Zelda Popkin | The Life and Times of an American Jewish Woman Writer by Jeremy D. Popkin tells an amazing story. Zelda Popkin’s adventurous life could have made her the protagonist of one of her own novels. In his brilliant telling of the story of her life, her historian grandson, Jeremy D. Popkin, has made a singular contribution to the history of American Jewish women in the twentieth century.
Searching for Peace | A Memoir of Israel by Ehud Olmert is the compelling memoir of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert who almost made peace with the Palestinians. The book offers a riveting political story and an unparalleled window into Israeli history, peacemaking, politics, U.S.-Israel relations, and the future of the Middle East. Olmert wrote the book almost entirely from inside a prison cell after being convicted of bribery charges in 2014.
The Snatch Racket | The Kidnapping Epidemic That Terrorized 1930s America by Carolyn Cox provides a view of the prevalence of child kidnappings during the Great Depression. Although the 1932 kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby was a worldwide sensation, it was only one of an estimated three thousand ransom kidnappings that occurred in the United States that year. The epidemic hit America during the Great Depression and the last days of Prohibition as criminal gangs turned kidnapping into the highly lucrative “snatch racket.”
Chicago’s Great Fire | The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City by Carl Smith
Between October 8–10, 1871, much of the city of Chicago was destroyed by one of the most legendary urban fires in history. Incorporated as a city in 1837, Chicago had grown at a breathtaking pace in barely three decades, from just over 4,000 in 1840 to greater than 330,000 at the time of the fire.
Engaging China | Fifty Years of Sino-American Relations by Anne F. Thurston explores the importance of the relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China which has only grown since Richard Nixon’s epochal visit in 1972. By the early twenty-first century, when the rise of China had become an inescapable fact, most American policy makers and experts saw bilateral ties with China as the most consequential foreign-relations priority for the United States.
To Repair a Broken World | The Life of Henrietta Szold, Founder of Hadassah, introduces a new generation to a remarkable leader who fought for women’s rights and the poor. Author Dvora Hacohen is an Israeli historian and professor in the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at the Bar-Ilan University in Israel.
The Ever-Changing Past | Why All History is Revisionist History by James M. Banner, Jr. is an example of an experienced, multi-faceted historian showing how revisionist history is at the heart of creating historical knowledge. Banner shows why historical knowledge is unlikely ever to be unchanging, why history as a branch of knowledge is always a search for meaning and a constant source of argument.
The Kennedys in the World | How Jack, Bobby, and Ted Remade America’s Empire by Lawrence J. Haas tells a rich, fascinating, and consequential story about Jack, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy. From an early age, the brothers developed a deep understanding of the different peoples, cultures, and ideologies around the world; a keen appreciation for the challenges that such differences created for the United States; and a strong desire to reshape America’s response to them.
A Raid on the Red Sea | The Israeli Capture of the Karine A by Amos Gilboa is the thrilling, real-life tale of illegal gun-running in the Middle East. In this firsthand account, Amos Gilboa gives the harrowing details of the secret close-working relations between Israeli and American intelligence in the seizure of the Karine A ship, the most successful Israeli intelligence operation since the legendary Entebbe hostage rescue.
Ghost Flames | Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950-1953 by Charles J. Hanley provides eyewitness accounts of the Korean War from the individuals who experienced it firsthand. A powerful, character-driven narrative of the Korean War from the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who helped uncover some of its longest-held and darkest secrets. The war that broke out in Korea on a Sunday morning seventy years ago has come to be recognized as a critical turning point in modern history — as the first great clash of arms of the Cold War.
