Doppelganger: a trip into the mirror world

By Klein, Naomi

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: 300

Call Number: 302.231 KLE

"What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired another self--a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you'd devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience--she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define: AI-generated text is blurring the line between genuine and spurious communication; New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers are scrambling familiar political allegiances of left and right; and liberal democracies are teetering on the edge of absurdist authoritarianism, even as the oceans rise. Under such conditions, reality itself seems to have become unmoored. Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo? Naomi Klein is one of our most trenchant and influential social critics, an essential analyst of what branding, austerity, and climate profiteering have done to our societies and souls. Here she turns her gaze inward to our psychic landscapes, and outward to the possibilities for building hope amid intersecting economic, medical, and political crises. With the assistance of Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peele, Alfred Hitchcock, and bell hooks, among other accomplices, Klein uses wry humor and a keen sense of the ridiculous to face the strange doubles that haunt us--and that have come to feel as intimate and proximate as a warped reflection in the mirror. Combining comic memoir with chilling reportage and cobweb-clearing analysis, Klein seeks to smash that mirror and chart a path beyond despair. Doppelganger asks: What do we neglect as we polish and perfect our digital reflections? Is it possible to dispose of our doubles and overcome the pathologies of a culture of multiplication? Can we create a politics of collective care and undertake a true reckoning with historical crimes? The result is a revelatory treatment of the way many of us think and feel now--and an intellectual adventure story for our times"--

The nature of birth and breast-feeding

By Odent, Michel

Publishing Date: 1992

Classification: 300

Call Number: 304.63 ODE

The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding has as its premise that in order to gain a truer understanding of the human experience, we must examine the way other mammals function during birth, breastfeeding, and parenting. Odent points out some customary procedures that becloud the approaches to childbirth in Western society. On the one hand, privacy and minimal intervention are key to the ideal birth environment, yet hospitals and the advent of high-tech obstetrics often dictate the opposite, with a result of higher cesarean and morbidity rates. Odent uncovers another irony - the proven need of mother and infant to receive support for an extensive period of breastfeeding may actually be endangered by the nuclear monogamous family structure.

The devil's highway: a true story

By Urrea, Luis Alberto

Publishing Date: [2014]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 304.8730 URR

Describes the attempt of twenty-six men to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, a region known as the Devil's Highway, detailing their harrowing ordeal and battle for survival against impossible odds. Only 12 men came back out.

The Barbizon: the hotel that set women free

By Bren, Paulina

Publishing Date: 2021

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305 BRE

"The Barbizon tells the story of New York's most glamorous women-only hotel, and the women-both famous and ordinary-who passed through its doors. World War I had liberated women from home and hearth, setting them on the path to political enfranchisement and gainful employment. Arriving in New York to work in the dazzling new skyscrapers, they did not want to stay in uncomfortable boarding houses; they wanted what men already had-exclusive residential hotels that catered to their needs, with daily maid service, cultural programs, workout rooms, and private dining. The Barbizon would become the most famous residential hotel of them all, welcoming everyone from aspiring actresses, dancers, and fashion models to seamstresses, secretaries, and nurses. The Barbizon's residents read like a who's who: Titanic survivor Molly Brown; actresses Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Grace Kelly, Tippi Hedron, Liza Minnelli, Ali McGraw, Jaclyn Smith, and Phylicia Rashad; writers Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, Diane Johnson, Gael Greene, and Meg Wolitzer; and so many more. But before they were household names, they were among the young women arriving at the Barbizon with a suitcase, and hope. Beautifully written and impeccably researched, The Barbizon weaves together a tale that has, until now, never been told. It is an epic story of women's ambition in the 20th century. The Barbizon Hotel offered its residents a room of their own and air to breathe, unfettered from family obligations and expectations. It gave women a chance to remake themselves however they pleased. No place had existed like it before, or has since"--

Women in Islam

By Walther, Wiebke

Publishing Date: 1993

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.4 WAL

The issue of both urban and rural women in Islam from a largely historical standpoint, focussing on the central Islamic countries, i.e., the Arab world, Turkey, Iran and Mughal India.

