History and Current Events

Discover new releases in history and current events.

Updated December 16, 2024
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Erik Larson
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this "riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult" (Los Angeles Times). ...
The Message
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Paper Book
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell--and the ones we don't--shape our realities. "Ta-Nehisi Coates always writes with a...
After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations
Eric H. Cline
Paper Book
In this gripping sequel to his bestselling 1177 B.C., Eric Cline tells the story of what happened after the Bronze Age collapsed--why some civilizations endured, why some gave way to new ones, and why some disappeared forever "A landmark book: lucid, deep, and insightful. ....
Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and the Marriage That Shook Europe
John Guy
Paper Book
"A fierce, scholarly tour-de-force. . . . Hunting the Falcon brilliantly shows how time, circumstance and politics combined to accelerate Anne's triumph and tragedy." --Tina Brown, New York Times Book Review "A sumptuous drama of lust, intrigue, and betrayal, underpinned by...
The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Ancient World
Daisy Dunn
Paper Book
One of The Smithsonian's 10 best history books of 2024 One of BBC History Magazine's best books of 2024 "Thoroughly researched and sprightly.... a complete history of the [Mediterranean world] with the women added back in, as they always should have been."<...
Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great
Rachel Kousser
Paper Book
"A heart-pounding, mind-bending adventure." --Ilyon Woo A riveting biography of Alexander the Great's final years, when the leader's insatiable desire to conquer the world set him off on an exhilarating, harrowing journey that would define his legacy.   By 330 B.C.E., Alexander...
The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation
Victor Davis Hanson
Paper Book
An instant New York Times bestseller, this "profound book" (Wall Street Journal) charts how and why some societies chose to utterly destroy their foes, and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time War can settle disputes, topple...
Targeted: Beirut: The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror
Jack Carr
Paper Book
The first in a new in-depth nonfiction series examining the devastating terrorist attacks that changed the course of history from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr and Pulitzer Prize finalist James M. Scott, beginning with the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in...
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
Evan Friss
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Goodreads Choice Award Winner in History & Biography One of Time's 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 "A spirited defense of this important, odd and odds-defying American retail category." --The New York Times...
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
Hampton Sides
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A "thrilling and superbly crafted" (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day....
Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History
Nellie Bowles
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From former New York Times reporter Nellie Bowles, a look at how some of the most educated people in America lost their minds--and how she almost did, too. As a Hillary voter, a New York Times reporter, and frequent...
Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II
Elyse Graham
Paper Book
The untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today's CIA, was quickly...
The Age of Grievance
Frank Bruni
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "Brilliant...Bruni writes with humor, insight, and precision." --Wall Street Journal * "The best prescription for our redemption." --The New York Times * "A wise and humane book for our foolish and cruel era." --Jonathan Haidt, author of The...
Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich
Richard J. Evans
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews "A fascinating and instructive book . . . elegantly written and perceptive." --Wall Street Journal "Kaleidoscopic . . . A fascinating exploration of individual agency that never loses sight of the larger...
Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps
Jon Favreau
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From your friends at Pod Save America comes a useful and illustrated guide to saving American democracy just in time for the 2024 election and 2025 insurrection If you're looking to navigate the chaotic,...
The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis
George Stephanopoulos
Paper Book
 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER George Stephanopoulos, the legendary political news host and former advisor to President Clinton, recounts the history-making crises from the place where twelve presidents made their highest-pressure decisions: the White...
Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King
Dan Jones
Paper Book
"Ambitious... With meticulous research and in lively style, Jones presents us with the man beyond the Shakespeare character."--The New York Times "The best biography yet of England's greatest king."--Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs and...
White Robes and Broken Badges: Infiltrating the KKK and Exposing the Evil Among Us
Joe Moore
Paper Book
In this shocking memoir, a former FBI informant reveals what he learned from successfully infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the backwoods of the Sunshine State, uncovering details about the hate group's structure and its modern far-right spinoffs which are operating to achieve the same goal:...
When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day
Garrett M. Graff
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "Absolutely gripping." --The Washington Post * "A masterpiece of oral history...stirring, surprising, grim, joyous, moving, and always riveting." --Evan Thomas From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in...
The Death of Truth: How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed to Destroy Trust and Polarize the World--And What We Can Do
Steven Brill
Paper Book
How did we become a world where facts-shared truths-have lost their power to hold us together as a community, as a country, globally? How have we allowed the proliferation of alternative facts, hoaxes, even conspiracy theories, to destroy our trust in institutions, leaders, and legitimate experts...
The Eastern Front: A History of the Great War, 1914-1918
Nick Lloyd
Paper Book
Writing in the 1920s, Winston Churchill argued that the First World War on the Eastern Front was "incomparably the greatest war in history. In its scale, in its slaughter, in the exertions of the combatants, in its military kaleidoscope, it far surpasses by magnitude and intensity all similar...
All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way
Fred C. Trump, III
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER With revealing, never-before-told stories, Fred C. Trump III, nephew of President Donald Trump, breaks his decades-long silence in this honest memoir and sheds a whole new light on the family name. For the record...Fred Trump...
Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires
David Chaffetz
Paper Book
No animal is so entangled in human history as the horse. The thread starts in prehistory, with a slight, shy animal, hunted for food. Domesticating the horse allowed early humans to settle the vast Eurasian steppe; later, their horses enabled new forms of warfare, encouraged long-distance trade...
When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s
John Ganz
Paper Book
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2024 One of The New York Times's 100 Notable Books of 2024 Longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | National Indie Bestseller...
The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower
Michel Paradis
Paper Book
A thrilling new biography of Dwight Eisenhower set in the months leading up to D-Day, when he grew from a well-liked general into one of the singular figures of American history. "This is hands-down the most deeply researched, sensitive, intimate, and nuanced portrait of...
