History and Current Events
by Michael Eric Dyson
What it is: a thought-provoking collection of essays, interviews, and speeches exploring the intersection between Black self-presentation and entertainment in America.
Read it for: revered scholar and public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson's searing insights on the joys and limitations of Black representation.
Further reading: Hanif Abdurraqib's A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance.
by Woody Holton
What it's about: how Black and Indigenous Americans, enslaved people, and women helped shape the outcome of the American Revolution, despite their conflicts with the colonists.
Why you might like it: Award-winning historian Woody Holton's revisionist account reveals the little-known (and often suppressed) moments that spurred rebellion.
For fans of: richly detailed histories that place the American Revolution in a fresh context, like Joseph J. Ellis' The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783.
by Dan Jones
What it is: a sweeping and accessible 1,000-year history of Europe's Middle Ages that chronicles how both the ruling classes and everyday folk defined the era.
Don't miss: an appraisal of Islam's influence that prioritizes the religion's own history rather than the West's response to it.
Reviewers say: "will satisfy readers of popular history, particularly of the epic variety" (Library Journal).
by Andrew Lawler
What it's about: the 19th-century race to find biblical treasures buried beneath Jerusalem's streets.
Why it matters: Archaeological history continues to play a role in territorial claims made by contemporary Israelis and Palestinians.
Author alert: Andrew Lawler is the author of The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke.
by Pamela Paul
What it is: a whimsical and nostalgic survey of 100 things that have been lost or made irrelevant in the internet age, written by New York TimesBook Review editor Pamela Paul.
What we've lost: handwritten letters, photo albums, maps, mixtapes, kitchen phones, meet-cutes, privacy, civility, social cues, and more.
Food for thought: "Every time the Internet swings the door wide open, the consequences are at once liberating and dire."
by Raphael Cormack
Welcome to... early 20th-century Ezbekiyya, the thriving nightlife district in Cairo, Egypt.
Starring: seven women -- including singers, actresses, and dancers -- who defied the era's mores to make their mark in a city experiencing unprecedented social and political upheaval.
Why you might like it: This evocative and well-researched chronicle captures all the glitz and glamor of a little-known era in Egypt's history.
by Bradford Pearson
What it's about: the Eagles, a high school football team of Japanese American boys interned at Wyoming's Heart Mountain Relocation Center.
For fans of: Thoughtful histories that chronicle Japanese Americans' resilience during World War II, but don't shy away from the racism they endured, like Daniel James Brown's Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II.
by Andy Robinson
What it is: a sobering account that explores the recent history of Latin America through the extraction and exploitation of its natural resources.
What's inside: sixteen chapters, each offering an incisive focus on a specific commodity under threat.
Try this next: Silver, Sword, and Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story by Marie Arana.
by Syan Rose; foreword by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
What it is: a thought-provoking anthology collecting interviews and firsthand accounts from queer and trans activists.
Art alert: Bold expressionist illustrations complement the volume's candid poetry and prose.
Reviewers say: "A unique, empowering addition to LGBTQ+ literature" (Kirkus Reviews).
by Rachel Vogelstein & Meighan Stone; foreword by Tarana Burke
What it's about: how #MeToo activism has impacted women in Brazil, China, Egypt, Tunisia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Sweden.
Read it for: diverse and eye-opening perspectives on a global movement whose focus has often been on the United States.
Featuring: a foreword by Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke; resources for advocacy work.
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