Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/20/2011
ISBN-13: 9780670023011
ISBN-10: 0670023019

The award-winning author of Over the Edge of the World delivers a lively account of Christopher Columbus's four futile attempts to reach China between 1492 and 1502. Columbus treats the collision of Old and New Worlds with appropriate gravitas, but distinguishes itself from similar titles by lavishing well-deserved attention on the controversial explorer's three later voyages, each more fraught with high-seas peril than the last (from storms and mutiny to cannibals, sex scandals, and more). This accessible, nuanced, and character-driven introduction to Europe's first interactions with the Americas will be perfect for general readers; those seeking a more scholarly look at events may prefer Charles Mann's 1491 and 1493.

Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/04/2011
ISBN-13: 9780670022953
ISBN-10: 0670022950

Is our world more or less violent than in the past? Readers who pay attention to the murder- and mayhem-filled news will be forgiven for being shocked by Harvard professor Steven Pinker's well-argued answer -- that this is probably "the most peaceable era in our species' existence." With far too many stories of child abuse, terrorism, and war filling our brains, how can this possibly be so? Pinker explains his reasoning in readable prose, drawing together an impressive array of supporting research from history, science, and psychology. The New York Times Book Review calls The Better Angels of Our Nature "a supremely important book" and "a masterly achievement."

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Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/27/2011
ISBN-13: 9780805094367
ISBN-10: 0805094369

Dispatched to Iraq in 2009, State Department insider Peter Van Buren scathingly recounts how U.S. authorities repeatedly bungled positive Iraqi relations with uninformed, impractical, and misguided initiatives -- for example, a $2.58 million meat processing plant (built to provide Iraqi jobs) that never opened because it had no refrigerated storage areas; or the closing of a wildly successful women's center deemed not publicity-worthy enough to merit further funding. Current events followers will revel in this former diplomat's decidedly un-diplomatic tale of U.S. officials' gratuitous spending in Iraq -- and the price we're still paying because of it.

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Publisher: Penguin Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/20/2011
ISBN-13: 9781594202834
ISBN-10: 1594202834

In 1991, energy expert Daniel Yergin published a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of oil and its role in international politics (The Prize). Now he's back with a sequel of sorts, in which he looks forward to the world's ever-expanding need for energy and the issues that have arisen along with that need. Starting off by explaining how the search for oil has spurred economic growth, he goes on to explore environmental concerns, the politics of oil (and the power that comes with owning reserves of it), and whether global energy needs can ever be met by oil alone. He ends by arguing for the diversification of energy sources, making The Quest "necessary reading" (The New York Times) for anyone concerned with oil and energy.

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Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/05/2011
ISBN-13: 9781400040155
ISBN-10: 1400040159

History buffs following present-day "Occupy Wall Street" protests in the U.S. will appreciate author Adam Goodheart's vibrant account of people and events that sparked radical change from 1860 to 1861, when citizens from Boston to San Francisco -- at first independently, but with increasing cohesion -- rejected norms and institutions that maintained the wealth and security of a few at the expense of the many. Goodheart expertly analyzes the historical record and a wealth of primary sources (including recently discovered, privately held letters and memoirs), to depict this cultural shift as the real start of the Civil War. Kirkus Reviews applauds his character-rich, story-driven historical narrative as "beautifully written and thoroughly original."

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Publisher: Perseus Books Group
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/07/2008
ISBN-13: 9780786721023
ISBN-10: 0786721022

The twists, turns, back-room deals, forgotten contenders, and unexpected power-players of the 1920 presidential election were influenced by no less than six men who had been -- or would be -- U.S. presidents: Woodrow Wilson (the seated President), Warren Harding (the 1920 victor); Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (each of whom would eventually serve as president); and deceased former president Theodore Roosevelt, whose legacy cast a long shadow on 1920's campaign trail. Author David Pietrusza treats not only the election's events but also cultural concerns of the day (from jazz culture to women's suffrage) with humor and verve in a socio-political history sure to please any American history buff.

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Publisher: Skyhorse Pub.
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2009
ISBN-13: 9781602393660
ISBN-10: 1602393664

Chronicles American music, news, politics, art, publishing, and sports during 1969, from Woodstock to the Manson family and Richard Nixon's presidency to the gay rights movement. This is a book for those who survived 1969, or for those who simply want to feel as alive as those who lived through this time of amazing upheaval..

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