UDM Libraries Book of the Week

by Sarah Armstrong, Editor These books provide a range of opinions on a social issue; each volume focuses on a specific issue and offers a variety of perspectives, e.g., eyewitness accounts, governmental views, scientific analysis, newspaper accounts, to illuminate the issue.; Greenhaven Press’s At Issue series provides a wide range of opinions on individual social issues. Enhancing critical thinking skills, each At Issue volume is an excellent research tool to help readers understand current social issues and prepare reports. CATALOG...

by Steven Lee Myers In this gripping narrative of Putin’s rise to power, Steven Lee Myers recounts Putin’s origins–from his childhood of abject poverty in Leningrad to his ascent through the ranks of the KGB, and his eventual consolidation of rule in the Kremlin. As the world struggles to confront a bolder Russia, the importance of understanding the formidable and ambitious Vladimir Putin has never been greater. On the one hand, Putin’s many domestic reforms–from tax cuts to an expansion of...

by Stephen Hess The period from Election Day to Inauguration Day in America seems impossibly short. Newly elected U.S. presidents have less than eleven weeks to construct a new government composed of supporters and strangers, hailing from all parts of the nation. This unique and daunting process always involves at least some mistakes in hiring, perhaps, or in policy priorities, or organizational design. Early blunders can carry serious consequences well into a president s term; minimizing them from the outset...

On the morning of November 22, 1963, President Kennedy told Jackie as they started for Dallas, “We’re heading into nut country today.” That day’s events ultimately obscured and revealed just how right he was: Oswald was a lone gunman, but the city that surrounded him was full of people who hated Kennedy and everything he stood for, led by a powerful group of ultraconservatives who would eventually remake the Republican party in their own image. by Edward H. Miller In...