What We Are Reading Today: ‘Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara Falls’ by Christen E. Civiletto

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Updated 15 February 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara Falls’ by Christen E. Civiletto

Environmental attorney Christen Civiletto relates how the major chemical kingpins of the 20th century relentlessly and indiscriminately laid waste to Niagara Falls in her eye-opening, harrowing, intimate new book, “Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara Falls.”

Expertly interweaving environmental crime, history, and memoir, “Thundering Waters” exposes the astonishing story of exploitation and ongoing abuse lurking in the shadows of one of the world’s most treasured natural wonders.


What We Are Reading Today: Freedom from Fear by Alan Kahan

Updated 27 February 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: Freedom from Fear by Alan Kahan

“Freedom from Fear” offers a striking new account of the dominant political and social theory of our time: liberalism. In a pathbreaking reframing of the historical debate, Alan Kahan charts the development of Western liberalism from the late eighteenth century to the present. 

Examining key liberal thinkers and issues, Kahan shows how liberalism is both a response to fear and a source of hope: the search for a world in which no one need be afraid.

“Freedom from Fear” reveals how liberal arguments typically rely on three pillars: freedom, markets, and morals. 

But when liberals ignore one or more of these pillars, their arguments generally fail to persuade.