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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.
Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of...
by Eve L. Ewing

In her scholarly and incisive history, sociologist Eve L. Ewing examines how the United States education system has perpetuated structural racism against Black and Indigenous children from the 18th century to the present. Try this next: Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children by Noliwe Rooks.
The Lost and the Found: A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family, and Second...
by Kevin Fagan

Award-winning San Francisco Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan's moving and intimate social history explores homelessness through the experiences of a pair of individuals trying to get by in San Francisco, California. Further reading: Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America by Jeff Hobbs. 
Disposable: America's Contempt for the Underclass
by Sarah Jones

New York magazine senior writer Sarah Jones' moving and impassioned debut examines how inequities during COVID-19 exacerbated the "social murder" of poor, disabled, and elderly Americans. Further reading: The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Steven W. Thrasher.
New prize for these eyes : the rise of America's second civil rights movement
by Juan Williams

In a follow-up to Eyes on the Prize, a best-selling author turns his attention to the rise of a new 21st-century civil rights movement.
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.
Homestand : small town baseball and the fight for the soul of America
by Will Bardenwerper

This heartfelt memoir uses small-town baseball to reflect on modern America's struggles and resilience, highlighting the revival of a beloved Rust Belt team and the enduring community spirit amidst corporate greed and changing traditions. Illustrations.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Mary Riley Styles Public Library
120 N. Virginia Ave, Falls Church, Virginia 22046
703-248-5030 (TTY 711)
www.mrspl.org