Culpeper County Library271 Southgate Shopping Center, Culpeper, Virginia 22701 | 540-825-8691https://www.cclva.org |
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History and Current Events November 2026 |
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Bird Men: The Rise of American Airpower and the Machine That Ended World War II
by A. J. Baime
Of all the feats of American ingenuity in World War II, perhaps none was as impressive in scale or vital to the Allied victory as the creation of American airpower. Just a few years before the start of World War II, the American military was stuck in the dark ages of aviation, with the U.S. Army's Air Corps mainly focused, not on combat, but on mail delivery. Fast forward to end of the war, and America had launched the most impressive flying machine the world had ever seen: the B-29 Superfortress, a weapon so essential to ending the war that its research and development process cost more than the Manhattan Project.Now A. J. Baime, one of our foremost chroniclers of twentieth-century history, returns with the story of this remarkable turnaround, detailing the creation of the Superfortress and how U.S. General Hap Arnold made the rise of American airpower a reality. Through the lens of Arnold's remarkable career--stretching from the dawn of aviation until the creation of the U.S. Air Force--Baime tells a sweeping story of American ingenuity, perseverance, and resilience, as the brightest minds from around the country came together to create the planes and the air strategy that carried the Allies to victory. From the crowded assembly lines of American factories to antiaircraft fire in the skies over Western Europe to the machinations of Roosevelt's Oval Office, Baime masterfully recreates the decisions, weapons, and victories that demonstrated to the world that whoever controlled the skies would win the war and control the future. Yet it was the Superfortress that brought it all together, culminating with the delivery of atomic bombs which could not have been carried by any other plane in the U.S. arsenal.What emerges is a book that rightfully places the creation of World War II airpower in the pantheon of American technological achievements alongside the Manhattan Project and the Space Race. In the end, the Superfortress did more than win the war--it made America a superpower.
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The Forever Paycheck: The New Retirement Strategy to Spend More, Worry Less, and Never Run Out of Money
by Jean Chatzky
You've been saving for retirement for decades. But what happens when you get to the end of your earning years? How do you take the money you've amassed and not only make it last as long as you do, but do it in a way that brings you the most fulfillment and the least amount of stress? This is something that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. If you do, you'll either run out of money before you run out of time, or you'll discover years too late that you didn't use your money as much as you could have to enjoy your life. The solution is right here. It's a paycheck that lasts for the rest of your life: a Forever Paycheck. With the power of a Forever Paycheck comes a simple, revelatory truth: you can spend more, and do more, than you think you can. The data shows that people entering retirement often can't bring themselves to spend. But when their money comes as a steady monthly paycheck, they feel much more confident in using it to live life to the fullest. Many find they can spend double with no risk of running out. New research shows that a Forever Paycheck is even associated with better health, lower chances of disability, and a substantially longer lifespan. The Forever Paycheck will teach you: How to turn your assets (retirement account balances) into the income that you needHow to structure your portfolio so you can spend more--often double what you thought--no matter how much you start withWhen is the right time to take Social Security for you depending on your marital status, work history, age and moreWhether it's better to help your adult kids now or leave them an inheritance laterAnd much more Whether you plan to work to 50 or 75, have a small 401(k) or a large stock portfolio, like to take risks with your money or always play it safe, bestselling author and financial expert Jean Chatzky provides a step-by-step plan for making your money work for you. Written in collaboration with AARP, The Forever Paycheck is packed with the information you need to plan for the future you want.
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The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic
by Malcolm Gladwell
The United States has far more homicides than any of its peers around the world. Why? In this groundbreaking book, Malcolm Gladwell explores the American peculiarity--how the world's wealthiest country came to suffer from a problem typically only seen in the world's poorest countries. Drawing on original interviews, archival and social science research, and his trademark insight, Gladwell approaches the American paradox through a series of stories. What can we learn from the miracle of a young gunshot victim in Washington, D.C.? How have the legal troubles of a seventeenth-century English knight influenced American attempts at gun control? Why would a European police chief be baffled by the graduation ceremony at any American police academy? In a sweeping narrative, Gladwell travels from a shooting range in North Carolina, to the South Side of Chicago, to an old plantation house in Alabama, painting a picture of a country that does not understand its most pressing social problem, and as result, does not understand how to fix it.
