NCW Libraries

By legitimizing bigotry and redefining so-called American values, a revived Klan in the 1920s left a toxic legacy that demands reexamination today. Boasting 4 to 6 million members, the reassembled Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s dramatically challenged our preconceptions of hooded Klansmen, who through violence and lynching had established a Jim Crow racial hierarchy in the 1870s South. Responding to the "emergency" posed by the flood of immigrant "hordes"-Pope-worshipping...

"Grann revisits a ... series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and ... new evidence, the book [outlines the steps that reveal] a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is [an] ... indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward American Indians that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long"--Amazon.com.

Many nations define themselves in terms of territory or people. China defines itself in terms of history. Taking into account the country's voluminous tradition of history writing, John Keay has composed an illuminating overview of the nation's complex and vivid past. Keay's history examines 5,000 years in China, from the time of the Three Dynasties through Chairman Mao and the current economic transformation of the country.

"With over 19 million copies in print and a remarkable record of #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestsellers, Bill O'Reilly's Killing series is the most popular series of narrative histories in the world. Killing the Witches revisits one of the most frightening and inexplicable episodes in American history: the events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. What began as a mysterious affliction of...

"A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution-from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state," political violence, and social inequality-and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation. For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike--either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told,...

"The current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America, Meacham shows us how what Lincoln called the "better angels of our nature" have won the day. Painting surprising portraits of Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, and others, and illuminating the courage of such influential citizen activists...

Perhaps the most important and influential source of information about the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony, Bradford's landmark account was written between 1630 and 1647. In it he vividly documents the Pilgrims' story -- from their first stop, Holland, and the harrowing journey aboard the "Mayflower" to the first harsh winter in the Colony and the life-sustaining aid received from Native Americans.

In images and narratives, Native River recreates the untamed Mid-Columbia--the river as it once was, before the building of seven major dams. Featuring a wealth of illustrations, maps, and photographs, many never before published, this finely crafted book focuses on the 350-mile reach of the middle Columbia River from Priest Rapids in south-central Washington to the U.S. Canadian border. William Layman affords each segment of this waterway with its...

What causes people to forsake their country and take arms against it? George Washington in the 1770s stood at the apex of Virginia society. Benjamin Franklin was more successful still, having risen from humble origins to world fame. John Adams revered the law. Yet all three men became rebels against the British Empire that fostered their success. Others in the same circle of family and friends chose differently-- and soon heard themselves denounced...