Days of destruction, days of revolt

By Hedges, Chris

Publishing Date: 2012

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.56 HED

"Camden, New Jersey, with a population of 70,390, is per capita the poorest city in the nation. It is also the most dangerous. The city's real unemployment - hard to estimate, since many residents have been severed from the formal economy for generations - is probably 30 to 40 percent. The median household income is $24,600. There is a 70 percent high school dropout rate, with only 13 percent of students managing to pass the state's proficiency exams in math. The city is planning $28 million in draconian budget cuts, with officials talking about cutting 25 percent from every department, including layoffs of nearly half the police force. The proposed slashing of the public library budget by almost two-thirds has left the viability of the library system in doubt. There are perhaps a hundred open-air drug markets, most run by gangs like the Bloods, the Latin Kings, and MS-13. Camden is awash in guns, easily purchased across the river in Pennsylvania, where gun laws are lax. Camden, like America, was once an industrial giant. It employed some 36,000 workers in its shipyards during World War II and built some of the nation's largest warships. It was the home to major industries, from RCA Victor to Campbell's Soup. It was a destination for immigrants and upwardly mobile lower middle class families. Camden now resembles a penal colony. In Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges and American Book Award winning cartoonist Joe Sacco show how places like Camden, a poster child of postindustrial decay, stand as a warning of what huge pockets of the United States will turn into if we cement in place a permanent underclass. In addition to Camden, Hedges and Sacco report from the coal fields of West Virginia, Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and undocumented farm worker colonies in California. With unemployment and underemployment combined at far over ten percent, as Congress proposes to slash Medicare and Medicaid, Food Stamps, Pell Grants, Social Security, and other social services, Hedges and Sacco warn of a bleak near future-where cities and states fall easily into bankruptcy, neofeudalism reigns, and the nation's working and middle classes are decimated. A shocking report from the frontlines of poverty in America, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is a clarion call for reform"--

Slavery by another name: the re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II

By Blackmon, Douglas A

Publishing Date: 2009

Classification: 300

Call Number: 305.896 BLA

A sobering account of a little-known crime against African Americans, and the insidious legacy of racism that reverberates today. From the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II, under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageous fines, and charged for the costs of their own arrests. With no means to pay these "debts," prisoners were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations. Thousands of other African Americans were simply seized and compelled into years of involuntary servitude. Armies of "free" black men labored without compensation, were repeatedly bought and sold, and were forced through beatings and physical torture to do the bidding of white masters for decades after the official abolition of American slavery.--From publisher description.

Early American abolitionists: a collection of anti-slavery writings 1760-1820

Publishing Date: 2005

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.362

Master slave husband wife: an epic journey from slavery to freedom

By Woo, Ilyon

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.362 WOO

Presents the remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled white man and William posing as "his" slave.

The burning light of two stars: a mother-daughter story

By Davis, Laura

Publishing Date: [2021]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 306.8743 DAV

"When she published The Courage to Heal in 1988, Laura Davis helped more than a million women work through the trauma of childhood sexual abuse. But her decision to go public with her grandfather's incest deepened an already painful estrangement with her mother, Temme. Over the next twenty years, from a safe distance of three thousand miles, Laura and Temme reconciled their volatile relationship and believed that their difficult past was behind them. But when Temme moves across the country to entrust her daughter with the rest of her life, she brings a faltering mind, a fierce need for independence, and the seeds of a second war between them. As the stresses of caregiving rekindle Laura's rage over past betrayals, they threaten her intention to finally love her mother 'without reservation.' Will she learn what it means to be truly openhearted before it's too late?" - Back cover.

