Politics & Government

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Destiny of the Republic, a nonfiction book written by Candice Millard in 2011, tells the story of President James Garfield’s death in 1881 after being shot by Charles Guiteau. The first section, entitled “Promise,” provides the necessary background of all the individuals who play a role in the story. The first chapter is about the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, introducing Garfield, Alexander Graham Bell, and Joseph Lister–three men whose lives would intersect years later... Read Destiny of the Republic Summary

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Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King, subtitled Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, is an account of an important but relatively little-known legal case that paved the way for the advances of the civil rights era. The book begins with the story behind the case: In July 1949, in Groveland, Florida, a 17-year-old girl named Norma Lee Padgett claims a group of four young black men raped her... Read Devil in the Grove Summary

Published in 1980, Devil on the Cross by Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o explores themes of Exploitation and Theft Under Capitalism, The Treatment of Women in the Workforce, and The Legacy of Colonialism through its complex, nested narrative and ironic exaggeration. The story centers on the female protagonist Jacinta Warĩĩnga as she leaves her complicated and abusive life behind to return home. On her journey, she experiences self-discovery and newfound autonomy, as well as the... Read Devil on the Cross Summary

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Diplomacy (1994) is a book by the scholar and diplomat Henry Kissinger. After leaving the government in 1977, Kissinger wrote a series of memoirs such as White House Years (1979) and Years of Upheaval (1982). Diplomacy was the first of what would be many books offering a broader view of international affairs and US foreign policy. It has lessons for policymakers but is also accessible to general readers. The book received many positive reviews for... Read Diplomacy Summary

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault is a socio-political study of how power manifests in the Western penal system throughout history. Considered to be Foucault’s masterpiece, Discipline and Punish traces the history of how punishment and control were applied in Western society and how penal systems evolved to match changes in social sensibilities. Michel Foucault was a French historical philosopher and literary critic in the 20th century. Foucault’s work has... Read Discipline And Punish Summary

Discourse on Colonialism is an essay written originally in French by Aimé Césaire and published in 1950. This seminal work by Césaire opens with a thesis that Europe currently suffers from two problems. The first problem is the state of the proletariat and colonialism and the second is its moral hypocrisy. Throughout the essay, Césaire elaborates on this thesis by identifying the proletariat as the colonized laborer and the bourgeois as the European academic, scholar... Read Discourse on Colonialism Summary

“Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” often known as the “Discourse on Inequality” or the “Second Discourse,” is an essay by the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau published in 1765. This summary is based on The First and Second Discourses, edited and translated by Roger D. Masters and Judith R. Masters, and published by St. Martin’s Press in 1964.SummaryRousseau wrote the essay in response to a prize announced by the Academy of... Read Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Summary

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Don Quixote is a novel in two parts by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes published between 1605 and 1615. The novel portrays the life of a middle-aged Spanish man who decides to become a knight, just like the characters in the works of fiction he loves. Considered to be a foundational work of Western literature and one of the first modern novels, Don Quixote is one of the most translated books of all time. It... Read Don Quixote Summary

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Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsburg Press, 2015) is a nonfiction book by American journalist and writer Sam Quinones. It won the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction and was on Amazon’s list of best books of the year in 2015 as well as Slate’s list of the 50 best books of the past 25 years. In the book Quinones charts the parallel rise of prescription opiates and black tar heroin, and describes... Read Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic Summary

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance is a memoir by Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Published in 1995, two years before Obama's run for the Illinois State Senate, the book narrates Obama's attempt to grapple with the legacy of his mostly absent father (hereafter referred to as "Obama Sr.") and to come to terms with his racial identity. The memoir covers Obama's life from his childhood in... Read Dreams From My Father Summary

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Ecotopia is a novel set in an alternative historical timeline, one in which Washington, Oregon, and Northern California have seceded from the United States to form a new country: Ecotopia. After independence, the two countries have severed all diplomatic relations and have existed side-by-side with virtually no communication, though there is plenty of mutual distrust, even after twenty years. Enter the novel’s protagonist, William Weston, “top international affairs reporter” for the Times-Post newspaper, who has... Read Ecotopia Summary

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil is a nonfiction book by political theorist Hannah Arendt, originally published in 1963. In 1961, Arendt went to Jerusalem to cover the trial of Adolf Eichmann for The New Yorker, an assignment she gave herself because “she felt she simply had to attend the trial; she owed it to herself as a social critic, displaced person, witness, and survivor” (xi). Eichmann, a Nazi facilitator of... Read Eichmann in Jerusalem Summary