by Karin Tanabe When I decided that I wanted to write about a woman in the 1950s, who was struggling with motherhood against the backdrop of the Cold War, the idea of her being a spy started to form. I’ll … Read the article The post Elizabeth Bentley: The True Story...
Karin Tanabe’s A Woman of Intelligence is an exhilarating novel of post-war New York City, and one remarkable woman’s journey from the United Nations, to the cloistered drawing rooms of Manhattan society, to the secretive ranks of the FBI. Read … Read the article The...
by Giles Milton The greatest heroes of the Second World War are rightly celebrated for their acts of extraordinary daring on the battlefields of Nazi-occupied Europe. Rather less well known are the heroes of the early Cold War—American and British—who … Read the...
by P. T. Deutermann My novel, Trial by Fire, is based on the true story of the aircraft carrier USS Ben Franklin (CV-13) and the brave sailors who were able to save their ship after she was nearly destroyed … Read the article The post USS Franklin: Attack, Survival,...
by Steven Saylor Psssst! Have you heard about Elagabalus? They say he invented the world’s first whoopee cushion. No, really! I’m pretty sure I heard Mary Beard say that. They also say he was as gay as America’s Next Drag … Read the article The post Ancient Rome’s...
We are excited to share that Gabriel N. Rosenberg’s September 2020 JAH article, “No Scrubs: Livestock Breeding, Eugenics, and the State in the Early Twentieth-Century United States,” won the Wayne D. Rasmussen Award given by the Agricultural History Society. In this...
by Frank McDonough In the following excerpt from The Hitler Years: Triumph 1933-1939, Frank McDonough discusses the political environment in Germany in 1933 as Adolf Hitler sets his plans in motion to become Germany’s next Chancellor. Portrait of Adolf… Read the...
By The History Reader As of January 1, 1863, all enslaved people in the United States were declared legally free by President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. However, as Union law could not be implemented in the Confederate-held south, slaves were not … Read the...
Arne Cheyenne Johnson purportedly (his defense claimed) was under the influence of demonic possession when he stabbed Alan Bono more than 20 times with a pocketknife on February 16, 1981. The history behind the recent film, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, is...
by Brad Ricca When I first learned that Raiders of the Lost Ark, my favorite movie, might have been based on an actual archaeological expedition, I felt like my face was melting off. No way, I thought, as I … Read the article The post The Untold Story of the...
by Mariah Fredericks In 1914, the hot ticket on Broadway was On Trial, a play that employed the daring film technique of the “flashback.” You could catch the moody John Barrymore in Kick In, Douglas Fairbanks in He Comes Up … Read the article The post The Sound of...
By The History Reader The United States first celebrated Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. 111 years later, the holiday has evolved but the sentiment remains the same. As Father’s Day approaches this year, we’ve rounded up some of our … Read the article The post...
by David Hepworth The book behind the Apple TV+ docu-series, Never a Dull Moment offers a rollicking look at 1971, rock’s golden year, the year that saw the release of the indelible recordings of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Who, … Read the article The post Get Down...
by Brad Ricca True Raiders: The Untold Story of the 1909 Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant tells the story of Monty Parker, a British rogue nobleman who, after being dared to do so by Ava Astor, … Read the article The post True Raiders: Charles...
Mikhail Tukhachevsky was nicknamed the “Red Napolean”, that is to say, he was a popular Soviet military leader in Stalin’s Red Army. Mikhail didn’t know that soon ideology would be more important to the Soviet military than its strength, leading to its deteriorated...
The benefits of reading are obvious, on average men who read have a higher rate of employment. Taking it a step further, according to one report, Adults whose annual household income is $30,000 or less are more likely than those living in households earning $75,000 or...
It was 98 Japanese soldiers to be exact, but the part about U.S. Army dentist Capt. Benjamin Salomon killing them by himself is an amazing fact. During the Battle of Saipan Japanese commander, Yoshitsugu Saito ordered a suicide charge against the Americans out of...
by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard In Killing the Mob, Bill O’Reilly and co-author Martin Dugard trace the brutal history of 20th Century organized crime in the United States, and expertly plumb the history of this nation’s most notorious … Read the article The post...