Join the club: how peer pressure can transform the world

By Rosenberg, Tina

Publishing Date: c2011

Classification: 300

Call Number: 303.48 ROS

In "Join the Club," Rosenberg identifies a brewing social revolution that is changing the way people live, based on harnessing the positive force of peer pressure, and shows how peer pressure has reduced teen smoking in the United States, made villages in India healthier and more prosperous, helped minority students get top grades in college calculus, and even led to the fall of Slobodan Milosevic.

Present shock: when everything happens now

By Rushkoff, Douglas

Publishing Date: 2013

Classification: 300

Call Number: 303.483 RUS

"An award-winning author explores how the world works in our age of "continuous now" Back in the 1970s, futurism was all the rage. But looking forward is becoming a thing of the past. According to Douglas Rushkoff, "presentism" is the new ethos of a society that's always on, in real time, updating live. Guided by neither history nor long term goals, we navigate a sea of media that blend the past and future into a mash-up of instantaneous experience. Rushkoff shows how this trend is both disorienting and exhilarating. Without linear narrative we get both the humiliations of reality TV and the associative brilliance of The Simpsons. With no time for long term investing, we invent dangerously compressed derivatives yet also revive sustainable local businesses. In politics, presentism drives both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement. In many ways, this was the goal of digital technology--outsourcing our memory was supposed to free us up to focus on the present. But we are in danger of squandering this cognitive surplus on trivia. Rushkoff shows how we can instead ground ourselves in the reality of the present tense. "--

The evolution of childhood: relationships, emotion, mind

By Konner, Melvin

Publishing Date: c2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.231 KON

Takes a comprehensive Darwinian interpretation of human development. Looking at the entire range of human evolutionary history, Konner tells the story of how cross-cultural and universal characteristics of our growth from infancy to adolescence became rooted in genetically inherited characteristics of the human brain--From publisher description.

Leaving before the rains come

By Fuller, Alexandra

Publishing Date: 2015

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.4092 FUL

"'...One of the gutsiest memoirs I've ever read. And the writing--oh my god the writing'--Entertainment Weekly; A child of the Rhodesian wars and daughter of two deeply complicated parents, Alexandra Fuller is no stranger to pain. But the disintegration of Fuller's own marriage leaves her shattered. Looking to pick up the pieces of her life, she finally confronts the tough questions about her past, about the American man she married, and about the family she left behind in Africa. A breathtaking achievement, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a memoir of such grace and intelligence, filled with such wit and courage, that it could only have been written by Alexandra Fuller. Leaving Before the Rains Come begins with the dreadful first years of the American financial crisis when Fuller's delicate balance--between American pragmatism and African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox marriage--irrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambia--elephant attacks on the first date, sick with malaria on the wedding day--Fuller struggles to understand her younger self as she overcomes her current misfortunes. Fuller soon realizes what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father, the man who warned his daughter that 'the problem with most people is that they want to be alive for as long as possible without having any idea whatsoever how to live.' Fuller's father--'Tim Fuller of No Fixed Abode' as he first introduced himself to his future wife--was a man who regretted nothing and wanted less, even after fighting harder and losing more than most men could bear. Leaving Before the Rains Come showcases Fuller at the peak of her abilities, threading panoramic vistas with her deepest revelations as a fully grown woman and mother. Fuller reveals how, after spending a lifetime fearfully waiting for someone to show up and save her, she discovered that, in the end, we all simply have to save ourselves. An unforgettable book, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a story of sorrow grounded in the tragic grandeur and rueful joy only to be found in Fuller's Africa"--

Paradise now: the story of American utopianism

By Jennings, Chris

Publishing Date: [2016]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 307.7709 JEN

Describes the various utopian, communal societies that rose to prominence and popularity in the mid-1800s and attracted creative luminaries and visionaries like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller and Horace Greeley.

