Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/12/2010
ISBN-13: 9780393067101
ISBN-10: 0393067106

What do St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and New York City all have in common? Among other things, they each started as a fur trading outpost. In fact, much of the westward expansion across North America came about because trappers and fur traders were constantly seeking new sources of beaver and buffalo hides. This relentless westward movement helped settle uncharted territories, but it also pushed these animals (and others) to near-extinction and helped to destroy Native American tribes. If you're interested in American history--particularly with regard to natural history or the economics of the growing country--you'll enjoy this captivating portrayal of 300 years of the fur trade in the U.S.

Table of Contents  

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/22/2010
ISBN-13: 9780345512147
ISBN-10: 0345512146

The World's Fair of 1939--beset as it was by financial woes, terrible weather, labor disputes, and escalating costs--opened with the optimistic theme of "The World of Tomorrow" despite the fact that the world of 1939 was on the brink of war. And though its futuristic scientific exhibits impressed many visitors, they weren't enough to make it a money-making exhibition. In addition to writing on the general history of the Fair, author James Mauro focuses on some of the men who were closely associated with the Fair--driving force Grover Whalen, New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and two detectives whose dedication to their jobs led to their deaths. Readers interested in the World's Fair phenomenon who have already devoured Erik Larson's Devil in the White City will be pleased to find this equally well-researched.

First Chapter  Table of Contents  

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/08/2010
ISBN-13: 9780374286224
ISBN-10: 0374286221

If you're familiar with the classic movie On the Waterfront, you'll recognize the dark world that author Nathan Ward exposes here: the New York City docks of the 1940s, run by ruthless mobsters, menacing union leaders, and corrupt politicians. It was a dangerous environment for honest men--those who stood up to the mob were often murdered, and it took courageous reporter Malcolm Johnson's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation to shine a light on the seedy goings-on and effect real change. Ward also profiles others fighting for justice (such as street-smart priest John Corridan) and those on the other side (like the thuggish Cockeye Dunn), ultimately creating an evocative, colorful picture of organized crime in America.

Table of Contents  

Publisher: Penguin Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/22/2009
ISBN-13: 9781594201820
ISBN-10: 159420182X

How appropriate: the 2010 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History focuses on another era in which economies all over the world were suffering--the years just after World War I. The author, a hedge fund manager and Brookings Institution trustee, argues that the stock market crash of 1929 and the Depression that followed occurred as a result of poor decisions made by four powerful bankers--alarmingly, his inspiration for the book was a 1999 Time magazine cover on leading finance men Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, and Lawrence Summers. "Spellbinding, insightful and, perhaps most important, timely," says Kirkus Reviews.

Table of Contents  

Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/28/2008
ISBN-13: 9780393064773
ISBN-10: 0393064778

History professor Annette Gordon-Reed follows Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, an investigative history of the relationship between the founding father and his enslaved mistress, with this equally daring book, in which she traces the history of the Hemings family from early 18th-century Virginia through their dispersal after Jefferson's death in 1826. Though some controversy still attends the claim that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings' children, this well-researched book reconstructs not only the lives of the members of an influential family but the era as well. Anyone interested in early U.S. history or African-American history would do well to pick up this National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winner.

Table of Contents  

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/29/2007
ISBN-13: 9780195078947
ISBN-10: 0195078942

What Hath God Wrought, a 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winner, covers a busy period in American history: between 1815 and 1848 the U.S. fought and ended two wars (the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War); saw major technological breakthroughs (the telegraph); and faced social changes like the fight for women's rights, the gradual emancipation of slaves in New York, and the growing temperance movement. At 900 pages, this well-researched, engagingly written entry in a well-regarded history series by Oxford University Press demands a commitment, but it's one that American-history buffs won't mind signing up for.

Table of Contents  

Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/25/2009
ISBN-13: 9780143116103
ISBN-10: 014311610X

With the number of books on the Nazi party already out there, you may be forgiven for wondering if there's really anything special about this one, which won an LA Times Book Prize in 2008. But we assure you that the perspective that author Mark Mazower takes is a rather unusual one: rather than focusing on the brutalities that the Nazi Empire forced others to endure, he looks at the actual day-to-day administrative tasks necessary to run occupied territory. Framing this within an explanation of the origins of the Nazi obsession for a Greater Germany, Mazower provides an "immensely valuable reassessment of the entire Nazi edifice and its breakdown" (Kirkus Reviews).

Table of Contents  

Publisher: Doubleday
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/27/2007
ISBN-13: 9780385514453
ISBN-10: 038551445X

New York Times reporter Tim Weiner won two awards for this indictment of the CIA--the National Book Award and an LA Times Book Prize, both in 2007. Though he supports the idea of an American intelligence-gathering entity, Weiner argues that the CIA has failed from the very beginning because it focuses more on covert action than on actual espionage. He believes that in addition to a terrible record when it comes to covert operations, the CIA does not understand world affairs and undermines American politics. He bases these arguments on recently declassified primary documentation from the CIA archives and interviews with CIA insiders, which makes for "absorbing, appalling history" (Kirkus Reviews).

First Chapter  Table of Contents