History and Current Events

Discover new releases in history and current events.

Updated March 21, 2024
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Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire
Eckart Frahm
A new history of Assyria, the ancient civilization that set the model for future empires    At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the first empire the world had ever seen. Here,...
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America
Heather Cox Richardson
In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. The essays soon turned into a newsletter and, spread by word of mouth, its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated...
Enough
Cassidy Hutchinson
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Cassidy Hutchinson's desk was mere steps from the most controversial president in recent American history. Now, she provides a riveting account of her extraordinary experiences as an idealistic young woman thrust into the middle of a national...
Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World
Mary Beard
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...
The Earth transformed : an untold history
Peter Frankopan
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A revolutionary new history that reveals how climate change has dramatically shaped the development--and demise--of civilizations across time *Detailing many years of extensive research, endnotes for this edition run to...
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet
Jeff Goodell
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! NATIONAL BESTSELLER Finalist for The Los Angles Times Book Prize in Science & Technology Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times, ...
Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens
David Mitchell
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...
KILLING THE WITCHES the horror of Salem, Massachusetts /
O'Reilly, Bill,
The Instant New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller! Killing the Witches revisits one of the most frightening and inexplicable episodes in American history: the events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. What...
Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump
Miles Taylor
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The author behind the "eye-popping" (CNN) #1 New York Times bestseller A Warning presents an urgent look at how our deeply divided nation is setting the stage for "The Next Trump." Donald Trump will be...
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
Timothy Egan
The Roaring Twenties - the Jazz Age - has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in...
I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country
Elena Kostyuchenko
* Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and TIME * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * "A haunting book of rare courage." --Clarissa Ward, CNN chief international correspondent and author of On All Fronts To be...
Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
Steven Levitsky
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A call to reform our antiquated political institutions before it's too late--from the authors of How Democracies Die "[Levitsky and Ziblatt] write with terrifying clarity about how the forces of the right have co-opted the enshrined...
The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History
Ned Blackhawk
Winner of the 2023 National Book Award in Nonfiction * National Bestseller * A New Yorker Best Book of 2023 * A New York Times Notable Book of 2023 * A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction of 2023 * An Esquire...
The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: and the Path to a Shared American Future
Robert P. Jones
A New York Times Bestseller Taking the story of white supremacy in America back to 1493, and examining contemporary communities in Mississippi, Minnesota, and Oklahoma for models of racial repair, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy is "full of urgency and...
ASTOR the rise and fall of an American fortune /
Cooper, Anderson,
The number one New York Times bestselling authors of Vanderbilt return with another riveting history of a legendary American family, the Astors, and how they built and lavished their fortune. The story of the Astors is a...
Opinions
Roxane Gay
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...
The middle kingdoms : a new history of Central Europe /
Rady, Martyn,
An essential new history of Central Europe, the contested lands so often at the heart of world history     Central Europe has long been infamous as a region beset by war, a place where empires clashed and world wars began. In The Middle...
AMERICAN WHITELASH a changing nation and the cost of progress /
Lowery, Wesley,
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An NPR Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year Longlisted for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence "American Whitelash is indispensable. Really. It is." - Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist<...
Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
Simon Winchester
"A delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter . . . . Simon Winchester has firmly earned his place in history . . . as a promulgator of knowledge of every variety, perhaps the last of the famous explorers who crisscrossed the now-vanished...
Black AF History : the un-whitewashed story of America
Michael Harriot
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans. America...
VALIANT WOMEN the extraordinary American servicewomen who helped win World War II /
Andrews, Lena S.,
National Bestseller * Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist "An ingenious look at WWII." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) A groundbreaking new history of the role of American servicewomen in WWII, illuminating their forgotten yet essential contributions to the Allies' victory. ...
Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II
Evan Thomas
A riveting, immersive account of the agonizing decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan--a crucial turning point in World War II and geopolitical history--with you-are-there immediacy by the New York Times bestselling author of Ike's Bluff and Sea of Thunder. ...
Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America
Steve Inskeep
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...
Social Justice Fallacies
Thomas Sowell
In this instant New York Times bestseller, renowned economist Thomas Sowell demolishes the myths that underpin the social justice movement The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many...
The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA
Liza Mundy
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 Laden, from the...
Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close
Hannah Carlson
"Who knew the humble pocket could hold so much history? In this enthralling and always surprising account, Hannah Carlson turns the pocket inside out and out tumble pocket watches, coins, pistols, and a riveting centuries-long social and political history." ―Jill Lepore, author...
Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right Wing Extremism
Jeffrey Toobin
The definitive account of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the enduring legacy of Timothy McVeigh, leading to the January 6 insurrection--from acclaimed journalist Jeffrey Toobin. Timothy McVeigh wanted to start a movement. Speaking to his lawyers days after the...
A BRUTAL RECKONING Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South
Cozzens, Peter
The story of the pivotal struggle between the Creek Indians and an insatiable, young United States for control over the Deep South--from the acclaimed historian and prize-winning author of The Earth is Weeping The Creek War is one of the most tragic episodes in American...
To the end of the earth : the US Army and the downfall of Japan, 1945 /
McManus, John C.,
The dawn of 1945 finds a US Army at its peak in the Pacific. Allied victory over Japan is all but assured. The only question is how many more months - or years - of fight does the enemy have left. John C. McManus's magisterial series, described by the Wall Street Journal as being 'as vast and...
How to Survive History: How to Outrun a Tyrannosaurus, Escape Pompeii, Get Off the Titanic, and Survive the Rest of History's Deadliest Catastrophes
Cody Cassidy
A detailed guide to surviving history's most challenging threats, from outrunning dinosaurs to making it off the Titanic alive History is the most dangerous place on earth. From dinosaurs the size of locomotives to meteors big enough to sterilize the planet, from famines...
WHO'S AFRAID OF GENDER?
Butler, Judith,
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Los Angeles Times, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Kirkus, Literary Hub, Autostraddle, The Millions, Electric Literature, and them. "A profoundly urgent intervention." -...
Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia
Gary J. Bass
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<...
Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction
Fergus M. Bordewich
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...
Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power
Leah Redmond Chang
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...
There Is Only One America
Jason Chaffetz
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Why does it feel like no matter what happens in American politics, the Democrats still get their way When he left Congress in 2017, Jason Chaffetz still thought elections could save us. For generations, conservatives have hoped that...
Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System
Ryan J. Reilly
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...
PRESIDENT GARFIELD From Radical to Unifier
Goodyear, C. W.
An "ambitious, thorough, supremely researched" (The Washington Post) biography of the extraordinary, tragic life of America's twentieth president--James Garfield. In "the most comprehensive Garfield biography in almost fifty years" (The Wall Street Journal),...
The First Lady of World War II
Shannon McKenna Schmidt
The first book to tell the full story of Eleanor Roosevelt's unprecedented and courageous trip to the Pacific Theater during World War II. On August 27, 1943, news broke in the United States that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was on the other side of the world. A closely guarded secret, she...
Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation (A Norton Short)
Tiya Miles
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...
A Short History of the World in 50 Lies
Natasha Tidd
Taking readers on a global journey through human history, historian Natasha Tidd examines how lies can change the world around us, from Julius Caesar's deceptive PR machine to the cover ups that caused Chernobyl. From forgeries that created centuries worth of...
Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis
Michael E. Mann
In this sweeping work of science and history, the renowned climate scientist and author of The New Climate War shows us the conditions on Earth that allowed humans not only to exist but thrive, and how they are imperiled if we veer off course.   For the...

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