History and Current Events
August 2025
Recent Releases
Nothing more of this land : community, power, and the search for Indigenous identity
by Joseph Lee

https://minerva.maine.edu/record=b4196685~S71From award-winning journalist Joseph Lee, a sweeping, personal exploration of Indigenous identity and the challenges facing Indigenous people around the world.
King of kings : the Iranian Revolution: a story of hubris, delusion and catastrophic miscalculation
by Scott Anderson

In his thought-provoking and unputdownable latest, journalist and New York Times bestselling author Scott Anderson (The Quiet Americans) chronicles the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini and ushered in an era of religious nationalism that continues to this day.
The mission : the CIA in the 21st century
by Tim Weiner

Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner follows up his National Book Award-winning Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA with a richly detailed exploration of the CIA’s shifting role in United States foreign policy following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, delivering a “singular triumph” that “should be required reading” (Kirkus Reviews).
The devil reached toward the sky : an oral history of the making & unleashing of the atomic bomb
by Garrett M. Graff

Combines archival research with firsthand accounts from political leaders, scientists, soldiers, and survivors to chronicle the development and use of the atomic bomb, examining its ethical, military, and human consequences during the final months of World War II and the start of the Cold War.
Daughters of the bamboo grove : from China to America, a true story of abduction, adoption, and separated twins
by Barbara Demick

The heartrending story of twin sisters torn apart by China's one-child policy and the rise of international adoption. A remarkable window into the volatile, constantly changing China of the last half century and the long-reaching legacy of the country's most infamous law, Daughters of the Bamboo Grove is also the moving story of two sisters torn apart by the forces of history and brought together again by their families' determination and one reporter's dogged work.
The world at first light : a new history of the Renaissance
by Bernd Roeck

A new and ambitious history of the Renaissance as a global event which, the author argues, was much more revolutionary and profoundly influential than we currently appreciate. This is nothing less than a new history of the origins, development and legacy of the Renaissance in a global and comparative context.
The beast in the clouds : the Roosevelt brothers' deadly quest to find the mythical giant panda
by Nathalia Holt

Recounts the perilous expedition into the Himalayas to find the elusive panda undertaken by the two eldest sons of Theodore Roosevelt in 1928, chronicling their scientific achievements, physical hardships, and the broader impact of their journey on Western conservation efforts. Illustrations.
Between two rivers : ancient Mesopotamia and the birth of history
by Moudhy N. Al-Rashid

Thousands of years ago, in a part of the world we now call ancient Mesopotamia, people began writing things down for the very first time. What they left behind, in a vast region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, preserves leaps in human ingenuity, like the earliest depiction of a wheel and the first approximation of pi, the world's first cities, the first writing system, early seeds of agriculture, and groundbreaking developments in medicine and astronomy. In Between Two Rivers, historian Dr. Moudhy Al-Rashid reveals what these ancient people chose to record about their lives, allowing us to brush hands with them millennia later.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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