New Books & DVDs: Social Science

"In 1789, the federal government described in the recently ratified U.S. Constitution came into being. Drawing on hundreds of sources to paint a vivid portrait of the new nation, veteran journalist Thomas B. Allen tells the long-hidden history of how George Washington and the other Founders set this new federal government into motion"-- Provided by publisher.

The Duttons face a new set of challenges in the early 20th century, including the rise of Western expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.

In this workplace comedy from writer/executive producer/star Quinta Brunson and executive producers Justin Halpern & Patrick Schumacker, a group of teachers is brought together in a Philadelphia public school, because they love teaching. Though outnumbered and underfunded, they love what they do even if they don't love the school district's less-than-stellar attitude toward educating children.

The teachers are back at Willard R. Abbott Public School for development week, a time to prepare for the upcoming year before the students first day of school.

"A brilliant synthesis of African and African-American history that shows how slavery differed in different regions of the country, and how the Africans and their descendants influenced the culture, commerce, and laws of the early United States" -- Provided by publisher.

From award-winning director Ben Affleck, it reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike's fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand.

Intertwined are the mission of PAIN, an advocacy group focused on the Sackler family's role in the opioid crisis, with Nan Goldin's journey through New York City's underground arts scene, addiction, and activism. Goldin's photographs and reflections on memory and trauma underscore her solidarity with marginalized communities, making for a powerful narrative of art, activism, and survival.

"This book is a comprehensive and timely source for studying depictions in film of enslaved African Americans and slavery from the Antebellum Period to Emancipation"-- Provided by publisher.

The newly revised second edition of this concise, engaging, and unorthodox history of America's West has been updated to incorporate new research, including recent scholarship on Native American lives and cultures.

"From presidential to congressional, state, and local tickets, this book explains the 2020 elections through more than 100 full-color maps unleashing the illustrative power of cartography. A mix of geographers, political scientists, and historians provide a comprehensive examination of the elections from the primary campaigns to the final results"-- Provided by publisher.

The Barbies are perfect beings in a perfect place until stereotypical Barbie's owner in the real world is depressed. Weird Barbie suggests she go to the real world and correct the problem. Ken tags along and discovers that men are the leaders there, and he brings back patriarchy to Barbieland. Now no one is happy and the mess must be sorted.

A hit man from the Midwest moves to Los Angeles and gets caught up in the city's theater arts scene.

"Combining firsthand observation with thoughtful analysis and research culled from sociology, cognitive psychology, biology, economics, and history, this thought-provoking book provides a clear-eyed look at contemporary Greek life on US college and university campuses. As higher education's most enduring and pervasive single-sex organizations, historically white fraternities and sororities emerge as powerful social influencers that privilege the same-sex platonic friend over other forms of relationship, at their best offering dynamic new relational possibilities along with social and economic security. At their worst, however, they exacerbate campus hookup culture, create fictive family bonds that hoard social and economic opportunity, and distort some of society's most foundational relationship categories, including friend, romantic partner, and family"-- Provided by publisher.

"This comprehensive one-stop resource examines the history, development, and present state of affairs concerning free speech issues on college campuses, including fair and impartial representations of conservative and liberal perspectives"-- Provided by publisher.

A decades-spanning tale of love and resilience and of one woman's journey to freedom. Celie faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds remarkable strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.

"As the world becomes increasingly globalized, a shared understanding of the various aspects of criminal justice becomes imperative. Drawing from countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and the Western Hemisphere, this book is a go-to reference in comparative criminal justice studies"-- Provided by publisher.

"Provides practical, real-life suggestions and interventions to help therapists, supervisors, and trainees increase in their competence and confidence in working with transgender and gender-expansive clients"-- Provided by publisher.

Amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, Joshua, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war and mankind itself.

A man falls from a mountain peak to his death. The detective in charge of the investigation, Hae-Joon, comes to meet the dead man's wife Seo-Rae. When she becomes a suspect, Hae-Joon finds himself slowly developing an interest in her.

"This book follows renowned archaeologist Richard Freund's journey through some of the most fascinating archaeological sites of human history-including the mysterious Atlantis, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls caves, and the long-buried Holocaust camp Sobibor. Each chapter takes readers through a different archaeological site"-- Provided by publisher.

An all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted, and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in.

"This fascinating reference explores the depiction of the LGBTQIA+ community in over 200 works from the past fifty years of American film history. It will not only educate and inform, but also help guide readers to see injustice more clearly and to inspire art that is both inclusive and thoughtful"-- Provided by publisher.

