New Books & DVDs: What's New at the Library

"Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with illegals and their descendants, as well as archival research in more than a dozen countries, Shaun Walker brings the illegals to life in a page-turning tour-de-force that takes us into the heart of the KGB's most secretive program. A riveting spy drama peopled with richly drawn characters, The Illegals also uncovers a hidden thread in the story of Russia itself. As Putin extols Soviet achievements and the KGB's espionage prowess, and Moscow continues to infiltrate illegals across the globe, this timely narrative shines new light on the long arc of the Soviet experiment, its messy aftermath, and its influence on our world at large"-- Provided by publisher.

"This book...provides principals with the resources and lesson plans they need to incorporate school law into their professional development program. As a result, their teachers will get their information about school law from a reliable source - not from the rumors, fears and myths of the teachers' lounge. By empowering their teachers with legal knowledge, principals and teachers will avoid lawsuits by becoming partners in the practice of preventive law."-- Provided by publisher.

"Drawing on long-forgotten sources found in the basements of county courthouses across the nation, Penningroth reveals that African Americans, far from being ignorant about law until the middle of the twentieth century, have thought about, talked about, and used it going as far back as even the era of slavery. They dealt constantly with the laws of property, contract, inheritance, marriage and divorce, of associations (like churches and businesses and activist groups), and more. Penningroth's narrative, which stretches from the last decades of slavery to the 1970s, partly traces the history of his own family. Challenging accepted understandings of Black history framed by relations with white people, he puts Black people at the center of the story--their loves and anger and loneliness, their efforts to stay afloat, their mistakes and embarrassments, their fights, their ideas, their hopes and disappointments, in all their messy humanness. Before the Movement is an account of Black legal lives that looks beyond the Constitution and the criminal justice system to recover a rich, broader vision of Black life--a vision allied with, yet distinct from, "the freedom struggle." -provided by publisher

This is a book about the idea of Western progress, told through a series of conversations about Chinese science. In telling their stories here, the author shows how Chinese science shaped a signature legacy of the European Enlightenment: the idea of Western progress. By focusing on the orphans of the Enlightenment, those who sought to vindicate ancient wisdom as others left it behind, the author reveals that ideas about the uniqueness of the West - and the mystery, inscrutability, or otherness of the East - did not follow from the Enlightenment idea of progress, but had to be invented. The orphans of the Enlightenment believed that the knowledge of the past and the East still had value for modern Europe, and their efforts to recover and explain it, in turn, uncover an unknown story of European engagement with Chinese science. -- Adapted from publisher's description.

"The Silver Women argues that Black West Indian women made the canal construction possible by providing the indispensable everyday labor of social reproduction. West Indian women built a provisioning economy that fed, housed, and cared for the segregated Black West Indian women. They did not hold contracts and had little access to official services and wages. From this position, they found ways to skirt, and at times subvert, the legal, moral, and economic parameters imperial authorities sought to impose on the racialized migrant workforce. West Indian women developed important strategies of claims-making, kinship, community building, and market adaptation that helped them navigate the contradictions and violence of U.S. empire. The book is thus a history of Black West Indian women's labor of social reproduction as integral to U.S. imperial infrastructure, the global Caribbean diaspora, and women's own survival"-- Provided by publisher.

"Inked is a social history of common soldiers of the Song dynasty, most of whom would have been recognized by their tattooed bodies. Overlooked in the historical record, tattoos were an indelible aspect of the Song world, and their ubiquity was tied to the rise of the penal-military complex, a vast system for social control, warfare, and labor. Although much has been written about the institutional, strategic, and political aspects of the history of the Song and its military, this book is a first-of-its-kind investigation into the lives of the people who fought for the state. Elad Alyagon examines the army as a meeting place between marginalized social groups and elites. In the process, he shows the military to be a space where a new criminalized lower class was molded in a constant struggle between common soldiers and the agents of the Song state. For the millions of people caught in the orbit of this system-the tattooed soldiers, their families, and their neighbors-the Song period was no age of benevolence, but one of servitude, violence, and resistance. Inked is their story"-- Provided by publisher.

"Economic sanctions dominate the landscape of world politics today. First developed in the early twentieth century as a way to use the flows of globalization to defend liberal internationalism, their continuing appeal is that they function as an alternative to war. This view, however, ignores the dark paradox at their core: designed to prevent war, economic sanctions are modeled on devastating techniques of warfare. Tracing the use of economic sanctions from the blockades of World War I to the policing of colonial empires and the interwar confrontation with fascism, Nicholas Mulder combines extensive archival research with political, economic, legal, and military history to reveal how a coercive wartime tool was adopted as an instrument of peacekeeping by the League of Nations. This timely study casts an overdue light on why sanctions are widely considered a form of war, and why their unintended consequences are so tremendous."--Provided by publisher.

"A groundbreaking history of fengshui's roles in public life and law during China's last imperial dynasty. Today the term fengshui, which literally means 'wind and water,' is recognized around the world. Yet few know exactly what it means, let alone its fascinating history. In 'Laws of the Land,' Tristan Brown tells the story of the important roles-especially legal ones-played by fengshui in Chinese society during China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu Qing (1644-1912). Employing archives from Mainland China and Taiwan that have only recently become available, this is the first book to document fengshui's invocations in Chinese law during the Qing dynasty." - Provided by publisher

"Every beautiful book Moreau designed contains an embedded story of hidden violence. Sara Johnson's arresting investigation of race and knowledge in the revolutionary Atlantic surrounds Moreau with the African-descended people he worked so hard to erase, immersing him in a vibrant community of language innovators, forgers of kinship networks, and world travelers who strove to create their own social and political lives. Built from archival fragments, creative speculation, and audacious intellectual courage, Encyclopédie noire is a communal biography of the women and men who made Moreau's world"-- Provided by publisher.

