Fiction-Stories History

Tears of Amber

In twentieth-century Europe, the two great wars not only wrote the unfolding of history but also dramatically altered the landscape of life. This story tells the tale of how two peaceful families survived the Second World War and became intertwined by fate. Neither German family was particularly nationalistic. Sure, they did not stand up against oppression and slavery, but neither did they revel in it. Both families were ineluctably pulled into the ethnic and nationalist…

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Healthcare History HIV/AIDS Science Society

The Origins of AIDS

Understanding the origins of AIDS is important for at least three reasons. First, HIV/AIDS is an important biomedical global disease that is still not conquered. Second, much cultural rhetoric due to stigma exists in society about this disease, and blame for the AIDS pandemic have been wrongfully placed at the feet of many oppressed groups. Third, contemporary events with coronavirus have shown that humans aren’t as safe from disease and pandemic as we might imagine,…

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Fiction-Stories History

Gerta: A Novel by Kateřina Tučková

This novel, translated from the Czech language, describes the life of Germans in the Czech region of Europe before, during, and after World War II. It does not paint a pretty picture. Some Germans supported the rise of Adolf Hitler and paid a moral price for the rest of their lives. Others – especially women and children – were not directly involved in the political and war efforts, but were still forced on a death…

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History

The Death of Camus by Giovanni Catelli

Albert Camus was a towering intellectual figure during and after the Second World War in France. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature and tried to stand for truth in an era of ideology. However, on January 4, 1960, he tragically died in his prime in a car wreck while traveling back to Paris. This book tries to make sense of this tragedy, approximately fifty years after. Catelli excels at setting up the circumstantial case…

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History Religion-Philosophy

The Rebel by Albert Camus

Albert Camus is known mostly for his novels which investigate human existence – that is, existentialism as a philosophy. His characters question whether there is meaning in human life or not at all (nihilism). This work, however, is not a work of fiction but of non-fiction. In it, Camus expounds on the nature of human rebellion against the present state of affairs – that is, against the meaninglessness of life. He examines this rebellious act…

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Fiction-Stories History

Le Morte d’Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table

King Arthur’s mythic Round Table – with Queen Gwynevere, Sir Launcelot, and the famous sword Excalibur – resounds through England’s history. They might be fable, or they might have a historical root. Either way, they make for a good telling and national myth. Sir Thomas Malory recorded these tales in book form in the late fifteenth century, and Keith Baines adapted these for modern languages in the mid-twentieth century. Their storytelling power remains full of…

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Biography-Memoir History Leadership Politics

Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin

In this work, Goodwin charts the lives of four influential US Presidents – Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. Having written leading biographies previously of each of these, she combines her insights to profile the character of leadership, at least in an American form. She distills prior deep study of these presidents into an interwoven narrative that highlights how their personal narratives enabled them to meet the challenges of their times…

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History Software-Technology

Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present

Many people hold one of two views of technology and culture. Some think that technology determines how society evolve. Others contend that human affairs express themselves in the technologies they produce. Misa contends that technology and culture evolve together in a mixed group; neither determine the other. He makes this case by examining this evolution, as his title promises, from the days of Leonardo until the present. Generally, Misa sees the history of technology moving…

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Biography-Memoir Healthcare History Science

Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher

The surgery of organ transplantation has taken off in the past fifty years. However, the ability to apply these gains to the nervous system has lagged behind due to the limitations of nerve regeneration. As told in this book, during this time, Robert White, MD/PhD, sought to pioneer head transplantation onto a new body. He was successful in transplanting a monkey’s head onto another’s body. However, he retired and died before his dream could come…

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History Society

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

“You should read this.” Those simple words ran across my mind as I finished page 126 of this wonderful book. I am no political scientist though I follow current events tightly. This book, written in 2017 in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump, reminds us how fragile history can be. By looking at the challenges of the present, it looks at how democracy was subverted by tyranny in the twentieth century. Snyder provides…

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