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History and Current Events February 2019
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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women
by Kate Moore
Recounts the struggles of hundreds of women who were exposed to radium while working factory jobs during World War I, describing how they were mislead by their employers and became embroiled in a battle for workers' rights
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The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership
by Ivo H Daalder
The former ambassador to NATO and the president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a senior vice president at the Council of Foreign Relations present a chilling account of why things related to American foreign policy/diplomacy are worse than they seem in today's political climate. 30,000 first printing.
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| The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch It is a story of leaders, liars, counterfeiters, and jailhouse confessors. It also shows just how hard the battle was for George Washington--and how close America was to losing the Revolutionary War. Taking place during the most critical period of our nation's birth, The First Conspiracy tells a remarkable and previously untold piece of American history that not only reveals George Washington's character, but also illuminates the origins of America's counterintelligence movement that led to the modern day CIA. |
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| Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Janet Dewart BellWhat it is: an illuminating oral history of the civil rights movement as told by nine influential female activists whose accomplishments have often gone unrecognized.
Featuring: reflective insights from Kathleen Cleaver, Myrlie Evers, Diane Nash, Gloria Richardson, and others.
Reviewers say: "An important book that should be read in all schools and wherever discussion of social issues takes place" (Library Journal). |
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| 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.What it is: an engaging, meticulously researched compendium that updates journalist Joel A. Rogers' groundbreaking 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof.
Why you might like it: Wide-ranging and unique topics are presented in a concise question-and-answer format, perfect for quick reading.
Chapters include: "Who was the first black saint?"; "Who was the first black woman to be a self-made millionaire?"; "What is Juneteenth?" |
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| Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies by Dick GregoryWhat it is: Equal parts humorous and inspiring, this survey of 100 key events in American black history offers provocative insights from comedian and activist Dick Gregory, who participated in many of the events he chronicles.
Is it for you? Readers wary of Gregory's penchant for conspiracy theories will nonetheless find much to ponder in this NAACP Image Award Winner and "excellent conversation starter for book groups" (Library Journal). |
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| Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X by Randy Roberts and Johnny SmithWhat it's about: Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X's brief but tumultuous friendship, which was initially strengthened -- though later torn apart -- by their involvement in the Nation of Islam (NOI).
Read it for: the sobering contrast between Ali's ascent in the NOI and Malcolm's fall from it, culminating in the latter's 1965 assassination.
What's inside: previously unseen sources, including FBI records and Malcolm's personal papers. |
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| Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance by Mark WhitakerWhat it's about: Pittsburgh's Smoketown community, which from the 1920s-1950s had a "glorious stretch" of black cultural achievement.
Claims to fame: Smoketown boasted America's most widely read black newspaper, two Negro League baseball teams, and the childhood homes of playwright August Wilson and jazz composer Billy Strayhorn.
Reviewers say: "It’s thanks to such a gifted storyteller as Whitaker that this forgotten chapter of American history can finally be told in all its vibrancy and glory" (The New York Times). |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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