Democracy awakening: notes on the state of America

By Richardson, Heather Cox

Publishing Date: [2023]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 320.473 RIC

"From historian and author of the popular daily newsletter LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN, a vital narrative that explains how America, once a beacon of democracy, now teeters on the brink of autocracy -- and how we can turn back. In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. The essays soon turned into a newsletter and, spread by word of mouth, its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on its plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America. In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism -- creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation's true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation's future. Richardson's unique talent is to wrangle our giant, meandering, confusing news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to, what the historical roots and precedents are, and what possible paths lie ahead. Writing in her trademark calm prose, she manages to be both realistic and optimistic about the future of democracy. Richardson's easy command of history allows her to pivot effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Goldwater to Mitch McConnell, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus and birth of "movement conservatism." There are many books that tell us what has happened over the last five years. Democracy Awakening explains how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be"--Provided by publisher

Prequel: an American fight against fascism

By Maddow, Rachel

Publishing Date: [2023]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 320.53 MAD

"Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis. Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens' confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule. That effort worked--tongue and groove--alongside an ultra-right paramilitary movement that stockpiled bombs and weapons and trained for mass murder and violent insurrection. At the same time, a handful of extraordinary activists and journalists were tracking the scheme, exposing it even as it was unfolding. In 1941 the U.S. Department of Justice finally made a frontal attack, identifying the key plotters, finding their backers, and prosecuting dozens in federal court. None of it went as planned. While the scheme has been remembered in history--if at all--as the work of fringe players, in reality it involved a large number of some of the country's most influential elected officials. Their interference in law enforcement efforts against the plot is a dark story of the rule of law bending and then breaking under the weight of political intimidation. That failure of the legal system had consequences. The tentacles of that unslain beast have reached forward into our history for decades. But the heroic efforts of the activists, journalists, prosecutors, and regular citizens who sought to expose the insurrectionists also make for a deeply resonant, deeply relevant tale in our own disquieting times"--Dust jacket flap.

Toward democracy: the struggle for self-rule in European and American thought

By Kloppenberg, James T

Publishing Date: [2016]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 321.8 KLO

The history of democracy, in addition to being a tale of social movements and political and economic developments, is also a story of ideas. In Toward Democracy, James T. Kloppenberg explores this story of ideas, focusing on the evolution of democracy in Britain's North American colonies and then in the United States. By concentrating on historical figures whose pivotal texts and framed arguments helped form the concept of democracy, he examines how American ideas and practices both descended and diverged from earlier European, and particularly English, models. Kloppenberg also shows how American thought, in return, profoundly influenced European ideas about democracy-both negatively and positively. Toward Democracy presents the history of democracy from the perspective of those who helped to form its principles. Kloppenberg neither condemns nor endorses these thinkers, but rather offers a fresh look at how these initial democratic ideals have shifted over time. He argues that democracy has remained an ethical model rather than a mere set of institutions, and sheds light on the many failures faced by democracy and its advocates. This discrepancy-between intentions and results-constitutes the tragic irony of democracy. From the beginnings of democracy in the ancient world, through the Enlightenment, and past the French Revolution, James T. Kloppenberg's authoritative work traces the transformation of democracy over centuries, and reveals how nations have repeatedly failed in their attempts to construct democratic societies based on the autonomy and reciprocity they so prized. -- Provided by publisher.

Bringing the war home: the Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and revolutionary violence in the sixties and seventies

By Varon, Jeremy

Publishing Date: 2004

Classification: 300

Call Number: 322.4 VAR

"Why Did Young, Middle-Class Radicals in prosperous democratic societies attempt to overthrow their governments by armed force in the 1960s and 1970s? How did they carry out this program of violence? These questions form the basis of this first comprehensive comparison of left-wing violence in the United States and West Germany. Using a wealth of primary material, ranging from interviews to FBI reports, Jeremy Varon reconstructs the motivations and ideologies of America's Weather Underground and Germany's Red Army Faction. Varon conveys the heated passions of the era -- the moral certainty, the depth of Utopian longing, the sense of danger and despair, and the exhilaration over temporary triumphs. Varon explores the strong similarities between the Weather Underground and the RAF and the reasons for their developing shared values, language, and strategies in spite of their different settings. Addressing the relationship of historical memory to political action, Varon demonstrates how Germany's fascist past influenced the escalating brutality of the West German conflict in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as why left-wing violence dropped sharply in the United States during the 1970s. Bringing the War Home is a fascinating account of how social movements come to embrace violence, how states can respond to radical dissent and forms of terror, how the rational and irrational can combine in political movements, and finally how moral outrage and militancy can play both constructive and destructive roles in efforts at social change. Varon's narrative is compelling and has wide implications for the United State's current "war on terrorism." Book jacket."--Jacket.

