History

Boardwalk empire : the birth, high times, and corruption of Atlantic City / Nelson Johnson ; foreword by Terence Winter.
“From its inception, Atlantic City has always been a town dedicated to the fast buck, and this history offers a riveting account of its past 100 years–from the city’s heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era.” (Syndetics summary)

The Tudors for dummies / by David Loades and Mei Trow.
Delve inside the Tudor world and discover the facts behind the fiction. Packed with information on the battles, beheadings and royal family bust ups, this book reveals why the Tudors were so pivotal in shaping modern Britain.

The tin ticket : the heroic journey of Australia’s convict women / Deborah J. Swiss.
“”The Tin Ticket” takes readers to the dawn of the 19th century and into the lives of three women arrested and sent into suffering and slavery in Australia and Tasmania–and reveals how they overcame their fates unlike any other women in the world at the time.” (Syndetics summary)

The Invention of Paris : a history in footsteps / Eric Hazan ; translated by David Fernbach.
“A radical guide to Paris through art, literature and revolution.” (Syndetics summary)

Behind the palace doors : five centuries of sex, adventure, vice, treachery, and folly from royal Britain / Michael Farquhar.
“From the truth behind the supposed madness of King George to Queen Victoria’s surprisingly daring taste in sculpture, Behind the Palace Doors ventures beyond the rumors to tell the unvarnished history of Britain’s monarchs, highlighting the unique mix of tragedy, comedy, romance, heroism, and incompetence that has made the British throne a seat of such unparalleled fascination.” (Syndetics summary)

Red heat : conspiracy, murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean / Alex von Tunzelmann.
“America’s secret war in the Caribbean during the Cold War is revealed as never before in this riveting story of the machinations and blunders of superpowers.” (Syndetics summary)

In our hearts we were giants: the remarkable story of the Lilliput Troupe: a dwarf family’s survival of the Holocaust / Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev.
“This remarkable, never-before-told account of the Ovitz family, seven of them dwarfs, bears witness to the best and worst of humanity and to the terrible irony of the Ovitzes’ fate: being burdened with dwarfism helped them endure the Holocaust. Through dogged research and interviews with Perla, the last surviving Ovitz sibling, and other relatives, Koren and Negev weave the tale of a beloved and successful family who were popular entertainers in Central Europe until the Nazis deported them to Auschwitz in May 1944. Descending from the transport train into the hell of the concentration camp, the Ovitz family-known widely as the Lilliput Troupe-was separated from other Jewish victims. When Dr. Josef Mengele was notified of their arrival, he assigned them to sequestered quarters. His horrific “research” on twins and other genetically unique individuals already under way, Mengele had special plans for the Ovitzes. The authors chronicle Mengele’s loathsome experiments upon the family members, the disturbing fondness he developed for these small people, and their interminable will to survive.” (Book jacket – Syndetics summary)

The next decade: where we’ve been — and where we’re going / George Friedman.
“The author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller ‘The Next 100 Years’ now focuses his geopolitical forecasting acumen on the next decade and the imminent events and challenges that will test America and the world, specifically addressing the skills that will be required by the decades leaders. The next ten years will be a time of massive transition. The wars in the Islamic world will be subsiding, and terrorism will become something we learn to live with. China will be encountering its crisis. We will be moving from a time when financial crises dominate the world to a time when labor shortages will begin to dominate. The new century will be taking shape in the next decade. In ‘The Next Decade’, George Friedman offers readers a provocative and endlessly fascinating prognosis for the immediate future. Using Machiavelli’s ‘The Princeas’ a model, Friedman focuses on the world’s leaders-particularly the American president-and with his trusted geopolitical insight analyzes the complex chess game they will all have to play. The book also asks how to be a good president in a decade of extraordinary challenge, and puts the world’s leaders under a microscope to explain how they will arrive at the decisions they will make-and the consequences these actions will have for us all.” (Global Books in Print)