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Red cloud at dawn: Truman, Stalin, and the end of the atomic monopoly
By Michael D Gordin. 2009
On August 29, 1949, the first Soviet test bomb, dubbed "First Lightning", exploded in the deserts of Kazakhstan. This surprising…
international event marked the beginning of an arms race that would ultimately lead to nuclear proliferation beyond the Soviet Union and the United States. Using newly opened archives, Gordin follows a trail of espionage, secrecy, deception, political brinksmanship, and technical innovation to provide a fresh understanding of the nuclear arms race. 2009.The incredible War of 1812: a military history
By Donald E Graves, J. Mackay Hitsman. 1999
An account of the causes of the war of 1812 and of the campaigns and battles that raged on land…
and water, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Hitsman describes the life and role of the soldiers - both the regulars and the militia - and the difficulties of waging war in largely trackless territory, where rivers and lakes were the main means of transport. Some descriptions of violence. 1999.War and the American presidency
By Arthur M Schlesinger. 2004
The gravest decision in a democracy is the one to go to war. In a book that brings a command…
of history to the most urgent of contemporary questions, the author explores the war in Iraq, the presidency, and the future of democracy. Describing unilateralism as "the oldest doctrine in American history," he nevertheless warns of the dangers posed by the fatal turn in U.S. policy from deterrence and containment to preventive war. 2004.Inside the Alamo
By Jim Murphy. 2003
An overview of the struggle between the Texan settlers and Mexico's General Santa Anna for control of Texas, with a…
detailed description of the 1836 siege of the Alamo. The author's inside book separates fact from fiction as often as possible. For junior and senior high readers. 2003.A Promised Land
By Barack Obama. 2020
A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making—from the president who inspired us to believe in the power…
of democracy#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times • NPR • The Guardian • Marie Claire In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,” and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.The Ku Klux Klan in Canada: A Century of Promoting Racism and Hate in the Peaceable Kingdom
By Allan Bartley. 2020
Where Beauty Survived: An Africadian Memoir
By George Elliott Clarke. 2021
A vibrant, revealing memoir about the cultural and familial pressures that shaped George Elliott Clarke’s early life in the Black…
Canadian community that he calls Africadia, centred in Halifax, Nova Scotia.As a boy, George Elliott Clarke knew that a great deal was expected from him and his two brothers. The descendant of a highly accomplished lineage on his paternal side—great-grandson to William Andrew White, the first Black officer (non-commissioned) in the British army—George felt called to live up to the family name. In contrast, his mother's relatives were warm, down-to-earth country folk. Such contradictions underlay much of his life and upbringing—Black and White, country and city, outstanding and ordinary, high and low. With vulnerability and humour, George shows us how these dualities shaped him as a poet and thinker. At the book’s heart is George’s turbulent relationship with his father, an autodidact who valued art, music and books but worked an unfulfilling railway job. Bill could be loving and patient, but he also acted out destructive frustrations, assaulting George’s mother and sometimes George and his brothers, too. Where Beauty Survived is the story of a complicated family, of the emotional stress that white racism exerts on Black households, of the unique cultural geography of Africadia, of a child who became a poet, and of long-kept secrets.From Underground Railroad to Rebel Refuge: Canada and the Civil War
By Brian Martin. 2022
A fascinating history of Canada’s role in the American Civil War. Thousands fled north to escape the bloody battles: draft…
dodgers, deserters, recruiters, plotters and spies, and those escaping slavery through the Underground Railroad. Martin illuminates how the traffic between countries shaped both.Levon: From Down in the Delta to the Birth of The Band and Beyond
By Sandra B. Tooze. 2020
A dazzling, epic biography of Levon Helm––the beloved, legendary drummer and singer of the Band. He sang the anthems of…
