Fame: what the classics tell us about our cult of celebrity

By Payne, Tom

Publishing Date: 2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 302.1 PAY

Payne (former deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph) offers an erudite and vastly entertaining look at how the Western cultural obsession with and "shared human responses" to celebrity haven't really changed in the last few millennia. He finds analogies between the Trojan War and Nascar, St. Augustine's Confessions and Dollywood. Juxtaposing Britney Spears's shaving of her head with "tonsures of the past"--Anne-Josèphe Théroigne de Méricourt or Joan of Arc--and using Emile Durkheim to interpret her apparent irrational behavior reveals surprising conclusions: in that desperate moment, perhaps Spears was fumbling to communicate something to her ogling and voracious public. And here is the delightful paradox of Payne's thesis: in revisiting ancient sagas and modern sex tapes, analyzing Heath Ledger's death in the light of Goethe's Faust--he reveals more about us than any of our icons--past or present. He reveals our own prodigious appetite for erecting, cherishing, and destroying heroes, for casting out the deficient, for voyeurism as total knowledge and control. A charming, contrarian, and very witty look at how our stargazing can be "something that bonds us, and which expresses something about how our civilization works." (Nov.) [Page ]. Copyright 2010 PWxyz LLC

The price of inequality

By Stiglitz, Joseph E.

Publishing Date: c2012

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.5097 STI

Examines how the wealthy classes have contributed to growing inequality in society and explains how the quest to increase wealth has hindered the country's economic growth as well as its efforts to solve its most pressing economic problems.

When men become gods: Mormon polygamist Warren Jeffs, his cult of fear, and the women who fought back

By Singular, Stephen

Publishing Date: 2008

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.84 SIN

As the self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, a sect of Mormonism based in southern Utah, Warren Jeffs held sway over thousands of followers for nearly a decade. In addition to coercing young girls into polygamous marriages with older men, Jeffs reputedly took scores of wives himself. The media were shunned, creating a hidden community where polygamy was prized above all else. But in 2007, after a two-year FBI manhunt, Jeffs was convicted as an accomplice to rape. Journalist Singular traces Jeffs's rise to power and the concerted effort that led to his downfall. It was a movement championed by law enforcement, but more vocally by a group of former wives seeking to liberate young women from the arranged marriages they'd once endured. The book offers new revelations into a nearly impenetrable enclave--a place of inbreeding and eerie seclusion, and a tradition almost a century old.--From publisher description.

Prophet's prey: my seven-year investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints

By Brower, Sam

Publishing Date: 2011

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.8423 BRO

Private investigator Sam Brower recounts his investigation of Warren Jeffs, leader of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as FLDS.

American statecraft: the story of the U.S. Foreign Service

By Moskin, J. Robert

Publishing Date: [2013]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.73 MOS

"This magisterial work on American diplomacy by a veteran journalist and historian is the first complete history of the U.S. Foreign Service American Statecraft is a fascinating and comprehensive look at the unsung men and women of the U.S. Foreign Service whose dedication and sacrifices have been a crucial part of our history for over two centuries. Fifteen years in the making, veteran journalist and historian Moskin has traveled the globe conducting hundreds of interviews both in and out of the State Department to look behind the scenes at America's "militiamen of diplomacy." As the nation's eyes and ears, our envoys pledge a substantial part of their lives in foreign lands working for the benefit of their nation. Endeavoring to use dialogue and negotiation as their instruments of change, our diplomats tirelessly work to find markets for American business, rescue its citizens in trouble abroad, and act in general as "America's first line of defense" in policy negotiations, keeping America out of war. But it took generations to polish these skills, and Moskin traces America's full diplomatic history, back to its amateur years coming up against seasoned Europeans during the days of Ben Franklin, now considered the father of the U.S. Foreign Service, and up to the recent Benghazi attack. Along the way, its members included many devoted and courageous public servants, and also some political spoilsmen and outright rogues. An important contribution to the political canon, American Statecraft recounts the history of the United States through the lens of foreign diplomacy"--

The Blood telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a forgotten genocide

By Bass, Gary Jonathan

Publishing Date: c2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.7305 BAS

A full-length account of the involvement of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in Pakistan's brutal 1970s military dictatorship argues that they encouraged China's military presence in India, illegally supplied weapons used in massacres and embraced military strategies that have negatively impacted geopolitics for decades. By the author of Freedom's Battle.

Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and American strategy

By Pollack, Kenneth M.

Publishing Date: 2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.7305 POL

Examines Iran's current nuclear potential while charting America's future course of action, recounting the prolonged clash between both nations to outline options for American policymakers.

