Book reviews and excerpts from exceptional books about history, current affairs and religion
History, Current Affairs and Religion
Recommended books found: 441
Page 1 of 24
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Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery's Borderland
by Scott Shane
Hardcover: Sep 2023
Paperback: Dec 2024
A riveting account of the extraordinary abolitionist, liberator, and writer Thomas Smallwood, who bought his own freedom, led hundreds out of slavery, and named the underground railroad, from Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, Scott Shane....
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Around the World in Eighty Games: From Tarot to Tic-Tac-Toe, Catan to Chutes and Ladders, a Mathematician Unlocks the Secrets of the World's Greatest Games
by Marcus du Sautoy
Hardcover: Nov 2023
Paperback: Nov 2024
An award-winning mathematician explores the math behind the games we love and why we love to play them.
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On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe
by Caroline Dodds Pennock
Hardcover: Jan 2023
Paperback: Oct 2024
A landmark work of narrative history that shatters our previous Eurocentric understanding of the Age of Discovery by telling the story of the Indigenous Americans who journeyed across the Atlantic to Europe after 1492
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The Message
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Hardcover: Oct 2024
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell—and the ones we don't—shape our realities.
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The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi
by Wright Thompson
Hardcover: Sep 2024
A shocking and revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till that lays bare how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the long lead-up to the crime, and how the truth was erased for so long.
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Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II
by Lena S. Andrews
Hardcover: Aug 2023
Paperback: Aug 2024
A groundbreaking new history of the role of American servicewomen in WWII, illuminating their forgotten yet essential contributions to the Allies' victory.
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Kent State: An American Tragedy
by Brian VanDeMark
Hardcover: Aug 2024
A definitive history of the fatal clash between Vietnam War protestors and the National Guard, illuminating its causes and lasting consequences.
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The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
by Evan Friss
Hardcover: Aug 2024
An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest...
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The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Ancient World
by Daisy Dunn
Hardcover: Jul 2024
A dazzlingly ambitious history of the ancient world that places women at the center—from Cleopatra to Boudica, Sappho to Fulvia, and countless other artists, writers, leaders, and creators of history
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Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution
by Tania Branigan
Hardcover: May 2023
Paperback: Jun 2024
An indelible exploration of the invisible scar that runs through the heart of Chinese society and the souls of its citizens.
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Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
by Christian Cooper
Hardcover: Jun 2023
Paperback: Jun 2024
Central Park birder Christian Cooper takes us beyond the viral video that shocked a nation and into a world of avian adventures, global excursions, and the unexpected lessons you can learn from a life spent looking up.
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We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
by Kellie Carter Jackson
Hardcover: Jun 2024
A radical reframing of the past and present of Black resistance—both nonviolent and violent—to white supremacy.
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A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
by Timothy Egan
Hardcover: Apr 2023
Paperback: Jun 2024
A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the riveting story of the Klan's rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them.
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Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets
by Burkhard Bilger
Hardcover: May 2023
Paperback: Jun 2024
A New Yorker staff writer investigates his grandfather, a Nazi Party Chief, in this "unflinching, gorgeously written, and deeply moving exploration of morality, family, and war" (Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain).
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His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice
by Robert Samuels, Toluse Olorunnipa
Hardcover: May 2022
Paperback: May 2024
A landmark biography by two prizewinning Washington Post reporters that reveals how systemic racism shaped George Floyd's life and legacy - from his family's roots in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, ...
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The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History
by Karen Valby
Hardcover: Apr 2024
The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood, a legacy erased from history—until now.
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The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
by Erik Larson
Hardcover: Apr 2024
The #1 New York Times bestselling 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—a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in ...
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Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution
by Anne Higonnet
Hardcover: Apr 2024
Three women led a fashion revolution and turned themselves into international style celebrities.
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The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
by Hampton Sides
Hardcover: Apr 2024
From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, an epic 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 ...
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Says Who?: A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words
by Anne Curzan
Hardcover: Mar 2024
A kinder, funner usage guide to the ever-changing English language and a useful tool for both the grammar stickler and the more colloquial user of English, from linguist and veteran professor Anne Curzan
The reviewer of each book decides which categories it belongs in - but we're only human, mistakes happen. If you see a book that you think is in the wrong place, tell us!
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