History and Current Events

Discover new releases in history and current events.

Updated January 1, 2026
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Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
John Green
Paper Book
#1 New York Times bestseller * #1 Washington Post bestseller * #1 Indie Bestseller * USA Today Bestseller John Green, award-winning author and passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world's...
Abundance
Ezra Klein
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025 * NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2025 * KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOKS OF 2025 * NPR BOOKS WE LOVE 2025 "A must-read for progressives who want a blueprint for reforming...
Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global
Laura Spinney
"The story of how one language left the steppes of Ukraine and became the earth's dominant language family has become clearer and more exciting than ever before. Hooray for a book where the author's curiosity, diligence, and literary craft gets it all down in what will stand as the go-to...
AMERICA, AMERICA: A NEW HISTORY OF THE NEW WORLD
Grandin, Greg
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller * A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, 2025 Kirkus Prize, 2025 Cundill History Prize, and 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker,The New Republic,...
WHO IS GOVERNMENT?: THE UNTOLD STORY OF PUBLIC SERVICE
Lewis, Michael
"Perhaps never before has there been a book better timed or more urgent." --Washington Post One of President Obama's 2025 Summer Reads As seen on CBS Mornings, CNN Anderson Cooper, ABC News Live, MSNBC Morning Joe, and many more ...
Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants' War
Lyndal Roper
Paper Book
Winner of the Cundill Prize From a prize-winning historian, the definitive account of the sixteenth-century uprising that revolutionized Europe "A balanced, comprehensive survey of the uprising, gripping in its narrative and perceptive in its...
BAD LAW: TEN POPULAR LAWS THAT ARE RUINING AMERICA
Mystal, Elie
Paper Book
In this New York Times bestseller, Elie Mystal offers a brilliant takedown of ten shocking pieces of legislation that continue to perpetuate hate, racial bias, injustice, and inequality today--an urgent yet hopeful read for our current political climate "Mystal is a grassroots...
THE MESOPOTAMIAN RIDDLE: AN ARCHAEOLOGIST, A SOLDIER, A CLERGYMAN, AND THE RACE TO DECIPHER THE WORLD'S OLDEST WRITING
Hammer, Joshua
Paper Book
An "adventure tale for puzzle lovers and Indiana Jones fans alike" (The Washington Post) following three free-spirited Victorians on their twenty-year quest to decipher cuneiform, the oldest writing in the world--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bad-Ass...
SOMEWHERE TOWARD FREEDOM: SHERMAN'S MARCH AND THE STORY OF AMERICA'S LARGEST EMANCIPATION
Parten, Bennett
Paper Book
Considered one of "the most innovative studies of American emancipation in the Civil War" (David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass), Somewhere Toward Freedom is a groundbreaking account of Sherman's March to the Sea--the critical Civil War campaign that...
The fifteen : murder, retribution, and the forgotten story of Nazi POWs in America /
Geroux, William,
Paper Book
The revelatory true story of the long-forgotten POW camps for German soldiers erected in hundreds of small U.S. towns during World War II, and the secret Nazi killings that ensnared fifteen brave American POWs in a high-stakes showdown. "In the pantheon of American history, it...
The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings From History
Laurence Rees
Paper Book
From an award-winning historian, a fresh analysis of the rise of Nazi extremism, how such thinking gained popularity, and why it is vital to fight burgeoning extremist movements today "Extremely timely....Rees divides his book into 'Twelve Warnings,' or red flags to...
THE RIDE: PAUL REVERE AND THE NIGHT THAT SAVED AMERICA
Kennedy, Kostya.
Paper Book
USA Today Bestseller Timed for the 250th anniversary of America''s revolution and founding: Paul Revere''s heroic ride, newly told with fresh research into little-known aspects of the story Americans have heard since childhood but hardly understood On...
PROPAGANDA GIRLS: THE SECRET WAR OF THE WOMEN IN THE OSS
Rogak, Lisa
Paper Book
The incredible untold story of four women who spun the web of deception that helped win World War II. Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane...
Lincoln's peace : the struggle to end the American Civil War /
Vorenberg, Michael,
"We set out on the James River, March 25, 1865, aboard the paddle steamboat the River Queen. President Lincoln is on his way to General Grants headquarters at City Point, Virginia, and hes decided he wont return to Washington until hes witnessed, or perhaps even orchestrated, the end of the Civil...
Murder the truth : fear, the First Amendment, and a secret campaign to protect the powerful /
Enrich, David,
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller "Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America." --...
The world after Gaza : a history /
Mishra, Pankaj,
"Courageous and bracing, learned and ethical, rigorous and mind-expanding." --Naomi Klein "This profoundly important and urgent book finds Mishra, one of our most intellectually astute and courageous writers, at the peak of his powers." --Hisham Matar "A triumphant...
Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America
Clay Risen
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, and Kirkus Reviews From an award-winning historian and New York Times reporter comes the timely story about McCarthyism that both "lays out the...
STRANGERS IN THE LAND: EXCLUSION, BELONGING, AND THE EPIC STORY OF THE CHINESE IN AMERICA
Luo, Michael
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION * From New Yorker writer Michael Luo comes a masterful narrative history of the Chinese in America that traces the sorrowful theme of exclusion and documents their more than century-long struggle to belong.
There is no place for us : working and homeless in America /
Goldstone, Brian,
"Through the unforgettable stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend-the dramatic rise of the "working homeless" in cities across America"-- Provided by publisher.
Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families
Judith Giesberg
Paper Book
"[A] meticulously excavated tribute to the formerly enslaved mothers, fathers, siblings, and kin who published 'last seen' advertisements in search of loved ones stolen from them in bondage...a vital work of recovery." --Ilyon Woo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Master, Slave,...
MIRACLES AND WONDER: THE HISTORICAL MYSTERY OF JESUS
Pagels, Elaine
