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History and Current Events June 2026 |
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Recent Releases - History |
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Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World
by Patrick Wyman
There's a familiar story about us humans: we went from hunting and gathering to farming, wandering bands to villages and cities, clans and chieftains to states and kings. But Lost Worlds offers a new narrative of humanity's deep history, focusing on the 10,000-year span between the end of the Ice Age and the decline of the Bronze Age--the period when civilization as we understand it emerged, introducing social hierarchies, urbanism, complex political organizations, and the written word. In this nuanced retelling, human progress is no longer a straight march from caves to cities: Farming didn't always replace foraging, villages didn't automatically spark agriculture, and cities didn't necessitate rigid hierarchies. For thousands of years, humans merely improvised.
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| This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark by Craig FehrmanHistorian Craig Fehrman utilizes primary documents to offer fresh insights on the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition, featuring profiles of its lesser-known members including Shoshone translator Sacajawea and enslaved body servant York. Fehrman balances the story's adventure with the humanity of its protagonists. The result is a thrilling reminder that even the most familiar moments in history can still surprise us. |
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The Lost Voices of Pompeii: Life and Death on Pompeii's Final Day
by Jess Venner
While today the ruins of Pompeii stand silent and preserved in ash and stone, they were once home to a vibrant, bustling community made up of thousands of people whose lives were forever altered--or cut short--in the wake of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Through extensive research and vivid storytelling, a leading expert goes beyond the devastation and unveils a city teeming with art, customs, and culture. A profound and immersive experience, the book revives a people often overshadowed by death and destruction and tells a poignant tale of humanity and resilience.
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| American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed by Isaac FitzgeraldIn his reflective and engaging travelogue, New York Times bestselling memoirist Isaac Fitzgerald spends a year retracing 18th-century gardener John Chapman's (aka Johnny Appleseed) trail from Massachusetts to Indiana, sharing insights on American history and Chapman's role in it. A moving blend of memoir, history, and travelogue, American Rambler is at once an ode to the American heartland, a meditation on escaping the breakneck pace of modern life, and a clear-eyed look at the myths--often violent, sometimes hopeful, frequently romanticized--at the very core of American identity and history. |
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Those Who Are about to Die: A Day in the Life of a Roman Gladiator
by Harry Sidebottom
Step into into the arena, and into the homes and forums of ancient Rome, on an eye-opening, twenty-four-hour tour through Roman life at the height of the gladiatorial games, from the first century BC to the second century AD. Follow the gladiators through the schools where they trained, watch in awe as the massive event unfolds--from the gambling at the pre-festival dinner, to the dawn rush to get a seat in the arena, to the resounding music, the elaborate stage sets, and, yes, the public executions that served as lunch-break entertainment--and unlearn all the bogus movie tropes.
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Recent Releases - Current Events
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I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything
by Joanna Stern
You've heard the hype: AI will make us healthier, give every child a personalized tutor, run our businesses more efficiently, return hours of free time to our overworked brains, and make discoveries previously unimagined by humankind. The AI future is going to be unlike any other technological revolution. But what does that really mean? And will AI truly make life better? To find out, award-winning journalist Joanna Stern surrendered her life to artificial intelligence for one year. The results are both hilarious and unsettling. After a year of living as a human lab rat, Joanna delivers one of the clearest--and funniest--pictures yet of what's really happening and what it means for you.
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Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
by Nicholas Enrich
Nicholas Enrich had finally achieved his lifelong dream: becoming USAID's lead official for global health. But that dream turned out to be a nightmare in the tumultuous time after President Trump's second inauguration. In the months that followed, USAID became the first target of Elon Musk's newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Enrich witnessed firsthand how the administration systematically prevented USAID from providing lifesaving foreign aid, and the death and suffering around the world that resulted from careless decisions. Finally determining he could no longer keep quiet, and risking the career that he loved deeply, Enrich released a set of whistleblowing memos exposing the administration's illegal and destructive actions. Urgent and profoundly human, Enrich's story offers an astonishing behind-the-scenes look at a federal agency under siege.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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630-653-7599, 0S291 Winfield Rd.
Winfield, IL 60190
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