by Fox ButterfieldWhat it's about: Using a case study of the white Bogle family of Oregon (more than 60 of whom have been arrested since 1920), this eye-opening saga of criminal genealogy reveals a sobering reality -- five percent of all families account for almost half the crime in America.
Why it matters: Timely and thought-provoking, In My Father's House interrogates long-held stereotypes linking race to crime, offering an empathetic approach to recognizing crime theories based on family dynamics. |
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Hungover : the morning after and one man's quest for the cure
by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall
We've all been there. One minute you're fast asleep, and in the next you're tumbling from dreams of deserts and demons, into semi-consciousness, mouth full of sand, head throbbing. You're hungover. Courageous journalist Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall has gone to the front lines of humanity's age-old fight against hangovers to settle once and for all the best way to get rid of the aftereffects of a night of indulgence (short of not drinking in the first place). Hangovers have plagued human beings for about as long as civilization has existed (and arguably longer), so there has been plenty of time for cures to be concocted. But even in 2018, little is actually known about hangovers, and less still about how to cure them. Cutting through the rumor and the myth, Hungover explores everything from polar bear swims, to saline IV drips, to the age-old hair of the dog, to let us all know which ones actually work. And along the way, Bishop-Stall regales readers with stories from humanity's long and fraught relationship with booze.
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| Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim (editor)What it is: a stirring anthology of candid contributions from 21 black women writers (including Tayari Jones, Morgan Jerkins, Gabourey Sidibe, Jesmyn Ward, and Jacqueline Woodson) that celebrates the transformative power of being seen in literature.
Don't miss: Kaitlyn Greenidge's "Books for a Black Girl's Soul," which includes recommendations for "A Book To Read When You Wish You Could Pack It All In and Just Be Missy Elliott," among others. |
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Civil War Barons : The Tycoons, Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Visionaries Who Forged Victory and Shaped a Nation
by Jeffry D. Wert
The Civil War woke a sleeping giant in America, creating unprecedented industrial growth that not only supported the struggle but reshaped the nation. Energized by the country's dormant potential and wealth of natural resources, individuals of vision, organizational talent, and capital took advantage of the opportunity that war provided. Their innovations sustained Union troops, affected military strategy and tactics, and made the killing fields even deadlier. Their ranks included men such as:
John Deere, whose plows helped feed large armies. Gail Borden, whose condensed milk nourished the Union army. The Studebaker Brothers, whose wagons moved war supplies from home front to war front. Robert Parrott, whose rifled cannon was deployed on countless battlefields, and many others. Individually, these men came to dominate industry and amass great wealth and power; collectively, they helped save the Union and refashion the economic fabric of a nation.
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| LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P.W. Singer and Emerson T. BrookingWhat it's about: how extremists and authoritarian regimes manipulate social media platforms to serve as "battlespaces" for political disputes, leading to trolling, disinformation, and memetic warfare.
Did you know? ISIS' recruiting tactics include mimicking the authentic feel of Taylor Swift's Instagram posts.
About the authors: Defense experts P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking are a contributing editor for Popular Science and a former research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, respectively. |
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