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History and Current Events November 2026 |
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Up on Cove Mountain: Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail
by Earl Swift
An extraordinary portrait of the AT. --Outside34 years after hiking the Appalachian Trail, Earl Swift returned, haunted by a tragedy that befell two of his fellow hikers . . .A deeply personal meditation on death, aging and nature. --New York TimesA masterpiece of the trail. --Radical GrammarA helluva book. --John GrishamIn 1990, a youthful Earl Swift backpacked the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, a transformative experience that colored every aspect of his later life. He emerged from his hike across the rugged, sky-high roof of fourteen eastern states a sharper and more organized thinker, a better problem solver, and a committed outdoorsman.But he also left the AT with baggage: Early in his odyssey, he spent time with a couple of other southbounders, who were friendly, capable, and doing everything right, but who were nonetheless murdered weeks later at a mountaintop campsite in Pennsylvania--a fit of violence that the killer never explained.Half a lifetime later, Swift returned to the trail to find out whether he was still, in his sixties, equal to the AT's roller-coaster terrain. Driving him, too, was a quest for answers that had nagged at him since that first hike: What had happened at that campsite to turn two smart, bighearted people into prey? Why had fate chosen them, when other hikers--Swift included--seemed more likely candidates? And how could such a grisly episode have unfolded in the backcountry's sylvan loveliness, not to mention one of the safest places around?Up on Cove Mountain is the arresting account of Swift's 2024 trek through the AT's enduring wonders and the ghosts of its past, a chronicle of swashbuckling adventure coupled with a meditation on the nature of risk and the risks of nature.
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| Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City by Anand GiridharadasOn May 1, 2023, Jordan Neely, a Black unhoused man experiencing a psychotic episode on the New York City subway, was placed in a chokehold by a fellow passenger, white former Marine Daniel Penny, until he died. Investigative journalist Anand Giridharadas’ nuanced account looks beyond the headlines to reveal the complexity of the tragedy, exploring themes of race and privilege, homelessness, mental health care, and America’s criminal justice system. Further reading: In the Shadow of Freedom: The Enduring Call for Racial Justice by Alessandra Harris. |
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Department of Fate: The Promise, the Power, and the Collapse of America's Most Consequential Institution
by Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow leads a revelatory, rollicking trip through the history of the Justice Department, finding heroism and treachery in equal measure--and, in the end, a rescue effort for our battered democracy. Over its nearly 150 years, the United States Department of Justice became America's most consequential institution, determining the rules and limits of what makes us who we are as a country: our political freedoms, our economy, and our nation's most revolutionary core principle: equal protection under the law. As the Department made wildly consequential decisions about what types of Americans to target, and for what crimes, it has been steered at times by patriotism, bravery, and self-sacrifice, but just as often by lust for power, corruption, and vengeance. Its political masters have cherrypicked economic winners and losers, determined which causes will be allowed to succeed or fail, and dictated which people and places will thrive and which will be beaten down. The department has fixed the path of the nation's political swings. In this searing new history, Rachel Maddow traces these triumphs and misdeeds through the founding and rise of the KKK, the riotous chaos of the Red Scare, civil rights murders and violence, railroad barons' crushing of unions, cabinet scandals that make Watergate look like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the faux erudite lawlessness of the Reagan Administration, and the collapse into thug rule in the Trump Administration. Written in her typical whip-smart prose and with a biting sense of clarity, Department of Fate invites us to see how the history of this key institution illuminates a path ahead for a more resilient, re-democratized America committed to making good on even its loftiest promises. In a moment beset with polarization and misinformation, Maddow's voice shines in this blistering demand to do better--to rebuild the republic, and stronger this time.
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| The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World by Nathaniel PhilbrickHistorian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Nathaniel Philbrick’s sweeping latest explores the wide-ranging impact of the California Gold Rush, detailing how it spurred America toward civil war and led to technological advancements including the transatlantic railroad and the motion picture industry. Featuring profiles of figures from the era, this propulsive chronicle also utilizes more than 80 maps and illustrations. For fans of: Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West by Peter Cozzens. |
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Focus on: Native American Heritage Month
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| Native America: The Story of the First Peoples by Kenneth L. FederUtilizing historical records, archeological findings, and oral storytelling traditions, archeologist Kenneth L. Feder’s accessible and engaging volume surveys nearly 20,000 years of Indigenous North American history, centering Indigenous perspectives and rejecting the notion of Europeans’ “discovery” of America. Further reading: Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen DuVal. |
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| The Free and the Dead: The Untold Story of the Black Seminole Chief, the Indigenous Rebel... by Jamie HolmesJournalist and historian Jamie Holmes’ fast-paced account of the Seminole Wars (1817-1858), America’s longest military engagement until the Vietnam War, reveals little-known aspects of the conflict and spotlights the diversity of the Seminole Nation, which included formerly enslaved Africans. Further reading: Osceola and the Great Seminole War: A Struggle for Justice and Freedom by Thom Hatch. |
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| Living Indigenous Feminism: Stories of Contemporary Native American Women by Carolyn Ross Johnston and Terri McKinney BakerFeaturing biographies, interviews, poetry, memoirs, and oral history contributed by women from more than 20 nations and cultures, this richly detailed work views American history through the eyes of Indigenous women, celebrating their agency and resilience in the face of forced removal, the residential school experience, and more. Try this next: Warrior Princesses Strike Back: How Lakota Twins Fight Oppression and Heal Through Connectedness by Sarah Eagle Heart and Emma Eagle Heart-White. |
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| We Survived the Night by Julian Brave NoiseCatBlending elements of memoir and reportage with oral storytelling traditions, Tsq̓éscen̓ First Nation filmmaker and activist Julian Brave NoiseCat spotlights contemporary Indigenous life in North America, highlighting the triumphs and travails of misrepresented communities. Try this next: Sugarcane, NoiseCat's documentary for which he became the first Indigenous American filmmaker nominated for an Academy Award; Rez Rules: My Indictment of Canada's and America's Systemic Racism Against Indigenous Peoples by Chief Clarence Louie. |
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| Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States: A Graphic Interpretation by Paul Peart-SmithCartoonist Paul Peart-Smith’s evocative, full-color graphic adaptation of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s award-winning 2014 book An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is a “thoughtful, radically hopeful work that is sure to resonate with readers of all ages” (Booklist). For fans of: the graphic version of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbooks Got Wrong, adapted and illustrated by Nate Powell. |
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| The American Game: History and Hope in the Country of Lacrosse by S.L. PriceSports journalist S.L. Price’s sweeping history of lacrosse covers everything from the game’s 12th-century invention by Indigenous North Americans and its appropriation by white colonists to the Haudenosaunee’s 3rd place finish in the 2018 World Lacrosse Championship and their efforts to compete under their own flag for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. Try this next: Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation by Michael Powell. |
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