History and Current Events
December 2024
New and Notable
Chamber Divers: The Untold Story of the D-Day Scientists Who Changed Special Operations...
by Rachel Lance

Biomedical engineer Rachel Lance utilizes recently declassified documents to reveal the lesser-known story of the scientists whose developments in amphibious warfare helped secure an Allied victory on D-Day.

Further reading: "The First Wave: The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II" by Alex Kershaw. 
Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity
by Myers, Leah

Leah Myers may be the last member of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in her family line, due to her tribe's strict blood quantum laws. In this unflinching and intimate memoir, Myers excavates the stories of four generations of women in order to leave a record of her family. Beginning with her great-grandmother, the last full-blooded Native member in their lineage, she connects each woman with her totem to construct her family's totem pole. As she pieces together their stories, Myers weaves in tribal folktales, the history of the Native genocide, and Native mythology. Throughout, she tells the larger story of how, as she puts it, her "culture is being bleached out," offering sharp vignettes of her own life between White and Native worlds.
Paradise of the Damned: The True Story of Obsessive Quest for El Dorado...
by Keith Thomson

Bestselling author Keith Thomson's ("Born to Be Hanged") richly detailed latest chronicles English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh's failed attempts to locate the mythical city of El Dorado in the jungles of South America. For fans of: "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" by David Grann.
The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave...
by Hannah Durkin

Historian Hannah Durkin's well-researched and richly detailed account chronicles the 1860 final voyage of the slave ship "Clotilda" to America, focusing on the survivors' experiences and eventual emancipation.

Further reading: "The Last Slave Ship" by Ben Raines; "Africatown" by Nick Tabor.
2024 Debuts
Native Nations: a Millennium in North America
by Kathleen DuVal

Award-winning historian Kathleen DuVal's sweeping and scholarly history offers a corrective to Eurocentric narratives about Indigenous Americans by spotlighting one thousand years of Native autonomy, governance, and resistance.

For fans of: National Book Award-winning "The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History" by Ned Blackhawk. 
Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum
by Antonia Hylton

Peabody and Emmy Award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton's disturbing exposé reveals the history of the segregated Crownsville Hospital in Maryland (established in 1911 as the Hospital for the Negro Insane), where Black patients were subjected to racist abuse and mistreatment.

Try this next: "The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison" by Hugh Ryan.
War and Punishment
by Zygar§, Mikhail

"In his time as a journalist, prominent independent Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar has interviewed President Zelensky and had access to many of the major players--from politicians to oligarchs. As an expert on Putin's moods and behavior, he has spent years studying the Kremlin's plan regarding Ukraine, and here, in clear, chronological order he explains how we got here. In 1996 to 2004, Ukraine became an independent post-Soviet country where everyone was connected to the former empire at all levels, financially, culturally, psychologically. However, the elite anticipated that the empire would be back and punish them. From 2004 to 2018, there were many states inside one state, each with its own rulers/oligarchs and its own interests--some of them directly connected with Russia. In 2018, a new generation of Ukrainians arrive, and having grown in an independent country, they do not consider themselves to be part of Russia--and that was the moment when the war began, as Putin could not tolerate losing Ukraine forever. Authoritative, timely, and vitally important, this is an unprecedented overview of the war that affects us all and continues to threaten the future of the entire world as we know it"
The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle
by Anna Shechtman

Crossword constructor Anna Shechtman blends history and memoir in this incisive exploration of the crossword puzzle's feminist origins that "teases out hidden connections and forgotten histories that will enthrall readers" (Publishers Weekly). 
Ask library staff for more great book recommendations!


Facebook YouTube Instagram
www.ckpl.ca