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History and Current Events May 2025 |
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99% perspiration : a new working history of the American way of life
by Adam Chandler
An engaging exploration of the myth of American self-reliance, examining how the obsession with hard work and individual success distorts reality, deepens inequality and overlooks the importance of community, historical privilege and systemic factors in shaping achievement.
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| The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America by Kostya KennedyReleased in time for the 250th anniversary of the event and featuring fresh insights, journalist Kostya Kennedy's accessible history chronicles Paul Revere's fateful midnight ride to warn American minutemen of the British army's impending arrival. |
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Abundance
by Ezra Klein
A compelling exploration of how systemic scarcity in areas like housing, healthcare and climate action stems from outdated solutions emphasizes the need for a mindset shift toward abundance and proactive systems to drive transformative progress.
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Who is government? : the untold story of public service
by Michael Lewis
"The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It's also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it's made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone. Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers to find someone doing an interesting job for the government and write about them in a special in-depth series for the Washington Post. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees. Whether they're digitizing archives, chasing down cybercriminals, or discovering new planets, these public servants are committed to their work and universally reluctant to take credit. Expanding on the Washington Post series, the vivid profiles in Who Is Government? blow up the stereotype of the irrelevant bureaucrat. They show how the essential business of government makes our lives possible, and how much it matters"
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The JFK Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Kennedy -- and Why it Failed (large print)
by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch
Bestselling authors Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch's fast-paced and evocative follow-up to The Nazi Conspiracy details the little-known story of retired postal worker Richard Pavlick's foiled 1960 assassination attempt on President John F. Kennedy. Try this next: There Will Be Fire: Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History by Rory Carroll.
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Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest...
by Bennett Parten
Historian Bennett Parten's illuminating debut offers fresh insights on General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea during the American Civil War, particularly noting the ways the military campaign impacted more than 20,000 formerly enslaved people who joined it. Try this next: Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War by Edda L. Fields-Black.
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Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS
by Lisa Rogak
Bestselling biographer Lisa Rogak's evocative blend of history and collective biography chronicles the courageous exploits of four women who worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II: American reporter Betty MacDonald, Czech polyglot Zuzka Lauwers, American navy wife Jane Smith-Hutton, and German American film star Marlene Dietrich. For fans of: Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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