History

Aggregated news feed for history lovers.

Celebrating Black History Month in 2025

Let’s honor the remarkable Black Americans throughout history with our favorite books. From the 19th century to the Civil Rights Movement to present day, our reading list for Black History Month is one you don’t want to miss.  Bending Toward Justice The story of the...

Featured Excerpt: A Matter of Complexion by Tess Chakkalakal

Leaving Fayetteville Charles W. Chesnutt. (Public domain, Wikimedia Images.) On October 7, 1880, The Raleigh Signal, a Republican newspaper published by the Republican State Committee of North Carolina, introduced Chesnutt to the public. Hailing Chesnutt’s “rare...

Featured Excerpt: Realm of Ice and Sky

View of Smeerenberg, Spitzbergen, Norway. A photomechanical print taken between 1890 and 1900. Public Domain. Realm of Ice and Sky by two-time National Outdoor Book Award-winning author Buddy Levy is a thrilling narrative of polar exploration via airship―and the men...
‘Gunplay’ in the Wild West

‘Gunplay’ in the Wild West

This week sees the publication of my new book, Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West. The main characters are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but unlike the classic movie, there is also emphasis on a wide range of...

read more
Schley: The Navy Man Who Saved Greely

Schley: The Navy Man Who Saved Greely

Commander Winfield Scott Schley (4th from left) and men who rescued Greely Expedition survivors (Public domain, Wikimedia Images) In 1881, Cdr. Winfield Scott Schley was at the Charlestown Navy Yard reading a newspaper article about the US Army Signal Corps’ ambitious...

read more
The Pinkertons in Myth and History

The Pinkertons in Myth and History

William A. Pinkerton with railroad special agents Pat Connell (left) and Sam Finley (right) from the Library of Congress. Even if you’ve only watched a handful of “Wild West” films or TV shows, you’ve probably encountered the Pinkertons. These hired guns are often...

read more
I Am a Respectable Person

I Am a Respectable Person

by Jack Kelly Elizabeth Jennings Graham. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. “We are not going back,” is a refrain heard in this year’s election campaign. We like to think of history as steady progress forward. But during the struggle toward human rights and racial...

read more
Featured Excerpt: President Carter

Featured Excerpt: President Carter

by Stuart E. Eizenstat Grounding the B-1 Bomber Exclusive picture of President Jimmy Carter in Stuart E. Eizenstat’s biography, President Carter. Far more complex, both politically and technically, was a divisive debate over whether to build the B-1 bomber, which...

read more
Wednesday, Bloody Wednesday

Wednesday, Bloody Wednesday

by Tom Clavin Depiction of the fighting near Dunker Church by Thure de Thulstrup. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Should anyone consider “civil war” over the outcome, one way or the other, of the presidential election that is six weeks from now, let’s look at the...

read more
The Finest Rough-and-Tumble Fighter

The Finest Rough-and-Tumble Fighter

by Jack Kelly Florence Kelley’s father, William, taught his daughter to read in 1866 using books that chronicled child labor. When she was seven, he had her studying “a terrible little book with woodcuts of children no older than myself, balancing with their arms...

read more
Contrasts in A Place to Hide

Contrasts in A Place to Hide

By Ronald H. Balson The centre of Rotterdam destroyed after being bombed by the Luftwaffe A Place to Hide is my ninth novel and the seventh set during World War II.  As it frequently happens, research in support of one novel uncovers suggestions for a new and...

read more
The Notorious Kid Curry

The Notorious Kid Curry

by Tom Clavin Kid Curry, born as Harvey Logan. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. It might be hard for some of you to believe that the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the title roles, premiered 55 years ago this week....

read more

Fifty Years of Combahee River Collective

This piece is a response to our call for submissions, Celebrating Combahee at Fifty: Black Feminism, Socialism, Race, and Sexuality. For our submission guidelines, click here. The use of the wave metaphor for describing feminism has been criticized for suggesting...

read more
What Can We Learn from Red Dead Redemption?

What Can We Learn from Red Dead Redemption?

/*! elementor - v3.23.0 - 05-08-2024 */ .elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px...

read more

Black Activism & the Jazz Age

This piece is a response to our Call for Submissions: Histories of Political Protest in the U.S. For our submission guidelines, click here. While the literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance are correctly celebrated as intellectuals and activists, jazz musicians of...

read more

Resisting the Lonely Historian

I long imagined writing as a lonely endeavor. My vision was of an individual bent over a notebook, solitary in some winged armchair, in a room quiet save for the gasps of a dying fire. As an undergraduate, I found friends who shared my habits of pouring over fantasy...

read more