The honey and the hemlock: democracy and paranoia in ancient Athens and modern America

By Sagan, Eli

Publishing Date: c1991

Classification: 300

Call Number: 321.8 SAG

Argues that ancient Athens and modern America share the same basic moral and psychological problems, and examines the connection between political paranoia and a society's capacity for democratic behavior - (Baker & Taylor)

American heiress: the wild saga of the kidnapping, crimes and trial of Patty Hearst

By Toobin, Jeffrey

Publishing Date: 2016

Classification: 300

Call Number: 322.4 TOO

Examines the life of Patty Hearst who suffered an unimaginable trauma and then made the stunning decision to join her captors’ crusade.

Profiles in leadership: historians on the elusive quality of greatness

Publishing Date: c2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 324.22

A collection of essays reflecting on the enduring ingredients of leadership.

Blackballed: the Black vote and US democracy

By Pinckney, Darryl

Publishing Date: [2014]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 324.6 PIN

"Blackballed is Darryl Pinckney's meditation on a century and a half of Black participation in US electoral politics. In this combination of memoir, historical narrative, and contemporary political and social analysis, he investigates the struggle for Black voting rights from Reconstruction through the civil rights movement, leading up to the election of Barack Obama as president. Interspersed throughout the historical narrative are Pinckney's own memories of growing up during the civil rights era, his unsure grasp of the events he saw on television or heard discussed, and the reactions of his parents to the social changes that were taking place at the time and later to Obama's election. He concludes with an examination of the current state of electoral politics, the place of Blacks in the Democratic coalition, and the ongoing efforts by Republicans to suppress the Black vote, with particular attention to the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and what it may mean for the political influence of Black voters in future elections. Blackballed also includes 'What Black Means Now,' an essay on the history of the Black middle class, stereotypes about Blacks and crime, and contemporary debates about 'post-Blackness' and breaking free of essentialist notions of being Black"--

Campaign trends and election law

Publishing Date: 2016

Classification: 300

Call Number: 324.609

"In the run-up to the 2016 national election, many issues involving election law have come to the fore. This volume will explore such timely topics as campaign finance and the corporate funding of elections in the aftermath of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission (2010), which opened the door to unlimited corporate and private funding of candidates in federal elections. The volume will also investigate the effects of SCOTUS's ruling to roll back various aspects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,allowing states to make their own election laws--includinginstituting voter ID laws and cancelling early voter registration--without federal oversight. Other important issues under discussion include the rise of one-party domination of state government and the subsequent, unprecedented gerrymandering of districts; the use of initiatives and referendums to mobilize political bases; and the changing uses of social media in campaigns. Articles will also examine the rise of political dissidents both inside and outside the two major parties"--Publisher description.

The invisible Harry Gold: the man who gave the Soviets the atom bomb

By Hornblum, Allen M.

Publishing Date: c2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.12 HOR

A gripping account of the man who gave the USSR the plans for the atom bomb. The subject of the most intensive public manhunt in the history of the FBI, Gold was arrested in May 1950. His confession revealed scores of contacts, and his testimony in the trial of the Rosenbergs proved pivotal.

The dangerous Otto Katz: the many lives of a Soviet spy

By Miles, Jonathan

Publishing Date: 2010

Classification: 300

Call Number: 327.1247 MIL

This biography of the spy who became the inspiration for Casablanca's Victor Laszlo describes his involvement in the Spanish Civil War, Stalin's secret meetings, Trotsky's murder and the lives of Hollywood celebrities as he sought fame, fortune and glory . - (Baker & Taylor)

How to make your money last: the indispensable retirement guide

By Quinn, Jane Bryant

Publishing Date: [2016]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 332.024 QUI

