Current History

As he prepares to recite the Declaration of Independence before his eighth grade social studies class in California, the thing Francisco has feared for 10 years finally happens. La migra, the immigration police, come to his classroom and pick him up for deportation to Mexico. Soon back in the United States with a "green card", Francisco struggles through adolescence, working two or three jobs a day and striving to excel at school.

In the treacherous waters of the Taiwan Strait, the fate of freedom and trade hangs in the balance. As the world watches with bated breath, one question looms large: can China successfully invade Taiwan? The answer lies in the uncharted waters of military history, where the tides of war have shaped the destiny of nations. From D-Day to today's digital deterrence, amphibious assault is usually bloody. Why China CANNOT Invade Taiwan. examines this vital military tactic through history, exploring its evolution alongside the unique challenges posed by Taiwan's strategic location in the Pacific ...

The seven rivers in this narrative were chosen because they are major rivers that magnify the common qualities of these great natural arteries that run through civilization. The Nile, Danube, Niger, Mississippi, Ganges, Yangtze, and Thames are all "world rivers" by virtue of the roles they have each played in our shared and conflicted world history.

America’s most sought-after voice in the fight to save female sports shares her unbelievable story and inspires readers to embrace common sense and truth in discussions about women's rights. Riley Gaines has been called many things: Collegiate athlete. All-American. Champion. But in 2022...

This text provides a compelling narrative world history through the lens of food and farmers. Tracing the world history of agriculture from earliest times to the present, Isett and Miller argue that people rather than markets have been the primary agents of agricultural change, exploring the actions taken by individuals and groups over time.

From award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful novel set fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks in a classroom of students who cannot remember the event but live through the aftermath of its cultural shift. When her fifth-grade teacher hints that a series of lessons about home and...

Every Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age 12 to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly recreates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his "brothers".

There is an ancient Chinese proverb that states, "Two tigers cannot share the same mountain." However, in East Asia, there are three tigers on that mountain: China, Japan, and Korea, and they have a long history of turmoil and tension with each other. In his latest entertaining and thought-provoking narrative travelogue, Michael Booth sets out to discover how deep, really, the enmity is between these three "tiger" nations and what prevents them from making peace.

"In an understated performance, Simon Vance details one of the stunning tragedies arising from the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011...Vance's steady pacing, crisp enunciation, and careful inflection enhance the weight of the story, which moves between reportage and interviews, and ultimately...

In search of an explanation for the crisis that reached an unsettling crescendo in 2020 - a year of pandemic, civil unrest, and political turmoil - National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Evan Osnos returned to three places he knew firsthand: Greenwich, Connecticut; Clarksburg, West Virginia; and Chicago, Illinois. Reported over the course of six years, Wildland follows ordinary individuals as they navigate the varied landscapes of 21st-century America. Through their powerful, often poignant stories, Osnos traces the sources of America’s political dissolution.

From the prophetic author of the now-classic What’s the Matter with Kansas? and Listen, Liberal, an eye-opening account of populism, the most important—and misunderstood—movement of our time. Rarely does a work of history contain startling implications for the present, but in The People...

A new audiobook by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about the twenty-first-century Latino experience and identity. "Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of...

“Laser-cut writing and a stunning intellect. If only every writer made this much beautiful sense.” —Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women “Amia Srinivasan is an unparalleled and extraordinary writer—no one X-rays an argument, a desire, a contradiction, a defense mechanism quite like her...

How did the lowly potato plant feed the poor across Europe and then cause the deaths of millions? How did the rubber plant enable industrialization? What is the connection between malaria, slavery, and the outcome of the American Revolution? How did the fabled silver mountain of 16th-century Bolivia fund economic development in the flood-prone plains of rural China and the wars of the Spanish Empire? Here is the story of how sometimes the greatest leaps also posed the greatest threats to human advancement.

Dive into the captivating world of maritime navigation with "Navigating the Blue," an enlightening journey across the vast oceans that have shaped human history and exploration. This is not just a book; it is your personal guide through the mesmerizing interplay between sea, wind, and human ingenuity. Begin your voyage with an introduction to the irresistible allure of the open sea, unraveling the secrets of winds and currents that have been the soul of navigation for centuries. Discover the enigma of trade winds and delve into their crucial historical significance, guiding explorers on ...

When seen through Jewish eyes, the global future looks darker than it has for generations. Fuelled by venomous Israelophobia, violence against Jews, from Amsterdam to New York, from London to Melbourne, is back. Jews across the West are forced to hide their identities, while in the supposed safe...

Human history has seen many surprising and profound turning points. The ways that humans learned to use raw materials to create activity and resources set the stage for the most compelling and life-altering phase of the modern era, the Industrial Revolution. Born during this time on different continents but connected by similar interests, two men indelibly marked their generation and those that followed with their genius and foresight. This audiobook covers the war of currents and the individual lives of Tesla and Edison.

From a New Yorker staff writer and PEN award winner, a blend of memoir, history, and reportage on one of the most complex and least understood states in America. “In Alabama, we exist at the border of blessing and disaster….” Alexis Okeowo grew up in Montgomery—the former seat of the...

An expert on American authoritarianism offers a searing rebuke of the exceptional narrative that dominates our understanding of US history. In 12 lessons, Matthew C. MacWilliams' On Fascism exposes the divisive rhetoric, strongman tactics, violent othering, and authoritarian attitudes that...

The moving and inspiring story of a young Creole/Black woman born in 1936 in New Orleans. Stung by the ugly hatred of racism, young Iris Duplantier Rideau learned from her grandmother to pass for white, affording her better opportunities than her darker-skinned friends and family. Moving to California with her mother, Iris experienced horrors that no child should endure, leaving her a single teenage mother without a future at 17. What would have stopped most people, only made Iris more determined. She took a grueling job in a sweatshop to support herself and her baby. Needing more education...