history

Global warming is one of the greatest dangers mankind faces today. Even as temperatures increase, sea levels rise, and natural disasters escalate, our current environmental crisis feels difficult to predict and understand. But climate change and its effects on us are not new. In a bold narrative that spans centuries and continents, Peter Frankopan argues that nature has always played a fundamental role in the writing of history. Frankopan's new book is "The Earth Transformed: An Untold History."

From the dinosaurs and the glaciers to the first native peoples and the first European settlers, from Dutch and English Colonial rule to the American Revolution, from the slave society to the Civil War, from the robber barons and bootleggers to the war heroes and the happy rise of craft beer pubs, the Hudson Valley has a deep history.

In "Myth America," Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation. The contributors debunk narratives that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders, and feminists as anti-family warriors, among numerous other partisan lies.

Fintan O’Toole was born in the year the revolution began. It was 1958, and the Irish government, in despair because all the young people were leaving, opened the country to foreign investment and popular culture. So began a decades-long, ongoing experiment with Irish national identity.

Leila Philip will celebrate the release of “Beaverland” in two events in our region this week - the first in an Oblong Books event at Morton Memorial Library in Rhinebeck, New York tonight, the second at Hudson Hall in Hudson, NY on Friday, December 9.

Andrea Barrett, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is the author of the new book “Natural History: Stories” The collection connects the lives of the family of scientists, teachers and innovators that she has featured in her writing throughout her career.

Whether you’re a history buff, hobbyist or collector, the Albany Political Memorabilia show and sale on Saturday offers a chance to remember bygone campaigns.

Bestselling author Nathalia Holt joins us to discuss her new book, Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage, a stunning true account that honors their legacy, heroism, and perseverance in the face of institutional inequality.

From the outset, Donald Trump's candidacy was shouted down by some claiming he was a tyrant or at least a would-be-tyrant in waiting. Across the ensuing four years and underscored by the January 6 Capitol Riot, those assertions have only gained credibility. But what is a tyrant? Does Trump qualify for that? Andrew Fiala, who is a professor of Ethics, Political Philosophy, and The Philosophy of Religion and Non-Violence and Pacifism at the California State University at Fresno, has written a new book: "Tyranny from Plato to Trump: Fools, Sycophants and Citizens" to address those very questions.

In her new book "A Place to Belong," Amber O’Neal Johnston, a homeschooling mother of four, shows parents of all backgrounds how to create a home environment where children feel secure in their own personhood and culture, enabling them to better understand and appreciate people who are racially and culturally different.