"With How to Make Your Money Last, you will learn how to turn your retirement savings into a steady paycheck that will last for life. Today, people worry that they're going to run out of money in their older age. That won't happen if you use a few tricks for squeezing higher payments from your assets--from your Social Security account (find the hidden values there), pension (monthly income or lump sum?), home equity (sell and invest the proceeds or take a reverse mortgage?), savings (should you buy a lifetime annuity?), and retirement accounts (how to invest and--critically--how much to withdraw from your savings each year?). The right moves will not only raise the amount you have to spend, they'll stretch out your money over many more years. You will also learn to look at your savings and investments in a new way. If you stick with super-safe choices the money might not last. You need safe money to help pay the bills in your early retirement years. But to ensure that you'll still have spending money 10 and 20 years from now, you have to invest for growth, today. Quinn shows you how. At a time when people are living longer, yet retiring with a smaller pot of savings than they'd hoped for, this book will become the essential guide"--

War for the Colorado River: v.1 The California-Arizona controversy; v.2 Above Lee's Ferry

By Terrell, John Upton

Publishing Date: 1965

Classification: 300

Call Number: 333.91 TER 2 vols.

War for the Colorado River: The California-Arizona controversy

By Terrell, John Upton

Publishing Date: 1965

Classification: 300

Call Number: 333.91 TER v.1

Leon Trotsky

By Howe, Irving

Publishing Date: 1978

Classification: 300

Call Number: 335.43 HOW

Disrupted: my misadventure in the start-up bubble

By Lyons, Daniel

Publishing Date: 2016

Classification: 300

Call Number: 338 LYO

A memoir of life inside the tech bubble by a writer and co-producer for "Silicon Valley" describes how, after losing his magazine writing job, he took a position with a tech company rife with cultish millennials, absent bosses, and venture-capital amenities.

The thief at the end of the world: rubber, power, and the seeds of empire

By Jackson, Joe

Publishing Date: 2009

Classification: 300

Call Number: 338.4767 JAC

Chronicles the legendary story of how, in 1876, fortune hunter Henry Wickham got his hands on 70,000 rubber tree seeds, smuggled them out of the rainforests of Brazil, and delivered them to Victorian England's most prestigious scientists in one of history's most daring acts of biopiracy. Reprint. - (Baker & Taylor)

On inequality

By Frankfurt, Harry G.

Publishing Date: [2015]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 339.2 FRA

Economic inequality is one of the most divisive issues of our time. Yet few would argue that inequality is a greater evil than poverty. The poor suffer because they don't have enough, not because others have more, and some have far too much. So why do many people appear to be more distressed by the rich than by the poor? This provocative book presents a compelling and unsettling response to those who believe that the goal of social justice should be economic equality or less inequality. Harry Frankfurt argues that we are morally obligated to eliminate poverty--not achieve equality or reduce inequality. Our focus should be on making sure everyone has a sufficient amount to live a decent life. To focus instead on inequality is distracting and alienating. At the same time, Frankfurt argues that the conjunction of vast wealth and poverty is offensive. If we dedicate ourselves to making sure everyone has enough, we may reduce inequality as a side effect. But it's essential to see that the ultimate goal of justice is to end poverty, not inequality.

The rise and fall of American growth: the U.S. standard of living since the Civil War

By Gordon, Robert J.

Publishing Date: [2016]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 339.4 GOR

In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel, air conditioning, and television transformed households and workplaces. With medical advances, life expectancy between 1870 and 1970 grew from forty-five to seventy-two years. Weaving together a vivid narrative, historical anecdotes, and economic analysis,The Rise and Fall of American Growth provides an in-depth account of this momentous era. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Gordon challenges the view that economic growth can or will continue unabated, and he demonstrates that the life-altering scale of innovations between 1870 and 1970 can't be repeated. He contends that the nation's productivity growth, which has already slowed to a crawl, will be further held back by the vexing headwinds of rising inequality, stagnating education, an aging population, and the rising debt of college students and the federal government. Gordon warns that the younger generation may be the first in American history that fails to exceed their parents' standard of living, and that rather than depend on the great advances of the past, we must find new solutions to overcome the challenges facing us. A critical voice in the debates over economic stagnation, The Rise and Fall of American Growth is at once a tribute to a century of radical change and a harbinger of tougher times to come.