History and Current Events

Discover new releases in history and current events.

Updated September 7, 2024
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Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World
Mary Beard
Paper Book
In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome, from its slightly shabby Iron Age origins to its reign as the undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean. Now, drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and writing about Roman history, Beard turns to...
Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens
David Mitchell
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER * A rollicking history of England's kings and queens from Arthur to Elizabeth I, a tale of power, glory, and excessive beheadings by award-winning British actor and comedian David Mitchell "Clever, amusing, gloriously bizarre and...
The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill
Brad Meltzer
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "An absolute home run! You will never look at WWII the same way again." --Brad Thor, #1 bestselling author "Meltzer and Mensch are masters." --Jon Meacham, author The Soul of America "A...
Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction
Fergus M. Bordewich
Paper Book
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A stunning history of the first national anti-terrorist campaign waged on American soil--when Ulysses S. Grant wielded the power of the federal government to dismantle the KKK The Ku Klux Klan, which celebrated historian Fergus...
The Revolutionary Temper
Robert Darnton
Paper Book
When a Parisian crowd stormed the Bastille in July 1789, it triggered an event of global consequence: the overthrow of the monarchy and the birth of a new society. Most historians account for the French Revolution by viewing it in retrospect as the outcome of underlying conditions such as a...
Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party
Jonathan Karl
Paper Book
In the wake of January 6 and aided by his absence from Twitter, Donald Trump seemed to have faded from daily news coverage. After an unsuccessful reelection campaign, the losses continue to rack up: record fines for obstruction of justice, fights over real estate, and federal records rule violations...
November 1942: An Intimate History of the Turning Point of World War II
Peter Englund
Paper Book
The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * An intimate history of the most important month of World War II, completely based on the diaries, letters and memoirs of the people who lived through it At the beginning of November 1942, it looked as if the Axis powers...
Who's Afraid of Gender?
Judith Butler
Paper Book
National Bestseller. Named a Best Book of 2024 (so far) by NPR, Harper's Bazaar, W, and Esquire, and a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Los Angeles Times, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Kirkus, Literary Hub,...
Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power
Leah Redmond Chang
Paper Book
Finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Biography) One of the New Yorker's Best Books of 2023 One of BookRiot's Best Biographies of 2023 Longlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize in Nonfiction The boldly...
Alexandria: The City that Changed the World
Islam Issa
Paper Book
An original, authoritative, and lively cultural history of the first modern city, from pre-Homeric times to the present day. Islam Issa's father had always told him about their city's magnificence, and as he looked at the new library in Alexandria it finally hit home. This is no...
The Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943
James Holland
Paper Book
Acclaimed WWII historian James Holland both narrates and reframes the controversial first months of the Italian Campaign and sets a new standard in the chronicling of war Following victory in Sicily, while the central command planned the spring 1944 invasion of France, Allied troops...
American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860
Edward L. Ayers
Paper Book
With so many of our histories falling into dour critique or blatant celebration, here is a welcome departure: a book that offers hope as well as honesty about the American past. The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the expansion of slavery, Native dispossession, and wars with Canada...
Black AF History : the un-whitewashed story of America
Michael Harriot
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAACP IMAGE AWARD NOMINEE * AMAZON'S TOP 20 HISTORY BOOKS OF 2023 * B&N BEST OF EDUCATIONAL HISTORY * THE ROOT'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023 * CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023 From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly...
Teddy and Booker T.: How Two American Icons Blazed a Path for Racial Equality
Brian Kilmeade
Paper Book
When President Theodore Roosevelt welcomed the country's most visible Black man, Booker T. Washington, into his circle of counselors in 1901, the two confronted a shocking and violent wave of racist outrage. In the previous decade, Jim Crow laws had legalized discrimination in the South, eroding...
Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia
Gary J. Bass
Paper Book
ACCLAIMED AS ONE OF THE YEAR'S 10 BEST BOOKS BY THE WASHINGTON POST * 12 ESSENTIAL NONFICTION BOOKS BY THE NEW YORKER * 100 NOTABLE BOOKS BY THE NEW YORK TIMES * BEST BOOKS BY THE ECONOMIST, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AND AIR MAIL * 10 ESSENTIAL BOOKS BY THE TELEGRAPH<...
Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
elizabeth varon
Paper Book
Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography American Battlefield Trust Prize for History Finalist A "compelling portrait" (Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize­-winning author) of the controversial Confederate general who later embraced Reconstruction and...
The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA
Liza Mundy
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A "rip-roaring" (Steve Coll), "staggeringly well-researched" (The New York Times) history of three generations at the CIA, "electric with revelations" (Booklist) about the women who fought to become operatives, transformed spycraft, and tracked down Osama bin...
Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America
Steve Inskeep
Paper Book
In 1855, with the United States at odds over slavery, the lawyer Abraham Lincoln wrote a note to his best friend, the son of a Kentucky slaveowner. Lincoln rebuked his friend for failing to oppose slavery. But he added: 'If for this you and I must differ, differ we must,' and said they would be...
The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court
Mr. Gareth Russell
Paper Book
A "riotously readable...tender and affectionate" (Daily Mail, London) exploration of five hundred years of British history--from King Henry VIII to Queen Elizabeth II--as seen through the doorways of the exquisite Hampton Court Palace. Architecturally breathtaking...
The Last Outlaws: The Desperate Final Days of the Dalton Gang
Tom Clavin
Paper Book
The definitive account of the Dalton Gang and the most brazen bank heist in history, by the multiple New York Times bestselling author. The Last Outlaws is the thrilling true story of the last of one of the greatest outlaw gangs. The dreaded Dalton Gang consisted...
Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and THE WASHINGTON POST