"This work provides an encyclopedic overview of the field of parapsychology, including prominent researchers, seminal studies, topics, figures, and more. It also includes a chapter on the intersection of parapsychology and pop culture to highlight the many, nuanced ways that the psychical is intertwined into our culture"-- Provided by publisher.

Legendary director Jerzy Skolimowski created one of his freest and most visually inventive films yet with this story of a gray donkey named EO. After being removed from an itinerant circus, EO begins a trek across the countryside, experiencing cruelty and kindness from a cast of characters including an Italian countess and a Polish soccer team.

"This book investigates and analyzes the debates around and responses to mass shootings, covering the prevention, preparation, response and recovery of mass shootings as well as gun proposals introduced and raised following each incident"-- Provided by publisher.

Young Sammy Fabelman falls in love with movies after his parents take him to see The Greatest Show on Earth. Armed with a camera, Sammy starts to make his films at home, much to the delight of his supportive mother.

"Under Xi Jinping, China has embarked into more aggressive gray zone tactics and operations, especially in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. While this new assertiveness has intensified the likelihood of military crises, especially with the United States, Xi has been keen to remain under the threshold of war. Can this strategy succeed?"-- Provided by publisher.

The Coen Brothers' Best Picture Oscar Nominee transforms into television drama. It features a new "true crime" story and new characters, all chilled in the trademark dry wit, murderous mayhem and "Minnesota nice" of the original classic film.

"In this powerful and insightful book, Andrea D. Lyon explicates what is wrong with the criminal justice system through clients' stories and historical perspective, and makes the compelling case for the need for reform at the center of the system; not just its edges. Lyon suggests that we need someone who represents the poor and disenfranchised. Someone who has a seat at the table for any discussions of policy, funding, or priorities in the administration of justice. The United States needs a Defender General"-- Provided by publisher.

The riveting exploration of rebellion, memory, and sisterhood reconstructs the story of Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters, unpacking a complex family history through intimate interviews and artful reenactments to examine how the Tunisian woman's two eldest were radicalized by Islamic extremists.

A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in The French Dispatch.

On October 6th, 1973, under cover of darkness, on Israel's holiest day and during the month of Ramadan, the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan begin a surprise attack on the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. Outnumbered and outgunned, Israel's only female Prime Minister, Golda Meir, confronts the immediate, clear, and present danger of a ticking timebomb that she hoped never to face. Surrounded, isolated, and frustrated by the infighting of her all-male cabinet, with little hope of rescue, one woman is in a race against time to save millions of lives on both sides of the conflict.

A classic tale is reborn through the inspired imagination of cinematic dream-weaver Guillermo del Toro, directing alongside Mark Gustafson.

Multiple Emmy Award winner Jean Smart stars as a legendary Las Vegas comedian who is forced to hire an ambitious young writer. These two talented comedic voices from different generations form an unlikely bond in this new comedy from "Broad City" alums Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky and Emmy Award winning executive producer Michael Schur.

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them a damaged, brainy troublemaker, and with the school's head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.

Daredevil archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary dial that can change the course of history. Accompanied by his goddaughter, he soon finds himself squaring off against Jürgen Voller, a former Nazi who works for NASA.

"This book explores how pop culture is used in academic libraries for collections, instruction, and programming. It also describes the foundational basis for implementing pop culture and discusses how it promotes conversations between librarians and the students, making not only the information relatable, but the library staff, as well"-- Provided by publisher.

This collection of 80 dramatic firsthand writings by Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and others brings to life the struggle for racial justice from the Civil War to World War.

"A radical reinterpretation of early American history from a native point of view, centered on the Odawa tribe of Northern Michigan"-- Provided by publisher.

On the brink of losing her childhood home, Maddie discovers an intriguing job listing: wealthy helicopter parents looking for someone to "date" their introverted nineteen-year-old son, Percy, before he leaves for college. To her surprise, Maddie soon discovers the awkward Percy is no sure thing.

"This book introduces readers to the study of gangs, including key concepts and findings, competing theoretical approaches, emerging and persistent issues and questions, and strategies for addressing gangs"-- Provided by publisher.

Biographical book on how an ordinary Mongolian boy obtained a Harvard education in the USA. The author is a graduate of Dickinson State University.

The story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb.

Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.

Portable Prisons is an exploration of the electronic monitoring of offenders based on an ethnographic case study from Scotland. Through interviews and observations, Gacek demonstrates this technology is representative of the carceral state's overreaching punitive capabilities, rejecting the idea that "soft" punishment is related to decarceration.