The Indian world of George Washington: the first President, the first Americans, and the birth of the nation

By Calloway, Colin G

Publishing Date: [2018]

Classification: 300

Call Number: 323.1197 CAL

"An authoritative, sweeping, and fresh new biography of the nation's first president, Colin G. Calloway's book reveals fully the dimensions and depths of George Washington's relations with the First Americans."--Provided by publisher.

Oath and honor: a memoir and a warning

By Cheney, Liz

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: 300

Call Number: 328.73 CHE

"A gripping first-hand account from inside the halls of Congress as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution--leading to the violent attack on our Capitol on January 6th, 2021--by the House Republican leader who dared to stand up to it. In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor , she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face"--

Pathfinders: extraordinary stories of people like you on the quest for financial independence--and how to join them

By Collins, J. L.

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: 300

Call Number: 332.024 COL

From "The Godfather of FI", a follow-up to his international bestselling finance sensation The Simple Path to Wealth. Pathfinders brings together scores of amazing and insightful real-life stories from real people on a quest to find financial independence--providing practical encouragement and inspiration for anyone who wants to join them.

Going infinite: the rise and fall of a new tycoon

By Lewis, Michael

Publishing Date: 2023

Classification: 300

Call Number: 332.092 LEW

"When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world's youngest billionaire and crypto's Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system. Both psychological portrait and financial roller-coaster ride, Going Infinite is Michael Lewis at the top of his game, tracing the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own--until it all came undone"--

Origins of the national forests: a centennial symposium

Publishing Date: 1992

Classification: 300

Call Number: 333.75

The national forests lay across America's diverse ecological and political geography, their 191 million acres ocuppying about 10 percent of the nation's land base. On the occasion of the centennial of the National Forest System, Origins of the National Forests examines the issues that have confronted the development, management, and use of the national forests since their inception in 1891. The national forests are a major source of wood, water, minerals, forage, animal life and habitat, and wilderness. Yet questions of who controls and who benefits from the resources have posed problems and conflicts from the origins of the Forest Service to the present. Based on a 1991 Forest History Society conference, the essays collected here discuss a range of important topics surrounding our national forests, including the relationship between the federal and state systems that regulate the forests; the privately owned lands within the forests that are governed by federal statutes, state laws, and county ordinances; the ill-defined rights of those who lived on the land long before it was a national forest and were forced off the land; and the effect of early policymaking decisions made within the framework of the emerging Conservation Movement.- (Duke Univ Pr)

Cleveland National Forest

By Newland, James D.

Publishing Date: 2008

Classification: 300

Call Number: 333.75 NEW

On July 1, 1908, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt created the U.S. Forest Service's Cleveland National Forest. Named for pro-forest Pres. Grover Cleveland and currently including over 460,000 acres in the mountainous backcountry of San Diego, Orange, and southwestern Riverside Counties the Cleveland is one of the largest and oldest land-management agencies in the three-county region. During the last century, the dedicated men and women of the Cleveland have worked to establish the administrative systems, build necessary facilities and infrastructure, manage use and users, conserve resources, and protect the forest from the endemic and sometimes large and deadly wildfires, such as the infamous and destructive 2003 Cedar Fire and the October 2007 Southern California firestorms. Today the Cleveland National Forest continues to be a major tourist and outdoor recreation destination for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, as well as for millions of Southern California residents.