The once and future worker: a vision for the renewal of work in America

By Cass, Oren

Publishing Date: ©2018

Classification: 300

Call Number: 331.1097 CAS

Examines how current economic and social policies in the United States are adversely affecting the American worker and explains why the governing elites need to implement changes that increase wages and provide access to job training and social welfare programs. --

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This land: how cowboys, capitalism, and corruption are ruining the American West

By Ketcham, Christopher

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 333.7309 KET

"The public lands of the western United States comprise some 450 million acres of grassland, steppe land, canyons, forests, and mountains. It's an American commons, and it is under assault as never before. Journalist Christopher Ketcham has been documenting the confluence of commercial exploitation and governmental misconduct in this region for over a decade. His revelatory book takes the reader on a journey across these last wild places, to see how capitalism is killing our great commons. Ketcham begins in Utah, revealing the environmental destruction caused by unregulated public lands livestock grazing, and exposing rampant malfeasance in the federal land management agencies, who have been compromised by the profit-driven livestock and energy interests they are supposed to regulate. He then turns to the broad effects of those corrupt politics on wildlife. He tracks the Department of Interior's failure to implement and enforce the Endangered Species Act--including its stark betrayal of protections for the grizzly bear and the sage grouse--and investigates the destructive behavior of U.S. Wildlife Services in their shocking mass slaughter of animals that threaten the livestock industry. Along the way, Ketcham talks with ecologists, biologists, botanists, former government employees, whistleblowers, grassroots environmentalists and other citizens who are fighting to protect the public domain for future generations. This Land is a colorful muckraking journey--part Edward Abbey, part Upton Sinclair--exposing the rot in American politics that is rapidly leading to the sell-out of our national heritage"--

NEW RELEASE

The dreamt land: chasing water and dust across California

By Arax, Mark

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 333.91 ARA

"A vivid, searching journey into California's complicated relationship to its water, from the Gold Rush to today -- an epic story of the struggle to overcome the constraints of nature Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers -- a journalist with deep ties to the land, who has watched as the battles over water have intensified even as the state lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land he travels the state to explore the century-old water distribution system that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. This is a heartfelt, beautifully written book about land and the people who work on it, from the gold miners to the ranchers to the small farmers and today's big ag. Since the beginning, Californians have redirected rivers, drilled ever-deeper wells, and pushed the water supplies past their limits. The Dreamt Land brings to life the enterprising figures who have made a fortune off the land, and used that wealth to increase their leverage, as well as the people who have been left behind. It's a story of politics and hubris, but above all it's about the unceasing human ability to make things happen, and to endure in a hostile environment"--

The art of loading brush: new agrarian writings

By Berry, Wendell

Publishing Date: [2017]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 338.1 BER

Wendell Berry's profound critique of American culture has entered its sixth decade, and in this new gathering he reaches with deep devotion toward a long view of Agrarian philosophy. Mr. Berry believes that American cultural problems are nearly always aligned with their agricultural problems, and recent events have shone a terrible spotlight on the divides between our urban and rural citizens. Our communities are as endangered as our landscapes. There is, as Berry outlines, still much work to do, and our daily lives--in hope and affection -- must triumph over despair. Mr. Berry moves deftly between the real and the imagined. The Art of Loading Brush is an energetic mix of essays and stories, including "The Thought of Limits in a Prodigal Age," which explores Agrarian ideals as they present themselves historically and as they might apply to our work today. "The Presence of Nature in the Natural World" is added here as the bookend of this developing New Agrarianism. Four stories from an as-yet-unfinished novel, better described as "an essay in imagination," extend the Port William story as it follows Andy Catlett throughout his life to this present moment. Andy works alongside his grandson in "The Art of Loading Brush," one of the most moving and tender stories of the entire Port William cycle. Filled with insights and new revelations from a mind thorough in its considerations and careful in its presentations, The Art of Loading Brush is a necessary and timely collection.

A precautionary tale: how one small town banned pesticides, preserved its food heritage, and inspired a movement

By Ackerman-Leist, Philip

Publishing Date: [2017]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 338.1094 ACK