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The Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America's Eastern Wilderness
by Andrew Moore
Before skyscrapers and smokestacks rose across the eastern U.S., elk, bison, wolves, and cougars roamed. Typically imagined as icons of the West, these large mammals are in fact native to what was once a kind of Eden--towering forests in the Northeast, rolling prairies in the Midwest, and cypress swamps in the Deep South. But, in mere decades, industrialization and unregulated hunting brought these emblems of the East to the precipice of extinction; by the 1950s, squirrels were one of the few wild mammals an easterner was likely to encounter.Now, even as the climate and biodiversity crises loom, eastern wildlife are staging an unlikely comeback. Herds of bison graze on Illinois prairies, red wolves lurk in North Carolina's coastal marshes, and abandoned coal mines in Kentucky are now home to thousands of elk. Such rewilding promises to restore balance to eastern ecosystems and return one of the most biodiverse regions in the world to its former luster--but not without controversy.In The Beasts of the East, we follow environmental writer and James Beard Award finalist Andrew Moore as he meets conservationists, hunters, biologists, and nature lovers as they confront herculean challenges: How can we enable wildlife migration in the midst of suburban sprawl? Are these success stories viable in the long-term? When humans and wildlife come in close contact, how do we define wilderness?
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| The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World by Nathaniel PhilbrickHistorian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Nathaniel Philbrick’s sweeping latest explores the wide-ranging impact of the California Gold Rush, detailing how it spurred America toward civil war and led to technological advancements including the transatlantic railroad and the motion picture industry. Featuring profiles of figures from the era, this propulsive chronicle also utilizes more than 80 maps and illustrations. For fans of: Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West by Peter Cozzens. |
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Weimar Germany: The Death of a Democracy
by Victor Sebestyen
In this masterful work of history, Victor Sebestyen chronicles the rise of the first German Republic from the ashes of the First World War. He captures the momentous fall of the Kaiser and the rise of a democracy that took its place in 1918. But at the very outset, a fatal deal was struck that let Hindenburg and the army off the hook for the economic fallout of the war and allowed the German people to embrace the myth that Germany had not lost. At the same time, Weimar was a breathless period of cultural innovation in music, science, painting, literature, film, and architecture. It was the era of Bauhaus, Dada, and a remarkable openness in queer life and political thought. But dark clouds were looming. The Weimar Republic was marked by a struggling economy, continuous political upheaval, extremism on both ends of the political spectrum, and public assassinations. Warring factions of left and right fought for control of the streets, and democracy was caught in the middle and eventually crushed. A lucid and compelling portrait of a country slowly descending into tyranny, Weimar Germany is a magnificent, timely history of a frighteningly relevant period in the history of democracy.
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The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There
by Owen Zidar
Drawing on unprecedented data from a decade of research and vivid real-life stories of entrepreneurs--from a self-made hot-dog stand billionaire to the heirs of an auto dealer--Zidar and Zwick reveal a surprising truth: prosperity is more attainable, more widely distributed, and closer to home than we imagine. A multitude of Americans have built staggering fortunes by running often unglamorous businesses far from the spotlight. A quiet revolution in the business world--the rise of pass-through firms like S-corporations and partnerships--supercharged this wealth, channeling vast income directly to business owners rather than traditional corporations. Part economic detective story, part roadmap to riches, this book reveals: --The Hidden 1%: They might be a local beer distributor, a dentist with a regional network of practices, a commercial HVAC contractor with trucks around town, or a restaurateur who keeps opening new locations. For every public company CEO, more than a thousand private business owners each have transformational wealth.-- The Blueprint for Wealth: Zidar and Zwick describe where Main Street Millionaires come from, how they grew rich, and how much money they make. Their stories suggest the American Dream is not dead and many paths to prosperity remain open today. -- Power Brokers: Armed with their fortunes, Main Street Millionaires wield power in city halls, statehouses, and Washington, often bending policy to protect what they've built. They are both growing the economic pie and grabbing bigger slices for themselves. The Everywhere Millionaire celebrates the stories of entrepreneurs who seized opportunities while asking hard questions about how concentrated wealth and power shape society. It is an essential guide to seeing the economy as it really is and recognizing the surprising paths to prosperity--and influence--everywhere.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Culpeper County Library271 Southgate Shopping Center, Culpeper, Virginia 22701 | 540-825-8691https://www.cclva.org |
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