23 things they don't tell you about capitalism

By Chang, Ha-Joon

Publishing Date: 2011

Classification: 300

Call Number: 330.122 CHA

Challenges popular misconceptions while making startling revelations about free-market practices, explaining the author's views on global capitalism dynamics while making recommendations for reshaping capitalism to humane ends.

India becoming: a portrait of life in modern India

By Kapur, Akash

Publishing Date: 2012

Classification: 300

Call Number: 330.954 KAP

"A portrait of incredible change and economic development, of social and national transformation told through individual lives. The son of an Indian father and an American mother, Akash Kapur spent his formative years in India and his early adulthood in the United States. In 2003, he returned to his birth country for good, eager to be part of its exciting growth and modernization. What he found was a nation even more transformed than he had imagined, where the changes were fundamentally altering Indian society, for better and sometimes for worse. To further understand these changes, he sought out the Indians experiencing them firsthand. The result is a rich tapestry of lives being altered by economic development, and a fascinating insider's look at many of the most important forces shaping our world today. Much has been written about the rise of Asia and a rebalancing of the global economy, but rarely does one encounter these big stories with the level of nuance and detail that Kapur gives us in India Becoming. Among the characters we meet are a broker of cows who must adapt his trade to a modernizing economy; a female call center employee whose relatives worry about her values in the city; a feudal landowner who must accept that he will not pass his way of life down to his children; and a career woman who wishes she could 'outsource' having a baby. Through these stories and many others, Kapur provides a fuller understanding of the complexity and often contradictory nature of modern India. India Becoming is particularly noteworthy for its emphasis on rural India -- a region often neglected in writing about the country, though 70 percent of the population still lives there. In scenes reminiscent of R.K. Narayan's classic works on the Indian countryside, Kapur builds intimate portraits of farmers, fishermen, and entire villages whose ancient ways of life are crumbling, giving way to an uncertain future that is at once frightening and full of promise. Kapur himself grew up in rural India; his descriptions of change and modernization are infused with a profound -- at times deeply poignant -- firsthand understanding of the loss that must accompany all development and progress. India Becoming is essential reading for anyone interested in our changing world and the newly emerging global order. It is a riveting narrative that puts the personal into a broad, relevant and revelational context"--

After the music stopped: the financial crisis, the response, and the work ahead

By Blinder, Alan S.

Publishing Date: c2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 330.973 BLI

Many fine books on the financial crisis were first drafts of history--books written quickly to fill the need for immediate understanding. Alan S. Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, held off, taking the time to understand the crisis and create a truly comprehensive and coherent narrative of how the worst economic crisis in postwar American history happened, what the government did to fight it, and what we must do from here--mired as we still are in its wreckage. Blinder shows how the U.S. financial system, grown far too complex for its own good--and too unregulated for the public good--experienced a perfect storm beginning in 2007. When America's financial structure crumbled, the damage proved to be not only deep, but wide. It took the crisis for the world to discover, to its horror, just how truly interconnected--and fragile--the global financial system is. Blinder offers clear-eyed answers to the questions still before us, even if some of the choices ahead are as divisive as they are unavoidable.--From publisher description.

Uncertain path: a search for the future of national parks

By Tweed, William C.

Publishing Date: c2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 333.78 TWE

In this provocative walking meditation, forest ranger and writer William Tweed takes us to California's spectacular High Sierra to discover a new vision for our national parks as they approach their 100th anniversary facing dramatic changes. Tweed, who worked among the Sierra Nevada's big peaks and big trees for more than thirty years, has now hiked more than 200 miles along California's John Muir Trail in a personal search for answers.

Wild ones: a sometimes dismaying, weirdly reassuring story about looking at people looking at animals in America

By Mooallem, Jon

Publishing Date: c2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 333.954 MOO

Journalist Jon Mooallem has watched his little daughter's world overflow with animals butterfly pajamas, appliqu©♭d owls--while the actual world she's inheriting slides into a great storm of extinction. Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America's endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, on a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it--from Thomas Jefferson's celebrations of early abundance to the turn-of the-last-century origins of the teddy bear to the whale-loving hippies of the 1970s. Our most comforting ideas about nature unravel. In their place, Mooallem forges a new and affirming vision of the human animal and the wild ones as kindred creatures on an imperfect planet.--From publisher description.

One billion hungry: can we feed the world

By Conway, Gordon

Publishing Date: c2012

Classification: 300

Call Number: 338.1 CON

"In One Billion Hungry, Sir Gordon Conway, one of the world's foremost experts on global food needs, explains the many interrelated issues critical to our global food supply from the science of agricultural advances to the politics of food security. He expands the discussion begun in his influential The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century, emphasizing the essential combination of increased food production, environmental stability, and poverty reduction necessary to end endemic hunger on our planet."--Publisher's website.