Mals, Italy, has long been known as the breadbasket of the Tyrol. But recently the tiny town became known for something else entirely. A Precautionary Tale tells us why, introducing readers to an unlikely group of activists and a forward-thinking mayor who came together to ban pesticides in Mals by a referendum vote--making it the first place on Earth to accomplish such a feat, and a model for other towns and regions to follow. For hundreds of years, the people of Mals had cherished their traditional foodways and kept their local agriculture organic. Their town had become a mecca for tourists drawn by the alpine landscape, the rural and historic character of the villages, and the fine breads, wines, cheeses, herbs, vegetables, and the other traditional foods they produced. Yet Mals is located high up in the eastern Alps, and the valley below was being steadily overtaken by big apple producers, heavily dependent on pesticides. As Big Apple crept further and further up the region's mountainsides, their toxic spray drifted with the valley's ever-present winds and began to fall on the farms and fields of Mals--threatening their organic certifications, as well as their health and that of their livestock. The advancing threats gradually motivated a diverse cast of characters to take action--each in their own unique way, and then in concert in an iconic display of direct democracy in action. As Ackerman-Leist recounts their uprising, we meet an organic dairy farmer who decides to speak up when his hay is poisoned by drift; a pediatrician who engaged other medical professionals to protect the soil, water, and air that the health of her patients depends upon; a hairdresser whose salon conversations mobilized the town's women in an extraordinarily conceived campaign; and others who together orchestrated one of the rare revolutionary successes of our time and inspired a movement now snaking its way through Europe and the United States.--AMAZON.

The curse of bigness: antitrust in the new gilded age

By Wu, Tim

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 338.8097 WU

"We live in an age of extreme corporate concentration, in which global industries are controlled by just a few giant firms -- big banks, big pharma, and big tech, just to name a few. But concern over what Louis Brandeis called the "curse of bigness" can no longer remain the province of specialist lawyers and economists, for it has spilled over into policy and politics, even threatening democracy itself. History suggests that tolerance of inequality and failing to control excessive corporate power may prompt the rise of populism, nationalism, extremist politicians, and fascist regimes. In short, as Wu warns, we are in grave danger of repeating the signature errors of the twentieth century. In The Curse of Bigness, Columbia professor Tim Wu tells of how figures like Brandeis and Theodore Roosevelt first confronted the democratic threats posed by the great trusts of the Gilded Age--but the lessons of the Progressive Era were forgotten in the last 40 years. He calls for recovering the lost tenets of the trustbusting age as part of a broader revival of American progressive ideas as we confront the fallout of persistent and extreme economic inequality."--Amazon.com.

The great escape: health, wealth, and the origins of inequality

By Deaton, Angus

Publishing Date: [2013]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 339.2 DEA

"The world is a better place than it used to be. People are wealthier and healthier, and live longer lives. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many have left gaping inequalities between people and between nations. In The Great Escape, Angus Deaton--one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty--tells the remarkable story of how, starting two hundred and fifty years ago, some parts of the world began to experience sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's hugely unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and he addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind. Deaton describes vast innovations and wrenching setbacks: the successes of antibiotics, pest control, vaccinations, and clean water on the one hand, and disastrous famines and the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the other. He examines the United States, a nation that has prospered but is today experiencing slower growth and increasing inequality. He also considers how economic growth in India and China has improved the lives of more than a billion people. Deaton argues that international aid has been ineffective and even harmful. He suggests alternative efforts--including reforming incentives to drug companies and lifting trade restrictions--that will allow the developing world to bring about its own Great Escape. Demonstrating how changes in health and living standards have transformed our lives, The Great Escape is a powerful guide to addressing the well-being of all nations"--Publisher description.

Impeachment: a citizen's guide

By Sunstein, Cass R.

Publishing Date: 2017

Classification: 300

Call Number: 342.73 SUN

"Cass Sunstein considers actual and imaginable arguments for a president's removal, explaining why some cases are easy and others hard, why some arguments for impeachment are judicious and others not. In direct and approachable terms, he dispels the fog surrounding impeachment so that all Americans may use their ultimate civic authority wisely"--

NEW RELEASE

Call sign chaos: learning to lead

By Mattis, James N.

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 355.0092 MAT

"Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis's storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas -- and short-sighted thinking -- now facing our nation. He makes it clear why America must return to a strategic footing so as not to continue winning battles while fighting inconclusive wars. Mattis divides his book into three parts: Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. In the first part, Mattis recalls his early experiences leading Marines into battle, when he knew his troops as well as his own brothers. In the second part, he explores what it means to command thousands of troops and how to adapt your leadership style to ensure your intent is understood by your most junior troops so that they can own their mission. In the third part, Mattis describes the challenges and techniques of leadership at the strategic level, where military leaders reconcile war's grim realities with political leaders' human aspirations, where complexity reigns and the consequences of imprudence are severe, even catastrophic. Call Sign Chaos is a memoir of a life of warfighting and lifelong learning, following along as Mattis rises from Marine recruit to four-star general. It is a journey about learning to lead and a story about how he, through constant study and action, developed a unique leadership philosophy, one relevant to us all."--Dust jacket flap.

