American History at the GPC Libraries

The GPC Libraries are closed today in honor of Independence Day, and will reopen on July 5th.  We hope you enjoy the holiday! ________________________________________________________

If you’re taking a history class this summer, you’ve already had a chance to learn about the some of the important events in America’s long and complex history.  If you’re not, you can still enjoy the libraries’ extensive collection of books, journals and DVDs on historical topics.

Here are a few you might like:

• A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present by Howard Zinn.  The author, a former member of the Army Air Corps, was a history professor at Atlanta’s Spelman College before moving to the political science department at Boston University.  The New York Times describes A People’s History, Zinn’s most famous work as “[a]lmost an oddity at first, with a printing of just 4,000 in 1980,” going on to note that “‘A People’s History of the United States’ has sold nearly two million copies. To describe it as a revisionist account is to risk understatement… [Zinn] concentrated on what he saw as the genocidal depredations of Christopher Columbus, the blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln. He also shined an insistent light on the revolutionary struggles of impoverished farmers, feminists, laborers and resisters of slavery and war.”

The United States Capitol Building

• The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation by Jonathan Hennessey and Aaron McConnell.  This work discusses each article of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the historical events surrounding the writing of the Constitution.  It also covers the Bill of Rights, which are the first ten Constitutional amendments (of twenty-seven–so far!) in America’s history, all in graphic novel form.

• Saving Private Ryan, one of the most lauded World War II films ever made, chronicles the experiences of one squad during the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944.  This film was nominated for eleven Oscars, and won five, including Best Director honors for Steven Spielberg.

The Bostons Women’s Memorial, featuring a statue of Abigail Adams

• My Dearest Friend edited by Margaret Hogan and James C. Taylor, is a collection of the letters President John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams wrote to each other.  Theirs was a long and happy marriage, and their letters reflect the strong interest in politics they shared.  Many of their letters were written to keep in touch while John Adams traveled to participate in the Continental Congress in the 1770s and 1780s while Abigail raised their children and managed their household in Boston.

• 500 Nations, a eight episode documentary hosted by Kevin Costner, explores the histories of indigenous peoples in Central and North America.  Beginning with early cultures of North America and the Aztecs in Mexico, the series covers Columbus’s landing, the first English settlements, the American Revolution, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and ends with a reflection on renewal of native cultures today.

We hope you’ll find something in the libraries’ collections to enjoy!

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Photos in this post are by KP Tripathi and Lorianne DiSabato and are used under Creative Commons license.

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