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History and Current Events November 2025 |
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The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-of-the-Century America
by David Baron
Science journalist David Baron (American Eclipse) chronicles how early-20th century astronomers, writers, and intellectuals popularized a cultural fascination with Mars (and its potential lifeforms) that ushered in a new era of exploration, tabloid journalism, and conspiracy theories. Try this next: Dead Air: The Night That Orson Welles Terrified America by William Elliott Hazelgrove.
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Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the...
by Scott Ellsworth
Award-winning historian Scott Ellsworth's compelling and well-researched latest focuses on the final year of the American Civil War, revealing how John Wilkes Booth may have been part of a long-planned Confederate conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Further reading: Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War by Michael Vorenberg.
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The Mysterious Virginia Hall: World War II's Most Dangerous Spy
by Claudia Friddell
Virginia Hall was an athletic, outdoorsy girl who dreamed of joining the foreign service and becoming an ambassador. Despite numerous setbacks, including losing her leg to gangrene after an accident, Virginia never wavered in her determination to serve her country. After the outbreak of World War II, a chance meeting on a train changed her life. Virginia joined the Allied Intelligence services as one of its first women agents, where she organized French resistance fighters, performed daring rescues, and provided the Allies with intelligence that was key for ousting the Nazis--
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Victory '45: The End of the War in Eight Surrenders
by James Holland
On the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, two acclaimed historians chronicle the remarkable stories behind the surrenders that ended the world's most catastrophic global conflict In May 1945 and then again in August and early September, the seemingly endless World War II finally came to a close in eight dramatic surrender ceremonies, six in Europe and the last two in Japan. On the 80th anniversary of those historic events, celebrated historians James Holland and Al Murray chronicle them in turn, focusing especially on the human dramas behind each surrender and relating stories and perspectives on the end of the war that have not previously been told.
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Nothing More of This Land: Community, Power, and the Search for Indigenous Identity
by Joseph Lee
From award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, a sweeping, personal exploration of Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world. Before Martha's Vineyard became one of the most iconic vacation destinations in the country, it was home to the Wampanoag people. Today, as tourists flock to the idyllic beaches, the island has become increasingly unaffordable for tribal members, with nearly three-quarters now living off-island. Growing up Aquinnah Wampanoag, journalist Joseph Lee grappled with what this situation meant for his tribe, how the community can continue to grow, and more broadly, what it means to be Indigenous. In Nothing More of This Land, Lee weaves his own story and that of his family into a panoramic narrative of Indigenous life around the world. He takes us from the beaches of Martha's Vineyard to the icy Alaskan tundra, the smoky forests of Northern California to the halls of the United Nations, and beyond. Along the way he meets activists fighting to protect their land, families clashing with their own tribal leaders, and communities working to reclaim tradition. Together, these stories reject stereotypes to show the diversity of Indigenous people today and chart a way past the stubborn legacy of colonialism.
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Ghosts of Hiroshima
by Charles Pellegrino
No one recognized the flashes of bright light that filled the sky. The blast wave that followed seemed to strike with no sound at all. In that silence came the dawn of atomic death for two hundred thousand souls in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Based on years of forensic archaeology combined with interviews of more than two hundred survivors and their families, this is an immediate account of ordinary human beings thrust into extraordinary events, during which our modern civilization entered a nuclear adolescence.
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Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization
by Tim Queeney
Queeney takes readers on a ride through the history of rope and the way it weaves itself through the story of civilization. From Magellan's world-circling ships, to the 15th-century fleet of Admiral Zheng He, to Polynesian multihulls with crab claw sails, he shows how without rope, none of their adventurous voyages and discoveries would have been possible. Time traveling, he describes the building of the pyramids, the Roman Coliseum, Hagia Sofia, Notre Dame, the Sultan Hasan Mosque, the Brooklyn Bridge, and countless other constructions that would not have been possible without rope. Not content to just look at rope's past, Queeney looks at its present and possible future and how the re-invention of rope with synthetic fibers will likely provide the strength for cables to support elevators into space--
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| The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival by Anne SebbaBestselling author Anne Sebba's (Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy) moving account chronicles the lesser-known story of the all-women orchestra at Auschwitz-Birkenau, whose 40 members included both Jewish and non-Jewish musicians and whose conductor, Alma Rosé (Gustav Mahler's niece), demanded excellence to ensure her fellow prisoners' survival. For fans of: The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive by Lucy Adlington. |
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Focus on: Native American Heritage Month
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| The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned BlackhawkWinner of the National Book Award, Western Shoshone Yale historian Ned Blackhawk's incisive and richly detailed study explores how Indigenous Americans were instrumental to the evolution of United States history. Try this next: Indigenous Continent: The Epic Conquest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen. |
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| By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca NagleIn this "valuable corrective to our national ignorance" (Kirkus Reviews), Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle surveys the history of Indigenous removal and resistance in the United States, culminating in the landmark 2020 Supreme Court decision that upheld tribal sovereignty for the Muscogee Nation in eastern Oklahoma. Further reading: Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, the Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab by Steve Inskeep. |
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Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
by Mary Annette Pember
Ojibwe journalist Mary Annette Pember's well-researched debut examines the origins and evolution of Native American boarding schools in the United States, revealing how the impacts of her own mother's experiences at a Catholic-run school contributed to her family's generational trauma. Further reading: The Knowing by Tanya Talaga.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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