|
|
History and Current Events July 2025 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Medicine River : a story of survival and the legacy of Indian boarding schools by Mary Annette PemberA sweeping and trenchant exploration of the history of Native American boarding schools in the U.S., and the legacy of abuse wrought by systemic attempts to use education as a tool through which to destroy Native culture. Medicine River paints a stark portrait of communities still reckoning with the legacy of acculturation that has affected generations of Native communities. Through searing interviews and assiduous historical reporting, Pember traces the evolution and continued rebirth of a culture whose country has been seemingly intent upon destroying it.
|
|
| When it all burns : fighting fire in a transformed world by Jordan ThomasIn his unputdownable debut, anthropologist and former Los Padres Hotshot wildland firefighter Jordan Thomas recounts his experiences during the 2021 fire season in California, detailing how climate change, colonization, and political malfeasance have exacerbated the rise of megafires in the American West. |
|
| Murderland : Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline FraserIn her disturbing and well-researched true crime account, Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Fraser examines the history of serial killers in the Pacific Northwest from the 1940s to the 1980s. A propulsive nonfiction thriller, Murderland transcends true-crime voyeurism and noir mythology, taking readers on a profound quest into the dark heart of the real American berserk. |
|
|
|
Islam : a new history from Muhammad to the present
by John Tolan
Today's Muslim world is in upheaval: legalists and mystics engage in intense debates, radical groups invoke Sharia, Muslim immigrants in the West face prejudice and discrimination, and Muslim feminists advocate new interpretations of the Koran. At the same time, Islam is mischaracterized as unitary and unchanging by people ranging from right-wing Western politicians claiming that Islam is incompatible with democracy to conservative Muslims dreaming of returning to the golden age of the prophet. Against this contentious backdrop, this book provides an essential and timely new history of the religion in all its astonishing richness and diversity as it has been practiced by Muslims around the world, from seventh-century Mecca to today.
|
|
|
|
The six : the untold story of the Titanic's Chinese survivors by Steven SchwankertWhen RMS Titanic sank on a cold night in 1912, barely seven hundred people escaped with their lives. Among them were six Chinese men. Arriving in New York, these six were met with suspicion and slander. Fewer than twenty-four hours later, they were expelled from the country and vanished. When historian Steven Schwankert first stumbled across the fact that eight Chinese nationals were onboard, of whom all but two survived, he couldn't believe that there could still be untold personal histories from the Titanic. Now, at last, their story can be told. The result of meticulous research, a dogged investigation, and interviews with family members, The Six is an epic journey across continents that reveals the full story of these six forgotten survivors.
|
|
|
|
Being Jewish after the destruction of Gaza : a reckoning
by Peter Beinart
In Peter Beinart's view, one story has long dominated Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of sacred Jewish tradition and history, and also warps our understanding of modern history. After Gaza, where Jewish texts, history, and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, he argues, Jews must tell a new story. After this war, whose horror will echo for generations, they must do nothing less than offer a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew? Beinart imagines an alternate story that would draw on other nations' efforts at moral reconstruction and a different reading of Jewish history. Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza is a provocative and fearless argument that will expand and inform one of the defining conversations of our time.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|