"In this wide-ranging history, Andrew Seaton examines the full story of the NHS. He traces how the service has changed and adapted, bringing together the experiences of patients, staff from Britain and abroad, and the service's wider supporters and opponents. He explains not only why it survived the neoliberalism of the late twentieth century but also how it became a key marker of national identity. Seaton emphasizes the resilience of the NHS--perpetually "in crisis" and yet perennially enduring--as well as the political values it embodies and the work of those who have tirelessly kept it afloat."-- From publisher's website.

"In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk & Robot series gives us hope for the future. It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They're going to need to ask it a lot. Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?"-- Provided by publisher.

"A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is a story of kindness and love from one of the foremost practitioners of hopeful SF. After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home. They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe. Becky Chambers's new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?"-- Provided by publisher

"Based on 25 years of research, this book re-centers hockey's story toward a North Atlantic panorama that unfolded over the last two centuries amid currents of global capitalism. Rather than assume the domination of one Canadian version of hockey, this project traces the history of convergence, divergence and reconvergence of a range of hockeys, via stories of people, organizations, venues, contests, equipment, coaching strategies, marketing schemes, and political campaigns.In The Coolest Game, hockey is not just a mirror of developing economic-political-cultural systems. Instead, it is an active ingredient in making those systems"-- Provided by publisher.

"In Blood, Flowers Bloom tells the overlapping stories of US veteran Marty Connor, Japanese imperial Naval captain turned Buddhist monk Tsunezo Wachi, and Masataka Shiokawa, the resilient son of a Japanese soldier killed in battle at Okinawa. These three men could have lived and died as enemies-that was their historical prerogative. Instead, they banded together as uneasy allies, and then eventual friends, in their shared mission to return artifacts taken by US soldiers to their rightful owners, giving Japanese families a new opportunity for closure and healing the wounds inflicted by loss of loved ones-both physically and spiritually"-- Provided by publisher.

"Ojibwe journalist Mary Pember's mother was forced to attend one of these institutions--a seminary in Wisconsin, and the impacts of her experience have cast a pall over Mary's own childhood, and her relationship with her mother. Highlighting both her mother's experience and the experiences of countless other students at such schools, their families, and their children, Medicine River paints a stark portrait of communities still reckoning with the legacy of acculturation that has affected generations of Native communities. Through searing interviews and assiduous historical reporting, Pember traces the evolution and continued rebirth of a culture whose country has been seemingly intent upon destroying it"-- Provided by publisher.

"Are there microchips in vaccines? Do cellphones cause cancer? Is the Food and Drug Administration hiding a secret cure for cancer? More than half of Americans believe at least one conspiracy theory regarding the healthcare system, and this misinformation reflects the inherent incompatibility of managing public welfare through a system designed to generate profit. This issue of The Reference Shelf looks at the origin and impact of healthcare conspiracies in America."-- Amazon.com.

"Prince is beloved by millions of fans worldwide, yet most don't recognize the spiritual messages coded within his work, nor understand the connections between Prince's own religious devotion and the sexualized messages of his music. For anyone who loves Prince and is curious about what his music means, this book is an essential spiritual guide"-- Provided by publisher.

"Through a series of interview-based profiles of influential and innovative contemporary LGBTQ game-makers and activists, The Queer Games Avant-Garde explores the queer gaming world as an artistic and social movement. Bonnie Ruberg shows us how members of what they call the 'queer games avant-garde'--a contemporary vanguard leading video games in more experimental and markedly queer directions--are reimagining video games as a medium for the expression of non-heteronormative desire and counter-hegemonic world-building. The volume foregrounds the voices of queer game-makers as they speak about their influences, their goals, and the challenges they face, as well as the meanings, messages, and even problems with the games they've created. Ruberg's interviews reveal how this new critical mass of game-makers are redefining the medium by placing queerness at the front and center of video games." - provided by publisher

"This is a monumental work of scholarship that will fundamentally change the way we think of slavery and racism, the rise of universal humanism, and the role of social democracy in staving off extremism. At once comprehensive and accessible, America, América shows that centuries of bloodshed and diplomacy not only helped shape the political identities of the United States and Latin America but also the laws, institutions, and ideals that govern the modern world. A culmination of a decades-long engagement with hemispheric history, drawing on a vast array of sources, and told with authority and flair, this is a genuinely new history of the New World"-- Provided by publisher.

"As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena"--Provided by publisher.

"A brilliantly conceived and provocative work from an award-winning historian that examines how seven twentieth-century social movements transformed America.
How do social movements arise, wield power, and decline? Renowned scholar Linda Gordon investigates these questions in a groundbreaking work, narrating the stories of many of America's most influential twentieth-century social movements. Separately and together, these seven chapters animate American history, reminding us of the power of collective activism."-- Publisher description

"When a brutal blast of cold hits Cincinnati, the public library transforms from a safe haven for the homeless into a potential war zone. An eye-opening exploration of the basic values of humanity plays out as the cold rages outside." -provided by publisher

A former tennis prodigy turned coach and a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak, Tashi's strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against the washed-up Patrick, his former best friend, and Tashi's former boyfriend. As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself, what will it cost to win?

Wicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz, a young woman, misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, who has yet to discover her true power, and Glinda, a popular young woman, gilded by privilege and ambition, who has yet to discover her true heart. The two meet as students at Shiz University in the fantastical Land of Oz and forge an unlikely but profound friendship. Following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads, and their lives take very different paths.