NEW RELEASE

Dignity: seeking respect in back row America

By Arnade, Chris

Publishing Date: [2019]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 362.5097 ARN

"Widely acclaimed photographer and writer Chris Arnade shines new light on America's poor, drug-addicted, and forgotten--both urban and rural, blue state and red state--and indicts the elitists who've left them behind. Like Jacob Riis in the 1890s, Walker Evans in the 1930s, or Michael Harrington in the 1960s, Chris Arnade bares the reality of our current class divide in stark pictures and unforgettable true stories. Arnade's raw, deeply reported accounts cut through today's clickbait media headlines and indict the elitists who misunderstood poverty and addiction in America for decades. After abandoning his Wall Street career, Arnade decided to document poverty and addiction in the Bronx. He began interviewing, photographing, and becoming close friends with homeless addicts, and spent hours in drug dens and McDonald's. Then he started driving across America to see how the rest of the country compared. He found the same types of stories everywhere, across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and geography. The people he got to know, from Alabama and California to Maine and Nevada, gave Arnade a new respect for the dignity and resilience of what he calls America's Back Row--those who lack the credentials and advantages of the so-called meritocratic upper class. The strivers in the Front Row, with their advanced degrees and upward mobility, see the Back Row's values as worthless. They scorn anyone who stays in a dying town or city as foolish, and mock anyone who clings to religion or tradition as naïve. As Takeesha, a woman in the Bronx, told Arnade, she wants to be seen she sees herself: "a prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God." This book is his attempt to help the rest of us truly see, hear, and respect millions of people who've been left behind"--

In a day's work: the fight to end sexual violence against America's most vulnerable workers

By Yeung, Bernice

Publishing Date: 2018

Classification: 300

Call Number: 362.8808 YEU

Exposes the epidemic of sexual violence against women farmworkers, domestic workers, and janitorial workers, and charts their quest for justice in the workplace.

NEW RELEASE

Affordable housing

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 363.5962

"A collection of primary and secondary sources provides an example of American thought and media coverage on issues such as mortgage rates and the availability of real estate, homelessness, the development and management of government-sponsored housing programs in the present and past, and the impact of home ownership on prosperity and the perception of the American Dream.-- Amazon.

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Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the secret history of the sixties

By O'Neill, Tom

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 364.152 ONE

An investigative journalist chronicles his twenty-year obsession with the 1969 Manson murders and describes how he discovered evidence of a cover-up, carelessness from police, misconduct by prosecutors, and potential surveillance by intelligence agents.

NEW RELEASE

The last stone

By Bowden, Mark

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 364.1523 BOW

Cold case detectives solve the 1975 disappearance of two pre-teen girls in suburban Washington, DC.

NEW RELEASE

U.S. national debate topic, 2019-2020: Arms sales

Publishing Date: 2019

Classification: 300

Call Number: 382.4562

1. History : -- Risk and reward: the history of arms trading in the United States -- A world of weapons: historians shape scholarship on arms trading / Kritika Agarwal -- Where did Iran get its military arms over the last 70 years? / Kuang Keng Kuek Ser -- "Merchants of death": the international traffic in arms / Jonathan Grant -- Let's talk about George H.W. Bush's role in the Iran-Contra scandal / Aran Gupta -- How British businesses helped the confederacy fight the American Civil War / Joe Kelly -- As the US entered World War I, American soldiers depended on foreign weapons technology / David Longenbach -- Losing by "winning": America's wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria / Anthony H. Cordesman. 2. Economics of the arms trade : -- Checks and balances: the economy of warfare -- How the arms trade is used to secure access to oil / Vincenzo Bove -- The global arms trade is booming: buyers are spoiled for choice -- Defense firms say Trump's Saudi arms deal will create 500 American jobs, while Trump claimed as many as 500,000 / Mike Stone -- Trump to unleash more global arms sales / Bryan Bender and Tara Palmeri -- Arming the world: inside Trump's "buy American" drive to expand weapons exports / Matt Spetalnick and Mike Stone -- Why Congress supports Saudi arms sales / Oleg Svet. 3. Arms and foreign policy : -- Guns and diplomats: the arms trade and foreign policy -- The Trump administration has a plan to compete with Russia and China over weapon sales / Dave Majumdar -- After Khashoggi, US arms sales to the Saudis are essential leverage / Bruce Riedel -- US remains top arms exporter, but Russia is nipping at its heels / Terrence Guay -- U.S. approves new military sale to Taiwan, drawing China's ire -- U.S. policy in the Arabian peninsula: an evaluation / Michael Singh -- Why military assistance programs disappoint: minor tools can't solve major problems / Mara Karlin -- America needs to sell more weapons / Alexander Benard -- Japan wants cruise missiles ( and that should terrify China or North Korea) / Kyle Mizokami -- The new Iron Curtain: Russian missile defense challenges U.S. air power / Thomas Grove -- The uneasy co-existence of arms exports and feminist foreign policy / Srdjan Vucetic. 4. The wrong hands: arms deals, war, and terror : -- Sale of U.S. arms fuels the wars of Arab states / Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper -- Time to rethink America's vast arms deals / Daniel R. DePetris -- Fired up over firearms: how do export controls relate to 3-D printing of guns? / Andrew Philip Hunter and Samantha Cohen -- Pentagon loses track of $500 million in weapons, equipment given to Yemen / Craig Whitlock -- Can selling weapons to oppressive and violent states ever be justified? / James Christensen -- American weapons in the wrong hands / Jodi Vittori. 5. The human cost : -- The human dimension: arms trades and human rights -- How U.S. guns sold to Mexico end up with security forces accused of crime and human rights abuses / John Lindsay-Poland -- Ukraine: U.S. arms sales making big business money while ordinary people pay the price / Liana Semchuk -- U.S. points finger, and arms exports, at human rights abusers / Zach Toombs and Jeffrey Smith -- Want to punish Saudi Arabia? Cut off its weapons supply / Jonathan D. Caverley -- Trump will fuel war across world by increasing U.S global arms sales / John Haltiwanger -- Arms sales to Saudi "illicit" due to civilian deaths in Yemen: campaigners / Stephanie Nebehay -- Trump's arms exports rules will undermine US security and risk human rights abuses / William D. Hartung.

