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14 items

• The Port Chicago 50

  Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights

  Sheinkin, Steve

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  Unfortunately for these Navy servicemen, the U.S. government had long ignored their warnings about unsafe conditions. After a deadly workplace explosion, the Port Chicago 50 forced the whole world to listen.

• Stoned

  Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World

  Raden, Aja,

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  Diamonds, emeralds, rubies… sparkly they may be, but they’re just rocks. Find out how eight stones came to be called precious, and how they have impacted the world in which they gleam.

• Grocery

  the Buying and Selling of Food in America

  Ruhlman, Michael, 1963-

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  We’ve all got to eat, and love it or leave it, the supermarket is the place to get the goods. It wasn’t always this way, though, so discover how the production and distribution of our daily bread has developed.

• Salt

  a World History

  Kurlansky, Mark

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  It’s the only rock that we (are supposed to) eat, and control over its production and movement have paid for wars, inspired empires, and set off revolutions.

• Green

  the History of a Color

  Pastoureau, Michel, 1947-

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  JoCo is full of nature's green beauty. At one time, that sentence would have been confusing as heck. Follow the twists and turns of green’s cultural history from cave paintings to tshirts.

• Packing for Mars

  the Curious Science of Life in the Void

  Roach, Mary

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  No gravity. No flowers. No privacy. NO. BEER. Heading to Mars isn’t exactly taking your normal roadtrip, and you’ll need more than the normal carryons to survive.

• Red

  a History of the Redhead

  Harvey, Jacky Colliss,

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  Redheads are rare and, often, reviled. Why do stereotypes about carrot tops persist around the world? Trace both the genetic and cultural implications of red hair in this fiery find.

• Bellevue

  Oshinsky, David M., 1944-

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  While its mission has shifted in its three centuries, Bellevue Hospital has always served as a public safety net. Its fascinating rise from an almhouse to a pioneer professional and civic institution is hard to put down.

• The Map Thief

  the Gripping Story of An Esteemed Rare-map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps

  Blanding, Michael

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  Sometimes the most diabolical, antisocial criminals hide in the clothes of highly respected rare map dealers. You’d have to be pretty awful to cut pages out of library books, right?!

• The Dirt on Clean

  An Unsanitized History

  Ashenburg, Katherine

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  What does clean mean? Depending on who and where you are, it may be a fresh oiling, a monthly change of underwear, or a daily scrub in the shower. Take a truly fascinating tour of personal hygiene.

• Very, Very, Very Dreadful

  the Influenza Pandemic of 1918

  Marrin, Albert,

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  A century ago, waves of influenza washed around the entire globe, sweeping away millions of lives. The lessons learned in the Spanish flu of 1918 continue to impact every aspect of our lives, even as the full scope of the epidemic remain a mystery.

• Palimpsest : A History of the Written Word

  Battles, Matthew

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  Why do we write? Is it merely so that we need words like “palimpsest?” (A page that has been written on, erased somehow, and then written on again.)

• Straight

  the Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality

  Blank, Hanne

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  What does it mean to be heterosexual? Framed against the author’s loving relationship with an intersex person, the concepts of “straight” and “gay” are examined and challenged.

• Tulipomania

  the Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused

  Dash, Mike

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  The welcome harbingers of Kansas’ spring hide a history you won’t believe. On their way from the windy steppes of southwest Asia, tulips set off the first stock market bubble… and crash.