History

The Way We Never Were (Staff Pick)

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The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap By Stephanie Coontz Cover Image
$18.39
ISBN: 9780465098835
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Published: Basic Books - March 29th, 2016

It’s an election year - do you have your talking points ready? This updated mythbusting classic explores how nostalgia has skewed our perception of gender roles, government assistance, and child rearing — and gives evidence that people who pine for “greater” times are yearning for a past that never existed.

- Rachael


Built from the Fire (Staff Pick)

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Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street By Victor Luckerson Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780593134375
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Published: Random House - May 23rd, 2023

This closely focused history Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood, starting with the Tulsa Massacre, shows how thoroughly racism shaped and shapes American society. Though a history of tragedy, it is also a history of how people can triumph despite the systemic forces against them.

- Josh


There Will Be Fire (Staff Pick)

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There Will Be Fire: Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History By Rory Carroll Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780593419496
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Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - April 4th, 2023

In 1984, the IRA almost assassinated Margaret Thatcher. And that's not even the wildest detail in this how-did-I-not-know-about-this historical moment that Carroll brings to life.

- Sarah


How To Hide an Empire (Staff Pick)

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How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States By Daniel Immerwahr Cover Image
$22.00
ISBN: 9781250251091
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Published: Picador - March 3rd, 2020

Many Americans would be perplexed by the term American Empire but as Daniel Immerwahr points out, prior to World War II, by population the U.S. had the fifth largest empire in the world. With his somewhat sardonic and thoroughly entertaining approach Immerwahr brings to light how the U.S. consolidated its overseas possessions and seeks to assert its global economic, military, and cultural hegemony to this day.

- Dale


To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness

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To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness By Robin Coste Lewis Cover Image
$35.00
ISBN: 9781524732585
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Published: Knopf - December 6th, 2022

In this breathtaking combination of photography and poetry Robin Coste Lewis again asks, what can we do with our history? Our past is the material for our future but only if we engage with it critically & creatively. Coste Lewis is doing powerful things with history, art, and poetry.

Josh


The Old Ways

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The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (Landscapes #3) By Robert Macfarlane Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780147509796
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Published: Penguin Books - September 24th, 2013

This book pulled me out of a years-long "reading actual books for fun" slump in the middle of college + got me to start reading nonfiction at all. Super beautiful writing about what it means to walk routes that have been walked by people for millennia. Also an extremely extensive bibliography for further reading!

Piera


Born in Blackness

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Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War By Howard W. French Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9781324092407
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Published: Liveright - October 25th, 2022

French restores the centrality of Africa to what is often seen as the modern economic and political ascendancy of Europe. Incredibly rich in detail provided by recent scholarship and informed by French’s own contemporary reporting from the region, Born in Blackness helps to forever change how we view the last 700 years of the Trans-Atlantic world.

Dale


Fears of a Setting Sun

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Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders By Dennis C. Rasmussen Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9780691241418
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Published: Princeton University Press - November 8th, 2022

It will come as a surprise to many, as it did to me, almost all the Founding Fathers, save Madison, were so disillusioned by what had become of the experiment of the republic they helped create they did not expect it to survive much longer past their lifetimes. Rasmussen explains why.

Dale


The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream

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The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer By Dean Jobb Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781643752501
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Algonquin Books - July 5th, 2022

Only a few years after Jack the Ripper terrorized London, another murderer roamed the streets, leaving poisoned victims in his wake, as he already had across North America.

John


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