Yes we do. Let’s take a look at this year’s best picture nominees and some books that History and Social Sciences own about the true story.
Nominee #1 - Zero Dark Thirty - The story about the hunting down and killing of Osama Bin Laden.
- Find, Fix, Finish: Inside the Counterterrorisnm Campaigns that Killed Bin Laden and Devestated Al-Qaeda, by Aki Peritz
- The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden, by Mark Bowden
- Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad, by Peter L. Bergen
History and Social Sciences has an extensive collection of books about the War on Terror, the War in Afghanistan, and Al-Qaeda.
Nominee #2 – Lincoln – The story of how Abraham Lincoln came to choose between ending the Civil War early or securing freedom and citizenship for the Slaves.
- Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin (This is the book that the movie was based on)
- Lincoln’s Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union, by Louis P. Massur
- Lincoln and the Triumph of the Nation: Constitutional Conflict in the American Civil War, by Mark Neely
Nominee #3 – Argo – The true story of the audacious plan to rescue US State Department staff trapped in Tehran after the seizure of the US embassy in 1979
- Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History, by Antonio J. Mendez
- Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam, by Mark Bowden
- 444 Days: The Hostages Remember, by Tim Wells
While those were the only nominees based on a true story History and Social Sciences has materials about the areas and periods that the other nominiees were set in.
Nominee #4 – Amour (No release date for DVD as of posting) - Set in modern day France it is the story about a long married couple who are beginning to deal with end of life issues.
History and Social Sciences has many materials about life in modern day France as well as books about dying.
- We’ve always had Paris – and Provence : a Scrapbook of our Life in France by Patricia Wells
- Fodor’s France
- Rick Steve’s Paris
- Peaceful Dying: The Step-by-Step Guide to Preserving Your Dignity, Your Choice, and Your Inner Peace at the End of Life, by Daniel R. Tobin
- The Art of Dying: How to Leave this World with Dignity and Grace, at Peace with Yourself and Your Loved Ones, by Patricia Weenolsen
Nominee #5 - Beasts of the Southern Wild – A storm threatens a small community in the bayou’s of Louisiana and a little girl’s experiences adventure in trying to save it.
- Exploring Cajun Country: A Tour of Historic Acadiana, by Chere Dastugue Coen
- The Bayous, by Peter Feibleman
- Mules and Men, by Zorea Neale Hurston
Nominee #6 – Django Unchained (Current DVD release date April 16th) - An odessey through Antebellum America where a freed slave and a bounty hunter try to exact revenge.
- “When I can Read My Title Clear”: Literacy Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South, by Janet Duitsman Cornelius
- Slavery, Resistance, Freedom
- The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story of Sally Miller and Her Fight for Freedom in Old New Orleans, by John Bailey
Nominee #7 – Les Miserables (Current DVD release date March 22nd) - Jean Valjean and mid-nineteenth century France (based on the book by Victor Hugo).
- Students of Paris and the Revolution of 1848, by Gallaher, John G.
- Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor From the Old Regime to 1848
- France Under the Bourbon Restoration, by Frederick Binkard Artz