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . From a renowned National Book Award-winning scholar, an extraordinary new account of the life of Jesus that explores the mystery of how a poor young man inspired a religion that reshaped the world. "This is a brilliant and necessary book. Sober,...
ORIGINAL SIN: PRESIDENT BIDEN'S DECLINE, ITS COVER-UP, AND HIS DISASTROUS CHOICE TO RUN AGAIN
Tapper, Jake
THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Financial Times, Kirkus Reviews, and The Associated Press "Superbly reported . . . Reads like a Shakespearean drama on steroids." -- Los Angeles Times...
The crossing : El Paso, the Southwest, and America's forgotten origin story /
Parker, Richard
Paper Book
"'American history did not begin in the Northeast. It began in the Southwest,' Parker asserts, in this sweeping history." --The New Yorker, Best Books of the Week A revelatory history that recenters the American story two-thousand miles west of Plymouth Rock, in El Paso,...
SPELL FREEDOM: THE UNDERGROUND SCHOOLS THAT BUILT THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Weiss, Elaine.
Paper Book
The acclaimed author of the "stirring, definitive, and engrossing" (NPR) The Woman's Hour returns with the story of four activists whose audacious plan to restore voting rights to Black Americans laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement. In the summer of...
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning
Peter Beinart
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A bold, urgent appeal from the acclaimed columnist and political commentator, addressing one of the most important issues of our time "At this painful moment, Peter Beinart's voice is more vital than ever....
Presidents at war : how World War II shaped a generation of presidents, from Eisenhower and JFK through Reagan and Bush /
Gillon, Steven M.,
Paper Book
Steven M. Gillon, historian and New York Times bestselling author, is back with the story of how WWII shaped the characters and politics of seven American presidents. World War II loomed over the latter half of the twentieth century, transforming every level of...
THE REBEL ROMANOV: JULIE OF SAXE-COBURG, THE EMPRESS RUSSIA NEVER HAD
Rappaport, Helen
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Romanov Sisters comes the story of a courageous young Imperial Grand Duchess who scandalized Europe in search of freedom. In 1795, Catherine the Great of Russia was in search of a bride for her grandson...
The Woman Who Knew Everyone: The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington’s Most Famous Hostess
Meryl Gordon
Paper Book
A TOWN & COUNTRY MUST READ BOOK OF 2025 AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH - BIOGRAPHIES & MEMOIR A deeply researched biography of the socialite, political hostess, activist and United States envoy to Luxembourg, Perle Mesta, from New York Times...
Original sins : the (mis)education of Black and Native children and the construction of American racism /
Ewing, Eve L.,
Paper Book
Why don't our schools work? Ewing tackles this question from a new angle- what if they're actually doing what they were built to do? She argues that instead of being the great equalizer, America's classrooms were designed to do the opposite- to maintain our inequalities. It's a task at which they...
Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe
Natasha Hakimi Zapata
Paper Book
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book Real-world solutions to America's thorniest social problems--from housing to retirement to drug addiction--based on original reporting from around the world A new generation of Americans has declared that another...
In open contempt : confronting White supremacy in art and public space /
Weathersby, Irvin,
Paper Book
Longlisted for the 2026 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction "An awe-striking masterpiece of love." --Jason Reynolds, #1 New York Times bestselling author "The sentences alone in In Open Contempt make it one of the most memorable books of...
Medicine River : a story of survival and the legacy of Indian boarding schools /
Pember, Mary Annette,
Paper Book
A sweeping and deeply personal account of Native American boarding schools in the United States, and the legacy of abuse wrought by them in an attempt to destroy Native culture and life A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, TIME, Smithsonian, The History Channel "With a...
All the President's Money: Investigating the Secret Foreign Schemes That Made the Biden Family Rich
James Comer
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Joe Biden made less than $200,000 a year for most of his life, but as soon as he left office, he bought his second multimillion-dollar mansion. In All the President's Money, Congressman James Comer takes readers on a captivating journey...
SEVEN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THAT CHANGED AMERICA
Gordon, Linda.
Paper Book
How do social movements arise, wield power, and bring about meaningful change? Renowned scholar Linda Gordon investigates these and other salient questions in this "visionary, cautionary, timely, and utterly necessary book" (Nicole Eustace), narrating how some of America's most influential twentieth...
Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel
Loretta J. Ross
Paper Book
From a pioneering Black feminist and MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, this urgent and exhilarating memoir-manifesto-handbook provides bold, practical new ways to transform conflicts into connections, even with those we're tempted to walk away from. In 1979, Loretta Ross was a single...
DISPOSABLE: AMERICA'S CONTEMPT FOR THE UNDERCLASS
Jones, Sarah
Paper Book
In this "barn burner of a book" (The New York Times Book Review) New York magazine senior writer Sarah Jones blends personal stories and in-depth reporting to expose the harsh reality of America's culture of inequality and the devastating impact of the pandemic on our...
BLACK IN BLUES: HOW A COLOR TELLS THE STORY OF MY PEOPLE
Perry, Imani
Paper Book
A "vast, multifaceted and enchanting" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) meditation on the color blue and its fascinating role in Black history and culture, from National Book Award winner Imani Perry, "the most important interpreter of Black life in our time" (Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.) Throughout...
HOPE DIES LAST: VISIONARY PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD, FIGHTING TO FIND US A FUTURE
Weisman, Alan
Paper Book
One of Heatmap's 18 Climate Books to Read in 2025 The award-winning environmental journalist's extraordinary, long-awaited portrait of hope and resilience as we face a fractured and uncertain future In this profoundly human and moving narrative, the...

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