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History and Current Events May 2025 |
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Focus on: Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month |
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Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family
by OiYan Poon
Amidst America's evolving racial landscape, a mother and daughter embark on a journey through theirs and others' Asian American perspectives in the past, present and future, exploring identity, equity and the quest for a just society.
Reviewers Say: "A fast-paced, dynamic book that pulls us into challenging conversations about what we should do in a society riven by deep racism. A fabulous must-read!” — Ian F. Haney López, author of Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism & Wrecked the Middle Class
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America
by Michael Luo
A New Yorker executive editor and writer follows the Chinese in America from the middle of the 19th century as they persisted amidst suspicion and as a native-born population took shape until finally, in 1965, America's gates swung open to people like his parents, immigrants from Taiwan.
Reviewers Say: "Sweeping. . . Amid the current paroxysms concerning immigration, diversity, and race, his history of earlier - often dismaying - confrontations and crises could not be more important.” — Harvard Magazine
In Our Collection: This is on order as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity
by Yoni Appelbaum
Explores the historical roots of America's mobility crisis, revealing how zoning laws and discriminatory policies have systematically limited economic opportunities and restricted access to good neighborhoods, schools and housing for marginalized communities, and offers solutions to restore mobility and reinvigorate the American dream.
Reviewers Say: "In this vivid and troubling history, Yoni Appelbaum offers a provocative account of how immobility has contributed to the inequalities of income and wealth that are devastating the United States.” — Jill Lepore, author of These Truths
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age
by Eleanor Barraclough
A history of the Viking Age, from mighty leaders to rebellious teenagers, told through their runes and ruins, games and combs, trash and treasure. "Embers of the hands" is a poetic kenning from the Viking Age that referred to gold. But no less precious are the embers that Barraclough blows back to life in this book--those of ordinary lives long past.
Reviewers Say: "A history of the Vikings unlike any other, this is a scholarly delight, every page of which glitters with insight. And although she’s terrific on the details of riddles and hair-combs, she’s even better on the sheer strangeness and unknowability of the distant past."
― The Times, "The 21 best history books of 2024"
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Star Bound: A Beginner's Guide to the American Space Program, from Goddard's Rockets to Goldilocks Planets and Everything in Between
by Emily Carney and Bruce McCandless III
A book for anyone who wants to learn about the American space program but isn't sure where to start. Authored by two veteran space writers with unique insights into the topic, Star Bound offers up the story of Americans in space with a focus on the cultural and societal contexts of the country's most important missions rather than engineering and technical minutiae.
Reviewers Say: "An outstanding overview of American space exploration . . . The trivia fascinates...and the authors ground their narrative in colorful character portraits . . . This soars." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline
by Paul M. M. Cooper
Based on the podcast with over one hundred million downloads, Fall of Civilizations...explores how a range of ancient societies rose to power and sophistication, and how they tipped over into collapse. With meticulous research, breathtaking insight and dazzling, empathic storytelling, historian and novelist Paul Cooper evokes the majesty and jeopardy of these ancient civilizations, and asks what it might have felt like for a person alive at the time to witness the end of their world.
Reviewers Say: "Cooper's extensive array of sources...paint vivid pictures and invites readers to imagine experiencing this history for themselves. Despite its focus on devastation, Fall of Civilizations attests to humanity's resilience as it attempts to answer the question, "What will become of us?" — Shelf Awareness (starred review)
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take It Back
by Madiba K. Dennie
Discarding originalism in favor of a new approach that serves everyone: inclusive constitutionalism, this thought-provoking book disentangles the Constitution's ideals from originalist ideology and emphasizes the power of the Reconstruction Amendments, showing readers the Constitution belongs to them and how they can use it to fight for their rights.
Reviewers Say: "A must-read for anyone interested in learning how the Supreme Court has used originalism as a weapon while disregarding the Constitution’s potential to provide equality of opportunity, fairness, and dignity for all people.” — Eric J. Segall, author of Originalism as Faith
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Presidents At War: How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents, from Eisenhower and JFK through Reagan and Bush
by Steven M. Gillon
A New York Times bestselling author examines what John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush learned from World War II and how they applied it to Cold War policy that changed America, and the world, forever.
Reviewers Say: "Political historian Gillon considers the effects of World War II on a generation of presidents . . . War is hell—but also, this history shows, a good way to get elected.” — Kirkus
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book.
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Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
by John Green
An award-winning bestselling author explores of tuberculosis's historical and social impact, highlighting global healthcare inequities, personal stories like a young patient in Sierra Leone and the urgent need for action against this preventable yet deadly disease.
Reviewers Say: "An exceptional combination of memoir, medical history and cultural analysis…. Memorably probes the intersections of medicine and human emotion.” — BookPage (starred review)
"Essential to the human conversation. John Green whispered the truth of humanity onto the page.” — Library Journal (starred review)
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book as well as in eBook and eAudiobook format.
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The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource
by Chris Hayes
MSNBC host and New York Times bestselling author Chris Hayes' thought-provoking latest examines the sociopolitical impacts of attention capitalism, which commodifies our attention spans to "command fortunes, win elections, and topple regimes." For fans of: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell.
Reviewers Say: "Hayes unpacks how attention is both a force integral to survival and a resource so sought after that it has become like ‘gold in a stream, oil in a rock.' . . . Relatable and amusing . . . A savvy . . . meditation on the modern attention economy.” — Publishers Weekly
In Our Collection: This is available as an Adult Nonfiction book as well as in eBook and eAudiobook format.
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Contact your librarian for more great books! |
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