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History and Current Events October 2021 |
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Always On : Hope and Fear in the Social Smartphone Era
by Rory Cellan-Jones
The principal technology correspondent for the BBC recounts the history of the smartphone and discusses its impact on the way this powerful technology ushered in a revolution in the way we live and work, including its dark side.
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The Raging 2020s : Companies, Countries, People--and the Fight for Our Future
by Alec Ross
Through interviews with influential thinkers and stories of corporate activism and malfeasance, government failure and renewal and innovative economic and political models, one of the world’s leading experts on innovation proposes a new social contract to restore the balance of power between government, citizens and business.
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Shutdown : How COVID Shook the World's Economy
by J. Adam Tooze
"Deftly weaving finance, politics, business, and the global human experience into one tight narrative, a tour-de-force account of 2020, the year that changed everything--from the acclaimed author of Crashed. The shocks of 2020 have been great and small, disrupting the world economy, international relations and the daily lives of virtually everyone on the planet. Never before has the entire world economy contracted by 20 percent in a matter of weeks nor in the historic record of modern capitalism has there been a moment in which 95 percent of the world's economies were suffering all at the same time. Across the world hundreds of millions have lost their jobs. And over it all looms the specter of pandemic, and death. Adam Tooze, whose last book was universally lauded for guiding us coherently through the chaos of the 2008 crash, now brings his bravura analytical and narrative skills to a panoramic and synthetic overview of our current crisis. By focusing on finance and business, he sets the pandemic story in a frame that casts a sobering new light on how unprepared the world was to fight the crisis, and how deep the ruptures in our way of living and doing business are. The virus has attacked the economy with as much ferocity as it has our health, and thereis no vaccine arriving to address that. Tooze's special gift is to show how social organization, political interests, and economic policy interact with devastating human consequences, from your local hospital to the World Bank. He moves fluidly from the impact of currency fluctuations to the decimation of institutions--such as health-care systems, schools, and social services--in the name of efficiency. He starkly analyzes what happened when the pandemic collided with domestic politics (China's party conferences; the American elections), what the unintended consequences of the vaccine race might be, and the role climate change played in the pandemic. Finally, he proves how no unilateral declaration of 'independence" or isolation can extricate any modern country from the global web of travel, goods, services, and finance."
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| The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig WhitlockWhat it's about: In this haunting and richly detailed chronicle, investigative journalist Craig Whitlock explores the failures of the nearly 20-year-long war in Afghanistan -- the longest in American history.
What's inside: interviews with more than 1,000 people involved in the conflict, including diplomats, U.S. military personnel, and Afghan leaders; primary sources including official and previously unseen documents.
Book buzz: The Afghanistan Papers is a timely expansion of three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Whitlock's reportage for the Washington Post. |
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Serial Killers of the '70s : Behind a Notorious Decade of Death
by Jane Fritsch
"The Co-Ed Killer, Son of Sam, Hillside Strangler, and Dating Game Killer" in many ways, terrifying serial killers helped define the 1970s. These fascinating profiles present notorious as well as lesser-known murderers of that decade. Beyond Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz, it includes such perpetrators as Coral Eugene Watts, "The Sunday Morning Slasher," who killed 80 women; Edmund Kemper, the "Co-Ed Killer"; and Rodney Alcala, believed to have killed as many as 130 people"
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| The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth by Josh LevinStarring: notorious Chicago swindler Linda Taylor, whose exploits earned her the moniker "welfare queen," a term popularized by Ronald Reagan during his 1976 presidential campaign.
Read it for: a nuanced blend of biography, history, and true crime that humanizes the woman behind the stereotype.
Awards buzz: Slate editor Josh Levin's compelling debut won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2019. |
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Comedy at the Edge : How Stand-up in the 1970s Changed America
by Richard Zoglin
A lighthearted survey of stand-up comedy in the 1970s draws on meticulous interviews to cite the contributions of celebrity comics, from George Carlin and Richard Pryor to Robin Williams and Andy Kaufman, in an account that also evaluates the roles played by such comedy clubs as Catch a Rising Star, the Improv, and the Comedy Store.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Michigan City Public Library
100 E. 4th Street
Michigan City, Indiana 46360
219-873-3044mclib.org/ |
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