Martin Baron
Paper Book
"A closely observed, gripping chronicle of politics and journalism during a decade of turmoil." --The New York Times Book Review Politics. Money. Media. Tech. ...It's all here in Collision of Power. "All the President's Men for a new...
Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America
Ted Cruz
Paper Book
Our institutions have gone "woke." Everybody knows that. But nobody has come up with a way to stop it. Until now. In this hard-hitting new book, Senator Ted Cruz delivers a realistic battle plan for defeating the woke assault on America. The Democratic Party is now...
Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System
Ryan J. Reilly
Ebook
The January 6th attack is an unprecedented crime in American history. Sprawling and openly political, it can't be handled by the traditional rules and norms of law enforcement--threatening the very idea of justice and its role in society. The attack on the Capitol...
Sailing the Graveyard Sea: The Deathly Voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's Only Mutiny, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation
Richard Snow
Paper Book
A "compelling" (The Wall Street Journal) account of the only mutiny in the history of the United States Navy--a little-known but once notorious event that cost three young men their lives--part murder mystery, part courtroom drama, and as propulsive and dramatic as the bestselling...
UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There
Garrett M. Graff
Paper Book
"One of the rare books on the topic that manages to be both entertaining and factually grounded." --The Wall Street Journal From the bestselling author of Raven Rock, The Only Plane in the Sky, and Watergate (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history)...
In the Shadow of Fear: America and the World in 1950
Nick Bunker
Paper Book
An evocative portrait of a divided America at the dawn of the Cold War     Halfway through the twentieth century, the United States towered over the world in industrial might. After winning the 1948 election, Harry Truman hoped to use this economic...
Silent cavalry : how Union soldiers from Alabama helped Sherman burn Atlanta, and then got written out of history
Howell Raines
Paper Book
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist reveals the little-known story of the Union soldiers from Alabama who played a decisive role in the Civil War, and how they were scrubbed from the history books. "It is my sincere hope that this compelling and submerged history is integrated into...
Cashing Out: The Flight of Nazi Treasure, 1945–1948
Neill Lochery
Paper Book
When Nazis looked to flee Europe with stolen art, gems, and gold in tow, certain "neutral" countries were all too willing to assist them. By the end of January 1945, it was clear to Germany that the war was lost. The Third Reich was in freefall, and its leaders,...
In the pines : a lynching, a lie, a reckoning
Grace Elizabeth Hale
Paper Book
Winner of the Mississippi Historical Society Book of the Year Award In this "courageous and compelling ... essential and critically important" book (Bryan Stevenson), an award-winning scholar of white supremacy tackles her toughest research assignment yet: the unsolved...
Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island: The World War II Battle That Saved Marine Corps Aviation
John R. Bruning
Paper Book
The pivotal true story of the first fifty-three days of the standoff between Imperial Japanese and a handful of Marine aviators defending the Americans dug in at Guadalcanal, from the New York Times bestselling author of Indestructible and Race of...
Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country
Adam Kinzinger
Paper Book
On January 6, 2021, America watched in horror as a violent mob led by right-wing extremist groups stormed the U.S. Capitol in support of then-President Donald Trump. It was one of the darkest days in recent history, yet to former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger it was also the culmination of a...
I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country
Елена Костюченко
Paper Book
* Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and TIME * Winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * "A haunting book of rare courage." --Clarissa Ward, CNN chief international correspondent and author of...
Opinions
Roxane Gay
Paper Book
From beloved and bestselling author Roxane Gay, "a strikingly fresh cultural critic" (Washington Post) comes an exhilarating collection of her essays on culture, politics, and everything in between. Since the publication of the groundbreaking Bad Feminist and Hunger, Roxane Gay has...
After Eden: A Short History of the World
John Charles Chasteen
Paper Book
In After Eden, prominent Latin American historian John Charles Chasteen provided a concise history of the world, in which he explores the origins and persistence of the timeless phenomena of humanity's inhumanity to itself. Where did it come from? Why has it been so prevalent throughout our...
Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights
Dylan C. Penningroth
Paper Book
The familiar story of civil rights goes like this: once, America's legal system shut Black people out and refused to recognize their rights, their basic human dignity, or even their very lives. When lynch mobs gathered, police and judges often closed their eyes, if they didn't join in. For Black...
Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation
Tiya Miles
Paper Book
Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England. The Indigenous women's basketball team from Fort Shaw, Montana, recaptured a sense of pride in physical prowess...
The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution
Ryan Grim
Paper Book
Semafor's Best Political Book of 2023 A riveting insider account of the progressive movement in Congress centering A.O.C., Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar--their rise, their efforts to set an ambitious agenda for the country,...
To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment
Bret Baier
Ebook
Fox News Channel's Chief Political Anchor reveals George Washington's indispensable-yet overlooked-contributions to America's founding "To Rescue The Constitution is a masterful exploration of the electrifying struggle to unite a young United States." --Jay Winik ...
Starkweather: The Untold Story of the Killing Spree That Changed America
Harry N. MacLean
Paper Book
The definitive story of Charles Starkweather, often considered to be the first mass killer in the modern age of America On January 21, 1958, nineteen-year-old Charles Starkweather changed the course of crime in the United States when he murdered the parents and sister of his...
The Furies: Women, Vengeance, and Justice
Elizabeth Flock
Paper Book
"Arresting, deeply reported. . . . a patient reporter who embeds with her subjects long enough to write about their inner worlds with authority and nuance. . . . The Furies is deeply respectful of its subjects' autonomy, including their self-justifications and mistakes. Flock largely withholds...
He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters
Schuyler Bailar
Paper Book
From a trans rights activist and athlete, an urgent guide that changes the conversation about gender identity. Anti-transgender legislation is being introduced in state governments around the United States in record-breaking numbers. Trans people are under attack in...

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