News & Blog

American history is a broad and varied topic. It ranges from the native inhabitants who formed communities here thousands of years ago to the creation of a new nation of states to the dreamers who immigrate to these shores today. It is an enormous amount of information to cover, but it is important that we all learn about our past. As Edmund Burke said in Reflections on the Revolution in France, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

The founders of the United States, beyond their faults and foibles, began this nation with a grand and noble sentiment of “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity….”

“We the people” is us. Join us this month as we explore our past to help ensure “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” applies to us all.

Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured titles on American History suggested by UCF Library employees. These 24 books plus many more are also on display on the 2^nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators.

Featured Bookshelf: American History

The John C. Hitt Library invites you to check out some of the new furniture options going into our new spaces.

Sit and Test

Feel how comfortable and relaxing your new work and study spaces will be.

Give Feedback

We want to know your opinion about the new furniture. Tell us at library.ucf.edu/sit

Everyone is talking about HBO’s gripping new miniseries, Chernobyl which is a personal look at one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history. Have you been pulled into the story as well and want to know more?

UCF Libraries has a great collection of books and documentaries about the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Check these out and learn more about what happened and how it has shaped the use of nuclear power in the West.

Books

Chernobyl Record: the definitive history of the Chernobyl catastrophe by R.F. Mould

Chernobyl: a documentary story by Iurii Shcherbak

Chernobyl’s Wild Kingdom: life in the dead zone by Rebecca L. Johnson

Chernobyl: the hidden legacy by Pierpaolo Mittica

Chernobyl: the history of a nuclear catastrophe by Serhii Plokhy

The Truth About Chernobyl by Grigori Medvedev

The Lessons of Chernobyl: 25 years later edited by Elena B. Burlakova and Valeria I. Naydich (ebook)

Manual for Survival: a Chernobyl guide to the future by Kate Brown

Midnight in Chernobyl: the untold story of the world’s greatest nuclear disaster by Adam Higginbotham

Streaming Video and DVD

NOVA. Building Chernobyl’s megatomb produced and directed by Martin Gorst.

Chernobyl : Nuclear Meltdown from A&E Television Networks, LLC.

Children of Chernobyl produced by SIC TV.

Living under the cloud : Chernobyl today produced and directed by Teresa Metcalf (DVD)

Did you know Russia isn’t the only one who had a nuclear accident?

If you are curious about the United States’ own brush with nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in 1979, we have reading on that as well.

Three Mile Island: a nuclear crisis in historical perspective by J. Samuel Walker

Three Mile Island: prologue or epilogue? by Daniel Martin

Three Mile Island: the most studied nuclear accident in history: summary: report to the Congress by the Comptroller General of the United States

The Warning: accident at Three Mile Island by Mike Gray and Ira Rosen

Radiation nation: Three Mile Island and the political transformation of the 1970s by Natasha Zaretsky

TMI 25 years later: the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident and its impact by Bonnie A. Osif, Anthony J. Baratta, Thomas W. Conkling

The Summer Knights Reading Challenge starts June 1 and ends August 1, 2019

• Open to all UCF students, faculty, and staff.
• It’s easy! Just track the number of pages for each unique book read using our form linked below (available beginning Friday, June 1).
• For e-books and audiobooks, simply verify the number of pages in the actual book using Amazon or another source.
• Reach the goal of reading 500 pages and win a prize pack!
• All participants will be entered into weekly drawings for gift cards and merchandise from BurgerFi, Catalyst Surf & Skate, Ice & Bites Cafe, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, KIND, Lazy Moon, Smoothie King, Sport Clips, and Starbucks..
• The top four people who read the most pages overall will win grand prizes.
• More information available here.

Enter your books on this form.

Ready to fly your flag?

Pride Month has arrived! While every day is a time to be proud of your identity and orientation, June is that extra special time for boldly celebrating with and for the LGBTQIA community (yes, there are more than lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender in the queer community). June was chosen to honor the Stonewall Riots which happened in 1969. Like other celebratory months, LGBT Pride Month started as a weeklong series of events and expanded into a full month of festivities.

In honor of Pride Month, UCF Library faculty and staff suggested books, movies and music from the UCF collection that represent a wide array of queer authors and characters. Additional events at UCF in June include “UCF Remembers” which is a week-long series of events to commemorate the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in 2016.

Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the 30 titles by or about people in the LGBTQIA community suggested by UCF Library employees. These, and additional titles, are also on the Featured Bookshelf display on the second (main) floor next to the bank of two elevators.

Featured Bookshelf: LGBTQIA+ Pride Month