Books for Understanding: Scholarship Beyond the Headlines

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Books for Understanding is a free, easy-to-use resource to help you find books on current events. New bibliographies are compiled when a major news story breaks or public debate heats up. For more information, click here.

Iran

The controversial election of June 12 and the subsequent protests (and crackdown) have drawn the world's eyes to Iran. The books on this deep bibliography offer answers to some of the questions about what is driving the political turmoil there.

Go to: • Book List • Press Release

Sample Contents:

In Iran's History:
Resistance to the Shah: Landowners and Ulama in Iran, by Mohammad Gholi

In International Relations:
Iran and the Bomb, by Therese Delpech

In Arts, Literature, and Langauage:
In a Persian Mirror: Images of the West and Westerners in Iranian Fiction, by M.R Ghanoonparvar

Cuba

The 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro's increasing withdrawal from the forefront of power, and a small loosening of U.S. policy restrictions are bringing the Caribbean nation into the headlines. AAUP member presses have long published insightful scholarship on Cuba's history, policies, and culture.

Go to: • Book List • Press Release

Sample Contents:

In Cuba's History:
The Archives of Cuba/Los archivos de Cuba, by
Louis A. Pérez, Jr., and Rebecca Scott

In Castro's Cuba: Economy:
Capitalism, God, and a Good Cigar: Cuba Enters the Twenty-first Century, by Lydia Chávez

In Cuba's Foreign Policy: The U.S.:
That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution, by Lars Schoultz

The Financial Crisis

The extent of the 2008 financial crisis is still not entirely known, but a greater understanding of how and what happened is available today. Scholarship on the history of financial markets and previous panics, economic analyses of financial products and regulatory regimes, and political studies of the intertwining of government and capital offer insight and knowledge in these days of uncertainty.

Go to: • Book List • Press Release

Sample Contents:

In Wall Street & Financial Markets:
Wall Street: A History From Its Beginnings to the Fall of Enron, by Charles R. Geisst

In Financial Panics and Market Crises:
The Great Credit Squeeze by Martin Neil Baily, Douglas W. Elmendorf, and Robert E. Litan

In Market Regulation:
Vicious Cycle: Presidential Decision Making in the American Political Economy, by Constantine J. Spiliotes

New Updates:
Iraq updated 6/29/09
Financial Crisis updated 6/26/09
Same-Sex Marriage updated 6/26/09
Water Rights & Usage updated 6/23/09
China updated 5/4/09

North Korea

North Korea continues its nuclear saber-rattling, putting the new American administration and the international community under pressure.

Go to: • Book List

Political Violence in the U.S.

The murder of a guard at the Holocaust museum, a deadly attack on two soldiers at a recruiting center in Arkansas, and the assassination of Dr. George Tiller are worrying signs of increasing political violence in the United States.

Go to: • Terrorism Book List • Reproductive Rights Book List

States Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

Several states have recently legalized same-sex marriage.

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Red River Rising

Ashley Shelby
2004, Borealis Books/MHSP

The Red River is threatening to overwhelm the dikes of Fargo, as it did in Grand Forks in 1997. Journalist Shelby chronicles the disaster, which saw the evacuation of more than 50,000 residents and a series of devasating fires, as well as telling the story of how the city dealt with a lengthy relief and rebuilding process that changed its face.
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Also of interest will be the "Emergency Management" section of the Hurricane Katrina bibliography.

Tributes to John Hope Franklin

Edited by Beverly Jarrett
University of Missouri Press, 2003

John Hope Franklin, 1915-2009, was a founding scholar of African-American studies. His 1947 work From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans is still considered a core work in the discipline, and he served as an inspiration and mentor to many colleagues and students. Much of his scholarly work was published by university presses, including Harvard, Chicago, LSU, Duke, Oxford, and Missouri. Duke University Press publishes a series with the John Hope Franklin Center. Read more about John Hope Franklin.
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Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady

Edited by Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram
SUNY Press, 2009

In January 2009, the Obamas inaugurate a great historic shift in the United States as its first black First Family. This powerful treasury of messages to Michelle Obama from African American women shines a light on what her role means to many citizens: personally, symbolically, historically, and politically.
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More Books of Note...

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