Conquering the electron: the geniuses, visionaries, egomaniacs, and scoundrels who built our electronic age

By Cheung, Derek T.

Publishing Date: 2014

Classification: 300

Call Number: 338.4 CHE

Conquering the Electron offers readers a true and engaging history of the world of electronics, beginning with the discoveries of friction and magnetism and ending with the creation of the smartphone and the iPad. This book shows the interconnection of each advance to the next on the long journey to our modern day technologies. Want to understand how radio and television work—and why RCA drove their inventors to financial ruin and early graves?Conquering the Electron offers this story and more, presenting each revolutionary technological advance right alongside blow-by-blow personal battles that all too often took place. - (NBN)

Five days at Memorial: life and death in a storm-ravaged hospital

By Fink, Sheri

Publishing Date: c2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 362.11 FIN

Fink provides a landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina-- and a suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. Fink unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.

Thank you for your service

By Finkel, David

Publishing Date: 2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 362.8609 FIN

"From a MacArthur Fellow and the author of The Good Soldiers, a profound look at life after war No journalist has reckoned with the psychology of war as intimately as David Finkel. In The Good Soldiers, his bestselling account from the front lines of Baghdad, Finkel shadowed the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion as they carried out the infamous surge, a grueling fifteen-month tour that changed all of them forever. Now Finkel has followed many of those same men as they've returned home and struggled to reintegrate--both into their family lives and into American society at large. In the ironically named Thank You for Your Service, Finkel writes with tremendous compassion not just about the soldiers but about their wives and children. Where do soldiers belong after their homecoming? Is it possible, or even reasonable, to expect them to rejoin their communities as if nothing has happened? And in moments of hardship, who are soldiers expected to turn to if they feel alienated by the world they once lived in? These are the questions Finkel faces as he revisits the brave but shaken men of the 2-16. More than a work of journalism, Thank You for Your Service is an act of understanding--shocking but always riveting, unflinching but deeply humane, it takes us inside the heads of those who must live the rest of their lives with the chilling realities of war"--

Command and control: nuclear weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the illusion of safety

By Schlosser, Eric

Publishing Date: c2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 363.17 SCH

Presents a minute-by-minute account of an H-bomb accident that nearly caused a nuclear disaster, examining other near misses and America's growing susceptibility to a catastrophic event.

NEW RELEASE

Thieves of state: why corruption threatens global security

By Chayes, Sarah

Publishing Date: [2015]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 364.1323 CHA

The world is blowing up. Every day a new blaze seems to ignite: the bloody implosion of Iraq and Syria; the East-West standoff in Ukraine; abducted schoolgirls in northern Nigeria. Is there some thread tying these frightening international security crises together? In a riveting account that weaves history with fast-moving reportage and insider accounts from the Afghanistan war, Sarah Chayes identifies the unexpected link: corruption. Since the late 1990s, corruption has reached such an extent that some governments resemble glorified criminal gangs, bent solely on their own enrichment. These kleptocrats drive indignant populations to extremes ranging from revolution to militant puritanical religion. Chayes plunges readers into some of the most venal environments on earth and examines what emerges: Afghans returning to the Taliban, Egyptians overthrowing the Mubarak government (but also redesigning Al-Qaeda), and Nigerians embracing both radical evangelical Christianity and the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. In many such places, rigid moral codes are put forth as an antidote to the collapse of public integrity. The pattern, moreover, pervades history. Through deep archival research, Chayes reveals that canonical political thinkers such as John Locke and Machiavelli, as well as the great medieval Islamic statesman Nizam al-Mulk, all named corruption as a threat to the realm. In a thrilling argument connecting the Protestant Reformation to the Arab Spring, Thieves of State presents a powerful new way to understand global extremism. And it makes a compelling case that we must confront corruption, for it is a cause not a result of global instability."

A serial killer in Nazi Berlin: the chilling true story of the S-Bahn murderer

By Selby, Scott Andrew

Publishing Date: 2014

Classification: 300

Call Number: 364.152 SEL

Describes the true story of a Nazi party member and serial killer who attacked women riding on trains at night in World War II-era Berlin.

Assassins of the Turquoise Palace

By Hakkakiyan, Ru'ya

Publishing Date: c2011

Classification: 300

Call Number: 364.1524 HAK

Who was responsible for the machine-gun murders of the Kurdish and Iranian protestors in a Berlin restaurant? Opinions varied, but the federal prosecutor would charge on to a clear verdict. Adapted from jacket flap.