"Examines the McGirt v. Oklahoma case from historical and legal perspectives, placing the case within the historical context from which it derived, the legal context that took the case to the Supreme Court, and the legal and political implications of the decision." Provided by publisher.

"This book answers readers' questions about rape and dating violence, including how to identify it, its causes, and its effects"-- Provided by publisher.

"A fascinating and unprecedented ethnography of animal sanctuaries in the United States"-- Provided by publisher.

Twenty-five years after the original series of murders in Woodsboro, a new killer emerges, and Sidney Prescott must return to uncover the truth with Gale Weathers and ex-sheriff Dewey Riley.

"When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Serhiy Zhadan took to social media to coordinate a network of resistance workers and send messages of courage to his fellow Ukrainians. What began as a local organizing effort exploded onto the international stage as readers around the globe looked to Zhadan as a key eyewitness documenting Russian atrocities."--Publisher's website.

"This book looks at how the original Star Trek became a cultural phenomenon, generating numerous spin-offs and feature films and inspiring multiple series, films, books, etc. In addition to the show's creation and its place in science fiction, the author looks at the series through the prisms of American political history, technology, and fandom"--Publisher's description

"Drawing on an array of approaches-biographical, ecological and environmental, literary and political-Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist in the Arena analyzes different elements of this strenuous man's manifold encounters with the Great Outdoors"--

This biography traces Roosevelt's personal religious odyssey from youthful faith and pious devotion to a sincere but more detached adult faith. Based in large part on personal correspondence and unpublished archival materials, this book offers a new interpretation of an extremely significant historical figure.

"Theodore Roosevelt and His Library at Sagamore Hill explores Roosevelt's passion for reading, the role that reading books played in his political career, and an overview of the history of his personal library complete with photographs of the library as it still exists at Sagamore Hill"-- Provided by publisher.

"Theodore Roosevelt on Books and Reading brings together for the first time Roosevelt's writings about his experiences as a reader and collector of books, his scholarly essays about literature and literary history, and his exuberant reviews of some of the books that he especially liked"-- Provided by publisher.

"In 1863, after the end of the US-Dakota War, a group of white men in Mankato, Minnesota, formed a secret society, pledging to expel the Ho-Chunk people from the nearby Blue Earth reservation with the goal of claiming for themselves some of the richest farmland in the world." -- Page 4 of cover

"This single-volume encyclopedia covers the large scope of Viking conflicts, invasions, and raids throughout history, using thematic essays and A-Z entries to show how their story has unfolded over time"-- Provided by publisher.

"Accompanied by his dog Groucho, the author made a seven-month journey canoeing from the headwaters of the Missouri River on the Montana-Idaho border to its confluence with the Mississippi River and then on to the delta in the Gulf of Mexico. The book records his experience of wind and water while traveling in twelve states and various sights and short side trips long the route, including unexpected help from many strangers and contacts with friends and family. Spitzer is recognized as being the first person to complete this lengthy journey. The journal also includes the events of a short shakedown paddle on the Little Missouri River in the author's home state of North Dakota"-- Provided by publisher.

"From renowned comedy journalist and historian Kliph Nesteroff comes the underappreciated story of Native Americans and comedy"-- Provided by publisher.

Stuck in their antiquated ways, a group of age-old vampire flat mates struggle to adjust to 21st century customs, like paying rent, sharing household chores, and getting expressly invited into nightclubs.

Season Two follows various hotel guests over a week, but with each passing day, a darker side of the picture-perfect travelers, hotel employees, and idyllic locale emerges.

"This book presents possible future scenarios in wildlife and animal tourism. It offers critically-imagined futures in order to encourage readers to reflect on the possibility of shaping a better future. It will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners in wildlife tourism, environmental studies, sustainability and conservation"-- Provided by publisher.

Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force, a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen.

Based on the book series by Edo Van Belkom, Wolf Pack follows a teenage boy and girl whose lives are changed forever when a California wildfire awakens a terrifying supernatural creature and drives it to attack a highway traffic jam beneath the burning hills. Wounded in the chaos, the boy and girl are inexplicably drawn to each other and to two other teenagers who were adopted sixteen years earlier by a park ranger after another mysterious wildfire. As the full moon rises, all four teens come together to unravel the secret that connects them the bite and blood of a werewolf.

Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the jewel in the Roald Dahl crown and one of the best-selling children's books of all time, "Wonka" tells the wondrous story of how the world's greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today.

A wildly talented high school girl soccer team becomes the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the Canadian wilderness.