Social Sciences Resources
2020
History & Geography
Erased
by Marixa Lasso
Lasso chronicles the Panama Canal’s destruction of the environment and the centuries-old commercial culture of the displaced peasants, homeowners, and shop owners.
Lakota America
by Pekka Hämäläinen
Hämäläinen’s magisterial history of the Lakota Indians and their profound role in shaping America's history delves deeply into daily tribal life; economics and trade; as well as diplomacy and war strategy.
Surviving Genocide
by Jeffrey Ostler
This first part of a sweeping two-volume history covers a full century of the devastation brought to bear on Indian nations by U.S. expansion in the eastern United States.
Nature’s Mutiny
by Philipp Blom
Blom’s timely examination of environmental history chronicles the great climate crisis of the 1600s that transformed the social and political fabric of Europe.
Conspiracies of Conspiracies
by Thomas Milan Konda
By weaving historical literature with contemporary studies, Konda reveals the American obsession with conspiracies from the earliest years of the Republic to the present day.
Graphic Memories of the Civil Rights Movement
by Jorge Santos
A study of five graphic texts that have reshaped the narrative of civil rights in and a look at the format's power to allow readers to join in the memory-making process.
Stolen
by Richard Bell
A gripping and true story about five boys who were kidnapped in the North and smuggled into slavery in the Deep South and their daring attempt to escape and bring their captors to justice.
1919: The Year That Changed America
by Martin W. Sandler
Sandler examines the pinnacle events of 1919 and their relevance to significant issues in American life today. By tracing the momentum and setbacks of those events, he shows how they affected this last century.
Auschwitz
edited by R.J. Van Pelt et al
Historian van Pelt offers not only a catalog of the Auschwitz museum exhibit but the history of the transformation of the small Polish village to a Nazi death camp where 1.1 million people were killed.
Political Science
No Longer Newsworthy
by Christopher R. Martin
Martin uncovers the loss of political voice for the working class and the emergence of a more conservative media. He offers the mainstream media tips for how to embrace the working class as critical.
Why Vote?
by Daniel M. Shea
Shea uses historical and social science perspectives to evaluate recent developments in the US electoral arena. He also encourages students to face current challenges to the electoral process head on.
American Radicals
by Holly Jackson
A timely history of 19th century activists and the social revolution they sparked in the turbulent Civil War era. Jackson shows the sweep of progressive thought that continues to echo today.
China and the Islamic World
by Robert Bianchi
An analytically rich contribution to our understanding of China's increasingly significant engagement with the Muslim world and the nuances and complexities of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Profiles in Corruption
by Peter Schweizer
A New York Times bestselling investigative reporter offers a deep-dive investigation into the private finances and secrets deals of some of America’s top political leaders.
Targeted
by Brittany Kaiser
Kaiser reveals how companies are getting richer using our personal information and exposes how Cambridge Analytica exploited weaknesses in privacy laws to help elect Donald Trump in 2016.
Sociology
Anti/Vax
by Bernice Hausman
Hausman argues that vaccine skepticism encompasses a variety of concerns that permeates modern cultures: unease with medicine, pharmaceutical companies, and bureaucratic decision making.
Childfree by Choice
by Amy Blackstone
An investigation into the history and current growing movement of adults choosing to forgo parenthood and what it means for our society, economy, environment, perceived gender roles, and legacies.
The Meritocracy Trap
by Daniel Markovits
The system is rigged. And the culprit is meritocracy. Markovits shows the perverse link between an upper-class education and elite jobs and how together they enrich the few, while devaluing and demoralizing the rest.
Drive-Thru Dreams
by Adam Chandler
This empathetic pop history of fast food is a key text to understanding the American love affair with fast food and the culture around it, including its economic impact and fandoms.
Superior
by Angela Saini
A compelling look at racial biases in science past and present. The result is both a clear understanding of why race science is so flawed and why science itself is so vulnerable to such deeply troubling fault lines.
She Said
by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey
From the reporters who broke the news of Harvey Weinstein's sexual harassment and abuse comes the thrilling untold story of their investigation and its consequences for the #MeToo movement.
Psychology
Own Your Psychology Major!
by Glenn Geher
A roadmap for new psychology majors and an inspiration to help motivate students to make the most of internship, research, and service opportunities during their undergraduate years.
Character
by Deborah L. Rhode
Rhode’s book examines the basis and nature of character, and how societies inculcate it in their young. She also covers character in law, criminal justice, and politics as well as highlighting individual examples.
The Edge of Every Day
by Marin Sardy
Sardy's extraordinarily affecting and fiercely intelligent memoir unflinchingly traces the path of schizophrenia through three generations of her family.
(Don’t) Call Me Crazy
edited by Kelly Jensen
33 writers, athletes, and artists offer essays, lists, comics, and illustrations to start the conversation about mental illness by exploring the ways in which they cope--and thrive--with mental illness in their personal journeys.
Mind in Motion
by Barbara Tversky
Tversky shows that spatial cognition isn't just a peripheral aspect of thought but its very foundation, enabling us to draw meaning from our bodies and their actions in the world.
Camouflage
by Sarah Bargiela
Autism in women is not widely understood and is often distorted or overlooked. Using real-life case studies, this graphic novel offers an insightful look into the lives and minds of autistic women.
