History and Current Events

Discover new releases in history and current events.

Updated November 16, 2024
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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). ...
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. ....
The Missing Thread: How Women Shaped the Course of Ancient History
Daisy Dunn
Paper Book
"Thoroughly researched and sprightly.... a complete history of the [Mediterranean world] with the women added back in, as they always should have been."--The New York Times A dazzlingly ambitious history of the ancient world that places women at the center--from Cleopatra...
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
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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 "It is a delight to wander through the...
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....
Struggle Sessions: 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...
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...
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...
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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...
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:...
The Death of Truth
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...
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 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 human...
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
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | National Indie Bestseller A Barack Obama summer reading pick | A New York Times best book of 2024 so far One of Publishers Weekly's ten best books of 2024 "Terrific . . . Vibrant . . . When the...
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...
Everything Is at Stake: The Crisis of Our Lifetime
Robert Kagan
Paper Book
A chilling and clear-eyed warning about the threats to our democracy posed by the increasing radicalization of the Republican Party, from a leading historian and intellectual The 2024 election could be the last free election held in a unified America. So warns Robert Kagan in...
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...
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
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...
American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873
Alan Taylor
Paper Book
In a fast-paced narrative of soaring ideals and sordid politics, of civil war and foreign invasion, the award-winning historian Alan Taylor presents a pivotal twenty-year period in which North America's three largest countries--the United States, Mexico, and Canada--all transformed themselves...
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...
Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party
Jonathan Karl
Paper Book
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "The most important thing that has been written to date about what is in front of the American people in the next presidential election." --Nicolle Wallace An extraordinary view into the politics of our times,...
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,...
The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity
Timothy C Winegard
Paper Book
THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER 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 the horse shaped human history   Timothy C....
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...
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....
1403152-1001
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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...
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...
Out of the darkness : The Germans : 1942-2022
Frank Trentmann
Paper Book
#1 Most Important Political Book of 2023, Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) A Best Book of 2023, The Telegraph (Great Britain) A gripping and nuanced history of the German people from World War II to the war in Ukraine, including revealing new primary source material...
Ground Game: The MAGA Movement’s New Plot to Take Over America
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,...
The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920
Manisha Sinha
Paper Book
We are told that the present moment bears a strong resemblance to Reconstruction, the era after the Civil War when the victorious North attempted to create an interracial democracy in the unrepentant South. That effort failed--and that failure serves as a warning today about violent backlash to...
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...
Mr. Churchill in the White House: The Untold Story of a Prime Minister and Two Presidents
Robert Schmuhl
Paper Book
Well into the twenty-first century, Winston Churchill continues to be the subject of scores of books. Biographers portray him as a soldier, statesman, writer, painter, and even a daredevil, but Robert Schmuhl, the noted author and journalist, may be the first to depict him as a demanding, indeed...
Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
Anne Applebaum
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the Pulitzer-prize winning author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them "A masterful guide to the new age of authoritarianism... clear...
The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Paper Book
The definitive story of the seven Cleopatras, the powerful goddess-queens of ancient Egypt   One of history's most iconic figures, Cleopatra is rightly remembered as a clever and charismatic ruler. But few today realize that she was the last in a long line...
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Paper Book
The"gripping" (The Atlantic) story of five families shattered by pernicious, pervasive conspiracy theories, and how we might set ourselves free from a crisis that could haunt American life for generations. "Excellent . . . This is the intimate side of the cold civil war...
Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power
Timothy W. Ryback
Paper Book
From the internationally acclaimed author of Hitler's Private Library, a dramatic recounting of the six critical months before Adolf Hitler seized power, when the Nazi leader teetered between triumph and ruin. In the summer of 1932, the Weimar Republic was on the...

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