Ancient skies: constellation mythology of the Greeks

By Marshall, David Weston

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 389.26 MAR

"Look to the sky and see the stories in the stars The stars and constellations are among the few remaining objects that appear to us just as they appeared to our distant ancestors. From anywhere on Earth, a person may view the celestial panorama simply by stepping outside at night and gazing upward. This non- fiction narrative presents the tales of the forty- eight classical constellations, compiled from literature spanning a thousand years from Homer (c. 800 BC) to Claudius Ptolemy (c. 150 AD). These age- old tales have captured the human imagination from ancient times to the present, and through them we can examine the early practical astronomy, philosophical speculation on the cosmos, and fundamental moral beliefs of much of Western civilization. Illustrations and star charts carefully reconstructed from ancient sources lend a visual element and immerse the reader in the world of ancient cosmology and constellation mapping. Through Marshall's research and storytelling, Ancient Skies brings the belief systems of the classical world to shining life"--

Native American tales and legends

By Macfarlan, Allan A.

Publishing Date: 2001

Classification: 300

Call Number: 398.2097 MAC

This exciting collection contains more than thirty richly imaginative stories from a variety of Native American sources — Cherokee to Zuñi, Pawnee to Midu — covering a broad spectrum of subjects, as well as tales of little people, giants, and monsters, and of magic, enchantment, sorcery, and the spirit world. Readers will find stories telling how the earth, people, and bison were created and how fire was discovered, while others introduce the hero Glooscap and the Maiden of the Yellow Rocks. Still other traditional tales tell of the troubles Rabbit's boastfulness got him into, and about the clever ways Little Blue Fox managed to escape from Coyote. Among the stories in this collection are "The White Stone Canoe" (Chippewa), "Raven Pretends to Build a Canoe" (Tsimshian), "The Theft from the Sun" (Blackfoot), "The Loon's Necklace" (Iroquois), "The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting" (Cherokee), "The Coyote" (Pueblo), and "The Origin of the Buffalo and of Corn" (Cheyenne). Young people will delight in these tales, as will any reader interested in Native American stories or folklore in general.- (Dover Pubns)

Sick of nature

By Gessner, David

Publishing Date: [2004]

Classification: 500

Call Number: 508 GES

"Whether kicking at the limits of his category or explaining why he was fired from his job as a bookstore clerk; whether recalling his youthful obsession with Ultimate Frisbee or recounting an adventure in the jungles of Belize; whether lampooning his envy of Sebastian Junger or raging at the over-development of Cape Cod or searching for solace in nature in the wake of September 11, Gessner ranges from the personal to the natural in lyrical reflections on writing, self, and society." "In a concluding essay, Gessner moves from the arrival of coyotes in the suburbs of Boston to the birth of his first child in an extended meditation on his characteristic themes of creativity, wildness, and place."--BOOK JACKET.

Made from this earth: American women and nature

By Norwood, Vera

Publishing Date: c1993

Classification: 500

Call Number: 508.73 NOR

The contribution American women have made to the study of nature from the early nineteenth century to the present, as writers, illustrators, landscape and garden designers, ornithologists, botanists, biologists, and conservationists.

American Eden: David Hosack, botany, and medicine in the garden of the early republic

By Johnson, Victoria

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 500

Call Number: 580.973 JOH

"Whether collecting specimens along the banks of the Hudson River, lecturing before a class of rapt medical students, or breaking the fever of a young Philip Hamilton, David Hosack was an American visionary who has been too long forgotten. Alongside other towering figures of the post-Revolutionary generation, he took the reins of a nation. In unearthing the dramatic story of his life, [the author] offers a lush depiction of the man who gave a new voice to the powers and perils of nature"--Amazon.com.