The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives
Adam Smyth
Paper Book
A scholar and bookmaker "breathes both books-as-objects and their creators back into life" (Financial Times) in this five-hundred-year history of printed books, told through the people who created them Books tell all kinds of stories--romances, tragedies,...
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller from "America's historian-in-chief" (New York magazine). An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America's most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography,...
Patton's Prayer: A True Story of Courage, Faith, and Victory in World War II
Alex Kershaw
Paper Book
General George Patton needed a miracle. In December 1944, the Allies found themselves stuck. Rain had plagued the troops daily since September, turning roads into rivers of muck, slowing trucks and tanks to a crawl. A thick ceiling of clouds had grounded American warplanes, allowing the Germans to...
Antiracism as Daily Practice: Refuse Shame, Change White Communities, and Help Create a Just World
Jennifer Harvey
Paper Book
"Nurturing and inspiring."―Kirkus Reviews "An essential book of practical wisdom.... If you're white and have been asking, 'What can I do now?' this lively and timely book is for you."―Robert Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Hidden Roots of...
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss
Margalit Fox
Paper Book
America's first great organized-crime lord was a lady--a nice Jewish mother named Mrs. Mandelbaum. "A tour de force . . . With a pickpocket's finesse, Margalit Fox lures us into the criminal underworld of Gilded Age New York."--Liza Mundy, author of The Sisterhood
We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite
Musa al-Gharbi
Paper Book
How a new "woke" elite uses the language of social justice to gain more power and status--without helping the marginalized and disadvantaged Society has never been more egalitarian--in theory. Prejudice is taboo, and diversity is strongly valued. At the same time, social and...
The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement
Sharon McMahon
Paper Book
A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From America's favorite government teacher, a "fascinating and fun" (Adam Grant) portrait of twelve ordinary Americans whose courage formed the character of our country. In The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon proves...
Shameless: Republicans' Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy
Brian Tyler Cohen
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the first content creator to interview President Biden, leading progressive voice Brian Tyler Cohen takes a step back from the day-to-day news cycle to explain how American politics has turned into such a dumpster fire--and what Democrats...
American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873
Alan Taylor
Paper Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2024 A masterful history of the Civil War and its reverberations across the continent by a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. In a fast-paced narrative of soaring ideals and sordid politics, of civil war and foreign invasion, the award...
Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America
Barbara McQuade
Paper Book
MSNBC's legal expert breaks down the ways disinformation has become a tool to drive voters to extremes, disempower our legal structures, and consolidate power in the hands of the few. In Attack from Within, legal scholar and analyst Barbara McQuade, shows us how to identify the ways disinformation...
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed
Maureen Callahan
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER  |  #1 SUNDAY TIMES (UK) BESTSELLER   "The must-read book of the summer" (Megyn Kelly) from New York Times bestseller Maureen Callahan: a "harrowing,...
Get It Together: Troubling Tales from the Liberal Fringe
Jesse Watters
Paper Book
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Can the political be way too personal What if most radical activists are trying to change their lives by changing the whole country When Jesse Watters set out to interview a few dozen radical activists to find out where their...
The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity
Timothy C Winegard
Paper Book
THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER One of The Economist's Best Books of the Year An Amazon Best Book of the Month A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Book From New York Times bestselling author of The Mosquito, the incredible story of how...
For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind
Tulsi Gabbard
Paper Book
**New York Times bestseller** Tulsi Gabbard was the rising star of the Democrat Party. But the growing wokeness, fomenting racism, and intolerance were more than she could stomach, and she left. This is her story and a call to action to Americans who love our country and...
Taking London: Winston Churchill and the Fight to Save Civilization
Martin Dugard
Paper Book
From Martin Dugard, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Bill O'Reilly's Killing series--with more than 12 million copies sold--comes a soaring account of England's desperate fight to fend off German invasion. Great Britain, summer 1940. The Battle of France is over....
This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South
Alan Pell Crawford
Paper Book
A groundbreaking, important recovery of history; the overlooked story-fully explored-of the critical aspect of America's Revolutionary War that was fought in the South, showing that the British surrender at Yorktown was the direct result of the southern campaign, and that the battles that emerged...
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Bettany Hughes
Paper Book
SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * From the award-winning historian and broadcaster comes an immersive, awe-inspiring tour of the ancient sites that kindle our imagination and afford us a glimpse into our shared history "This fascinating book is brimming with stories of...
Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy
Isaac Arnsdorf
Paper Book
New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Pick "Entertaining, enlightening and disturbing." - Ira Glass The immersive, captivating untold story of the mass radicalization of the Republican Party in the aftermath of January 6,...
Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden
Bill O'Reilly
Paper Book
Instant #1 New York Times and USA Today nonfiction bestseller! Every American president, from Washington to Biden: Their lives, policies, foibles, and legacies, assessed with clear-eyed authority and wit. Authors of the acclaimed Killing books...
Paris 1944: Occupation, Resistance, Liberation: A Social History
Patrick Bishop
Paper Book
A moving, dramatic social history of the liberation of Paris in 1944, one of the most inspiring and momentous events of the twentieth century. The Sunday Times (London) bestseller The fall of Paris to the Nazis on June 14th, 1940, was one of the darkest...
No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward
Kristi Noem
Paper Book
The New York Times bestselling book from President Trump's choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security.  The bestselling author, governor of South Dakota, and former congresswoman tells eye-opening stories of DC dysfunction, shares lessons...
The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920
Manisha Sinha
Paper Book
"Sinha not only has taken on this vast subject, but has greatly expanded its definition, both temporally and spatially. . . . She covers these difficult issues with remarkable skill and clarity." --S. C. Gwynne, New York Times Book Review We are told that the present moment...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.