Resources By Department: New Books: History

A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit by Noliwe Rooks
Mary McLeod Bethune's success was unlikely: the 15th of 17 children and the first born into freedom, Bethune survived brutal poverty and caste subordination to become the first in her family to learn to read and to attend college. She gave that same gift to others when in 1904, Bethune welcomed her first class of five girls to the Daytona, Florida school she herself had founded. Bethune saw education as an essential dimension of the larger struggle for freedom, vitally connected to the vote and to economic self-sufficiency.
Building the Worlds That Kill Us by David Rosner; Gerald Markowitz
Conventional wisdom holds that the classic infectious and communicable diseases rampant in nineteenth century America--typhoid, cholera, smallpox, tuberculosis--were products of an urbanizing, industrializing society that jammed people into tenements, left them with outdoor plumbing, and polluted the water supply. But rather than products of an unavoidable physical environment created by an urbanizing, industrializing world, Rosner and Markowitz argue they are emblematic of American culture and its ideological and social values.
Hubris by Jonathan Haslam
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 should not have taken the world by surprise. The attack escalated a war that began in 2014 with the Russian annexation of Crimea, but its origins are visible as far back as the aftermath of the Cold War, when newly independent Ukraine moved to the center of tense negotiations between Russia and the West. The United States was a leading player in this drama. In fact, Jonathan Haslam argues, it was decades of U.S. foreign policy missteps and miscalculations, unchecked and often reinforced by European allies, that laid the groundwork for the current war.
Our Enemies Will Vanish by Yaroslav Trofimov
With Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin had intended to conquer and annex Ukraine with a vicious blitzkrieg, redrawing the map of Europe in a few short weeks with seismic geopolitical consequences. But in the face of this existential threat, the Ukrainian people fought back, turning what looked like certain defeat into a great moral victory, even as the territorial battle continues to seesaw to this day. Yaroslav Trofimov has spent months on end at the heart of the conflict, very often on its front lines. In this authoritative account, he traces the war's decisive moments to show how Ukraine and its allies have turned the tide against Russia.
The Shortest History of India by John Zubrzycki
From the earliest humans and the Harappán civilisation to Muslim invaders, the great Mughals, British rule, the country's struggle for automony and present-day hopes and challenges, John Zubrzycki masterfully condenses five millennia of deities, mutinies, wars, great empires, decadent dynasties, invasions, colonisation and independence into a fascinating, lively read. He brings the complex and contrasting layers of Indian history to life through a well-known cast of characters against a backdrop of the mystical Ganges, the desert forts of Rajasthan, the snow covered Himalayas and the ruins of India's fabled civilisations.

Anansi's Gold by Yepoka Yeebo
When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for anyone determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation's president, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas. Into this big lie stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece--if only you would 'invest' in Blay-Miezah's fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund.
The Cherokees by David Narrett
For more than 150 years between their first encounters with the English in the 1670s and forced removal along the Trail of Tears, the Cherokees negotiated mounting pressures. While armed conflict was frequent, David Narrett shows that the bonds of Cherokee peoplehood were forged primarily through efforts to maintain peace and secure their livelihoods. The Cherokees were remarkably skillful diplomats who practiced peacemaking as a distinctive spiritual art in which adversaries would reconcile through a mutual and symbolic forgetting of wrongs inflicted on one another.
Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton
In August 1897, young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the ship Belgica with dreams of glory. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the continent of Antarctica. After a series of costly setbacks, the commandant faced two bad options: turn back in defeat and spare his men the devastating Antarctic winter, or recklessly chase fame by sailing deeper into the freezing waters. Sanction tells the harrowing true survival story of an expedition that went terribly awry, of the ship stuck fast in the icy hold of the Bellingshausen Sea, the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter.
Promised Land by David Stebenne
A groundbreaking work of history about the American middle class--its rise, why it faltered, and who truly benefited from its dominance. The story begins with the pervasive income and wealth inequality of the pre-New Deal period. World War II brought transformative elements that also helped expand the middle class. For decades, economic policies and cultural practices strengthened the trend, and by the 1960s the middle class dictated American tastes from books to TV shows to housing to food, creating a powerful political constituency with shared interests and ideals. But the disruptive events of 1968 signaled the end of this expansion.
Women's War by Stephanie McCurry
The Civil War is remembered as a war of brother against brother, with women standing innocently on the sidelines. But battlefield realities soon challenged this simplistic understanding of women's place in war. Stephanie McCurry shows that women were indispensable to the unfolding of the Civil War, as they have been--and continue to be--in all wars. With a trio of dramatic stories, McCurry explores unique facets of women's wartime experiences, each one of which played an important part in redefining the meaning and stakes of the Civil War.

New Books: History

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