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...
America, América: A New History of the New World
Greg Grandin
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller - A finalist for the 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"An extraordinarily ambitious book . . . America, América...
Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service
Michael Lewis
"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 ...
Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America
Elie Mystal
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
Joshua Hammer
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
Bennett Parten
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
William Geroux
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 Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America
Kostya Kennedy
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
Lisa Rogak
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...
Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful
David Enrich
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
Pankaj Mishra
"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...
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
Brian Goldstone
Paper Book
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE ATLANTIC'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR * ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR * Through the "revelatory and gut-wrenching" (Associated Press) stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling...
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
Elaine Pagels
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
Jake Tapper
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
Richard Parker
Paper Book
A radical work of history that re-centers the American story around El Paso, Texas, gateway between north and south, center of indigenous power and resistance, locus of European colonization of North America, centuries-long hub of immigration, and underappreciated modern blueprint...
Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement
Elaine Weiss
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....
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
Eve L. Ewing
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A fascinating and eye-opening look at how American schools have helped build and reinforce an infrastructure of racial inequality . . . a must-read for every American parent and educator."--Esquire "Though the argument of this book is bleak,...
In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space
Irvin Weathersby Jr.
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
Mary Annette Pember
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
Linda Gordon
Paper Book
A brilliantly conceived and provocative work from an award-winning historian that examines how seven twentieth-century social movements transformed America. How do social movements arise, wield power, and bring about meaningful change? Renowned scholar Linda Gordon investigates...
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...
Saints and Liars: The Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees from the Nazis
Deborah Dwork
Paper Book
A gripping history that plumbs the extraordinary stories of American relief and rescue workers during World War II. Long before their country officially joined the war, American aid workers were active in rescue efforts across Europe. Two such Americans were Martha and Waitstill...
Disposable: America's Contempt for the Underclass
Sarah Jones
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
Imani Perry
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
Alan Weisman
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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