a generation: "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "Life Is a Carnival." Levon Helm's story––told here through sweeping research and interviews with close friends and fellow musicians––is the rollicking story of American popular music itself. In the Arkansas Delta, a young Levon witnessed "blues, country, and gospel hit in a head-on collision," as he put it. The result was rock 'n' roll. As a teenager, he joined the raucous Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, then helped merge a hard-driving electric sound with Bob Dylan's folk roots, and revolutionized American rock with the Band. Helm not only provided perfect "in the pocket" rhythm and unforgettable vocals, he was the Band's soul. Levon traces a rebellious life on the road, from being booed with Bob Dylan to the creative cauldron of Big Pink, the Woodstock Festival, world tours, The Last Waltz, and beyond with the man Dylan called "one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation." Author Sandra B. Tooze digs deep into what Helm saw as a devastating betrayal by his closest friend, Band guitarist Robbie Robertson––and Levon's career collapse, his near bankruptcy, and the loss of his voice due to throat cancer in 1997. Yet Helm found success in an acting career that included roles in Coal Miner's Daughter and The Right Stuff. Regaining his singing voice, he made his last decade a triumph, opening his barn to the Midnight Rambles and earning three Grammys. Cancer finally claimed his life in 2012. Levon is a penetrating, skillfully told tale of a music legend from Southern cotton fields to global limelight.The butler: a witness to history
By Wil Haygood. 2013
Washington Post writer chronicles the life of African American butler Eugene Allen (1919-2010) who served in the White House for…
eight presidential administrations, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan. Discusses the making of the 2013 movie starring Forest Whitaker. Some strong language. Bestseller. 2013Blood and germs: the Civil War battle against wounds and disease (Medical Fiascoes)
By Gail Jarrow. 2020
Explores the science and gruesome history of US Civil War medicine, using actual medical cases and first-person accounts by soldiers,…
doctors, and nurses. Jarrow reveals battlefield rescues, surgical techniques, treatments, and patient care, celebrating the men and women of both the North and South who volunteered to save lives. For grades 5-8. 2020Telling stories specific to Columbia Plateau farmers and farmland, this journalist puts the lives and difficulties of individual farmers into…
national and global contexts. He interweaves family narratives, historical episodes and his own experience as a young harvest hand to illuminate the transformation of rural America from the 19th to 21st centuryPuget's Sound: a narrative of early Tacoma and the southern Sound (Columbia Northwest classics)
By Murray Morgan, William L. Lang. 2003
A well-respected Pacific Northwest historian tells the story of Tacoma from the first time the city's site was seen by…
Europeans in 1792 to the creation of Fort Lewis in 1916. Lumberjacks and Chinese laborers, industrialists and speculators were among the people who built the city. AdultWest Coast journeys, 1865-1879: the travelogue of a remarkable woman
By Caroline C. Leighton. 1995
A first-person account written by a gentlewoman traveling leisurely through post-Civil War America. In 1865, Caroline Leighton left New York…
for San Francisco and traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest with her husband for the next fourteen years. She describes such sights as the California missions, the Rocky Mountains, and Puget Sound, as well as her observations on other cultures, such as the Native Americans, the Chinese, and the SpanishNine Florida stories (Florida sand dollar book)
By Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Kevin M. McCarthy, William L. Trotter. 1990
First published from the 1920s to 1940s in the Saturday Evening Post, these stories embody the environmental concerns of Marjory…
Stoneman Douglas. Set in various parts of South Florida, they reflect conditions, including threats to wildlife, land, and water, that endanger the uniqueness of the region. Douglas's characters range from smugglers to a farm worker, and include veiled autobiographical bits about the indomitable authorThe emerald horizon: the history of nature in Iowa (A Bur oak book)
By Cornelia Fleischer Mutel. 2008
Botanist Thomas Macbride described Iowa in 1895 as an "emerald prairie" that "gleamed and shone to the horizon." That landscape…
has vanished. Mutel portrays the history of the Iowa landscape and offers hope and sound suggestions for restoring the damaged landscape to the entire Corn Belt. UnratedTricks we played in Iowa
By Chad Austin, Judy Combs. 1990
Conspiracy: Nixon, Watergate, and Democracy's Defenders
By P. O’Connell Pearson. 2020
Author of Fighting for the Forest: How FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps Helped Save America (DB 98293), explores President Nixon's contentious…
time in office, the Watergate scandal, and the people who helped protect our Constitution. For grades 6-9 and older readers. 2020Cyrus Field's big dream: the daring effort to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable
By Mary Morton Cowan. 2018
Recounts the life of Cyrus Field (1819-1892), a wealthy, industrious man of fragile health who pioneered the first transatlantic cable.…
Details how Field's unwavering determination to enable instant communication between North America and the United Kingdom came to fruition in 1866. For grades 6-9 and older readers. 2018