Currently on our New Books Display for the month of December, you can find a varied selection of our newest additions to the library. Several books are featured below, along with a short summary of their contents. Please click to be taken to the SOLO record.

‘Blood, Fire and Gold: The Story of Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici,’ by Estelle Paranque presents a new look at the two most powerful women of sixteenth-century Europe. Their friendship over the course of thirty years included competition and conflict; drawing on primary sources such as Elizabeth and Catherine’s personal correspondence, this is the first work to examine their complicated relationship in depth.

Also featured is ‘Tudor England: A History,’ by Oxford historian Lucy Wooding. Presenting a new take the Tudors between 1485 and 1603, the books focuses on how political, religious, and economic upheavals during the Tudor dynasty affected the lives of the general populace of England, particularly those who were not of the nobility, a side of Tudor England that has often been overlooked.

‘Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America,’ by Jordan E. Taylor, associate professor of history at Indiana University Bloomington, outlines how increasing consumption of foreign newspapers had a huge impact on the early colonists’ decision to revolt against British rule and create a new nation. News powered early American politics, but newspaper printers had few reliable sources to report on events from abroad. Information regarding battles, declarations and constitutions was often contradictory and unreliable, but shaped the people’s sense of reality. The books presents a striking and original argument about the early years of the United States.

‘East Asia and the First World War’ by Frank Jacob of Norway University examines how the First World War in East Asia facilitated the further rise of Japan as the leading power in the region, as well as contributing to radical social upheaval after the war concluded. In China and Korea, the effects of the First World War led to the growth of nationalistic movements, seeking freedom and equality for the people living within their semi-colonized borders. This book presents a comprehensive introduction to the First World War and its impact on East Asia.

These items and more can be found on the display located in the Upper Gladstone Link, and can be checked out at the Lower Camera Circulation Desk.