History

Women : our story

305.409 /Women
History, Nonfiction

Packed full of evocative images, this gloriously illustrated book reveals the key events in women's history--from early matriarchal societies through women's suffrage, the Suffragette movement, 20th-century feminism, and gender politics, to recent movements such as #MeToo and International Women's Day--and the key role women have had in shaping our past. Learn about the everyday lives of women through the ages as well as the big names of women's history--powerful, inspirational, and trailblazing women such as Cleopatra, Florence Nightingale, Emmeline Pankhurst, Eva Peron, and Rosa Parks--and discover the unsung contributions of lesser-known women who have changed the world, and the "forgotten" events of women's history. Placing women firmly center stage, Women: Our Story shows women where they came from, and in celebrating the achievements of women of the past, offers positive role models for women of today.

Added by Candice

Henry VIII and the men who made him

Tracy Borman

BIOGRAPHY Henry VIII
History

Most of the books we have on Henry VIII are about his wives. There is something to that. His relationships with those "ever-changing" queens are fascinating. They involved death, romance, and political power resulting in the simple adage: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Henry VIII's favor shifted just as quickly with his courtiers, advisers, and minions, a word borrowed from the French court that started appearing in the English language around his reign. Tracy Borman explores the lives of these individuals in this book. From Cardinal Wolsey, his Lord Chancellor, to Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, Henry's court was full of intrigue and power struggles impacting England's religion, politics, and foreign relations. It is an interesting read and Borman is a gifted storyteller. If you liked "Wolf Hall," you'll love this biography. -Anne M

The Battle of Negro Fort : the rise and fall of a fugitive slave community

Matthew J. Clavin

973.00496 /Clavin
History, Nonfiction, Black History

"The dramatic story of the United States' destruction of a free and independent community of fugitive slaves in Spanish Florida. In the aftermath of the War of 1812, Major General Andrew Jackson ordered a joint United States army-navy expedition into Spanish Florida to destroy a free and independent community of fugitive slaves. The result was the Battle of Negro Fort, a brutal conflict among hundreds of American troops, Indian warriors, and black rebels that culminated in the death or re-enslavement of nearly all of the fort's inhabitants. By eliminating this refuge for fugitive slaves, the United States government closed an escape valve that African Americans had utilized for generations. At the same time, it intensified the subjugation of southern Native Americans, including the Creeks, Choctaws, and Seminoles. Still, the battle was significant for another reason as well. During its existence, Negro Fort was a powerful symbol of black freedom that subverted the racist foundations of an expanding American slave society. Its destruction reinforced the nation's growing commitment to slavery, while illuminating the extent to which ambivalence over the institution had disappeared since the nation's founding. Indeed, four decades after declaring that all men were created equal, the United States destroyed a fugitive slave community in a foreign territory for the first and only time in its history, which accelerated America's transformation into a white republic. The Battle of Negro Fort places the violent expansion of slavery where it belongs, at the center of the history of the early American republic."--Publisher's website.

Added by Melody

They were her property : white women as slave owners in the American South

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers

973.00496 /Jones-Rogers
History, Nonfiction, Black History

"Bridging women's history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave-owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South's slave market. Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave-owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave-owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America"--

Added by Melody