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History and Current Events
January 2022
Recent Releases
Justice on the Brink: The Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and...
by Linda Greenhouse

What it's about: the tumultuous 2020-2021 Supreme Court term, which began shortly after the death of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her replacement by Amy Coney Barrett.

Author alert: Pulitzer Prize-winning legal journalist Linda Greenhouse has spent nearly four decades covering the Supreme Court for the New York Times. 

Reviewers say: "a revelatory study of the Supreme Court in flux" (Publishers Weekly).
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States
by Kyle T. Mays

What it is: a sweeping revisionist account exploring the intersection of Black and Indigenous history in the United States, written by Black and Saginaw Chippewa scholar Kyle T. Mays. 

Read it for: a nuanced discussion of how settler colonialism and white supremacy has contributed to the complex tensions between -- and solidary among -- Black and Indigenous people.

Series alert: This thought-provoking chronicle is the latest entry in the ReVisioning History series.
Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing
by Peter Robison

What happened: In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed within months of each other, causing the deaths of 346 people.

Is it for you? This disturbing and well-researched exposé from Bloomberg reporter Peter Robison reveals how corporate malfeasance, executive infighting, and changing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations led to these preventable tragedies.
Year of the Hawk: America's Descent into Vietnam, 1965
by James A. Warren

What it is: a concise and accessible history exploring the escalation of the United States' military involvement in the Vietnam War.

Featuring: a well-researched narrative offering diverse perspectives on the conflict, including participants on both sides as well as antiwar protestors.

Don't miss: the sobering parallels to contemporary conflicts, including the War in Afghanistan. 
Focus on: Firsts
Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine
by Olivia Campbell

Starring: Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, and Sophia Jex-Black, the first three women physicians to receive medical licenses in the United Kingdom.

Read it for: an inspiring tribute to pioneering women who broke barriers and made pivotal advancements in the 19th-century medical field.  

Try this next: Janice P. Nimura's The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine.
The First Wave: The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II
by Alex Kershaw

What it's about: the Allied soldiers who were the first to take part in the Normandy landings on D-Day.   

Why you might like it: Published in 2019 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the event, journalist Alex Kershaw's immersive account offers a fast-paced and dramatic recreation of the invasion.

Featuring: interviews and firsthand accounts from participants.
Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon
by Jeffrey Kluger

What it is: an exciting account of the Apollo 8 mission that blends technical details of the mission with profiles of its participants.

Why you might like it: Science writer Jeffrey Kluger draws on interviews with crew members Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, as well as materials from the NASA Oral History Project, to recreate the mission.

You might also like: Robert Poole's Earthrise, which examines the creation of the iconic photograph of Earth as seen from space.
Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to...
by Kate Masur

What it is: historian Kate Masur's scholarly yet accessible history of America's "first civil rights revolution." 

Read it for: a compelling and eye-opening chronicle of free Black peoples' fight for civil rights between the American Revolution and the Civil War. 

Reviewers say: "An essential book" (Library Journal).
Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant
by Anne Gardiner Perkins

What it's about: In 1969, 268 years after its founding, Yale University admitted women undergraduates for the first time (of the 575 accepted into the elite Ivy, 90% were white).

What happened next: Isolated from (yet harassed by) their male peers and professors, the women of Yale advocated for institutional reforms like gender-blind admissions, racial equality, and inclusive healthcare.

Who it's for: Yalies; fans of inspiring women's histories like Hidden Figures and Rise of the Rocket Girls.
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