history / united states / 21st century

"Argues that we live in a country founded on a "value gap"--with white lives valued more than others--that still distorts our politics today"--Provided by publisher.

"For more than forty years, the United States has reached out to China, helping it develop a booming economy and take its place on the world stage, in the belief that there is little to fear--and everything to gain--from China's rise. But what if the Chinese have had a different plan all along?The Hundred-Year Marathon reveals China's secret strategy tosupplant the United States as the world's dominant power, and to do so by 2049, the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. Michael Pillsbury, ... draws on Chinese documents, speeches, and books ... to reveal the roots of this strategy in traditional Chinese statecraft and track how the Chinese are putting it into practice ... Pillsbury shows how American policymakers have been willfully blind to these developments for decades ... [and] calls for the United States to design a ... competitive strategy toward China as it really is ... "--Provided by publisher.

"[An] . . . exploration into the transformative power of female anger and its ability to transcend into a political movement . . . track[ing] the history of female anger as political fuel--from suffragettes marching on the White House to office workers vacating their buildings after Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court--[and] explor[ing] women's anger at both men and other women; anger between ideological allies and foes; the varied ways anger is perceived based on its owner; as well as the history of caricaturing and delegitimizing female anger; and the way women's collective fury has become transformative political fuel . . ."--Publisher provided.

"[The author] offers a . . . history of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders--popularly known as the Kerner Commission. Convened by President Lyndon Johnson after riots in Newark and Detroit left dozens dead and thousands injured, the commission issued a report in 1968 that attributed the unrest to 'white racism' and called for aggressive new programs to end racism and poverty. 'Our nation is moving toward two societies,' they warned, 'one black, and one white--separate and unequal.' Fifty years later, [the author] draws on official records, never-before-seen private papers, and interviews with key players to offer an . . . account of the Kerner Commission's work and its . . . legacies"--Provided by publisher.

"A deeply reported look inside the new conservative movement working to undermine American democracy"--Provided by publisher.

"Longtime social activist Greg Jobin-Leeds joins forces with AgitArte, a collective of artists and organizers, to capture the stories, philosophy, tactics, and art of today's leading social change movements. "When We Fight, We Win!" weaves together interviews with today's most successful activists and artists from across the country and beyond--including Patrisse Cullors-Brignac, Bill McKibben, Clayton Thomas-Muller, Karen Lewis, Favianna Rodriguez, Rea Carey, and Gaby Pacheco, among others"--Provided by publisher.

In 2009, award-winning journalist Rebecca Traister started All the Single Ladies about the twenty-first century phenomenon of the American single woman. It was the year the proportion of American women who were married dropped below fifty percent; and the median age of first marriages, which had remained between twenty and twenty-two years old for nearly a century (1890?1980), had risen dramatically to twenty-seven. But over the course of her vast research and more than a hundred interviews with academics and social scientists and prominent single women, Traister discovered a startling truth: the phenomenon of the single woman in America is not a new one. And historically, when women were given options beyond early heterosexual marriage, the results were massive social change?temperance, abolition, secondary education, and more. Today, only twenty percent of Americans are married by age twenty-nine, compared to nearly sixty percent in 1960.

"Answering the Call is an extraordinary eyewitness account from an unsung hero of the battle for racial equality in America-a battle that, far from ending with the great victories of the civil rights era, saw some of its signal achievements in the desegregation fights of the 1970s and its most notable setbacks in the affirmative action debates that continue into the present in Ferguson, Baltimore, and beyond. Judge Nathaniel R. Jones's pathbreaking career was forged in the 1960s: as the first African American assistant U.S. attorney in Ohio; as assistant general counsel of the Kerner Commission; and, beginning in 1969, as general counsel of the NAACP. In that latter role, Jones coordinated attacks against Northern school segregation-a vital, divisive, and poorly understood chapter in the movement for equality-twice arguing in the pivotal U.S. Supreme Court case Bradley v. Milliken, which addressed school desegregation in Detroit. He also led the national response to the attacks against affirmative action, spearheading and arguing many of the signal legal cases of that effort. Judge Jones's story is an essential corrective to the idea of a post-racial America--his voice and his testimony offering enduring evidence of the unfinished work of ending Jim Crow's legacy. "--.

"An unprecedented high-level master narrative of America's intelligence wars, from the only person ever to helm both the CIA and the NSA, at a time of heinous new threats and momentous change For General Michael Hayden, playing to the edge means playing so close to the line that you get chalk dust on your cleats. Otherwise, by playing back, you may protect yourself, but you will be less successful in protecting America. "Play to the edge" was Hayden's guiding principle when he ran the National Security Agency, and it remained so when he ran the CIA. In his view, many shortsighted and uninformed people are quick to criticize, and this book will give them much to chew on but little easy comfort. It is an unapologetic insider's look told from the perspective of the people who faced awesome responsibilities head on, in the moment. How did American intelligence respond to terrorism, a major war, and the most sweeping technological revolution in the last five hundred years? What was the NSA before 9/11 and how did it change in its aftermath? Why did the NSA begin the controversial terrorist surveillance program that included the acquisition of domestic phone records? What else was set in motion during this period that formed the backdrop for the infamous Snowden revelations in 2013? "--.

In June 2015, the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law in all fifty states in a decision as groundbreaking as Roe v Wade and Brown v Board of Education. Through insider accounts and access to key players, this definitive account reveals the dramatic and previously unreported events behind Obergefell v Hodges and the lives at its center. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had to provide married gay couples all the benefits offered to straight couples. Jim Obergefell and John Hodges--who was dying from ALS--flew to Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal. But back home, Ohio refused to recognize their union, or even list Jim's name on John's death certificate. Then they met Al Gerhardstein, a courageous attorney who had spent nearly three decades advocating for civil rights and who now saw an opening for the cause that few others had before him.