History Essays

A brilliant, illuminating reassessment of the life and work of Jane Austen that makes clear how Austen has been misread for the past two centuries and that shows us how she intended her books to be read, revealing, as well, how subversive and daring--how truly radical--a writer she was. In this...

A frank, humorous exploration of interabled dating, love, and marriage Ben Mattlin’s wife, ML, recalls falling in love with his confidence and sheer determination. On one of their earliest dates, he persuaded her to ride on his lap in his wheelchair on their way home from an Elvis Costello...

Celebrated sex advice columnist and founder of the Emmy-winning It Gets Better campaign, Dan Savage delivers “powerful messages for both the head and heart” (Entertainment Weekly) From the moment he began writing his syndicated sex-advice column, Savage Love, Dan Savage has never been shy...

Roger Angell, the acclaimed New Yorker writer and editor, returns with a selection of writings that celebrate a view from the tenth decade of an engaged, vibrant life. Long known for his range and supple prose (he is the only writer elected to membership in both the Baseball Hall of Fame and the...

From Michael Korda, author of the New York Times bestselling Eisenhower biography Ike and the captivating Battle of Britain book With Wings Like Eagles, comes the critically-acclaimed definitive biography of T. E. Lawrence—the legendary British soldier, strategist, scholar, and adventurer...

From intellectual historian Carl Trueman, an argument that a rejection of Christian anthropology drives the social ills of our time. As church attendance falls, suicide rates climb, and birth rates plummet, Christian pundits have suggested disenchantment and the loss of tradition are to blame...

“This is the book where self-help turns into helping the world—and then turns back into helping yourself find a better life. Fascinating and timely!”—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet What does it take to achieve a successful and satisfying life? Not...

**One of NPR’s Best Books of 2017** “Petersen's gloriously bumptious, brash ode to nonconforming women suits the needs of this dark moment. Her careful examination of how we eviscerate the women who confound or threaten is crucial reading if we are ever to be better.”—Rebecca Traister...

Back in print after two decades, the story of Hollywood’s most exclusive hotel and its star-studded guest list Raymond Sarlot bought the Chateau Marmont in 1975, but what was originally a business purchase became a love affair as he delved into the hotel’s incredible history. From its perch...

India's Struggle For Independence presents a detailed outlook on the struggle for Indian Independence in a new analytical framework. Designed for ardent history enthusiasts, India's Struggle For Independence is one of the most exhaustive and precise account of the struggle of Indian Independence...

A literary guide to Argentina by its most famous writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote about Argentina as only someone passionate about his homeland can. On Argentina reveals the many facets of his passion in essays, poems, and stories through which he sought to bring Argentina forward on the world...

This definitive and magnificent 10-volume unabridged translation is one of the rare English translations in full of the epic. Bibek Debroy makes the Mahabharata marvellously accessible to contemporary readers. Dispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war...

An intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history, arguing that the “Global South” was...

“A phenomenal contribution to our understanding of the ongoing violence throughout the Americas against [Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people].” — Randall Akee, the Kidd Professor of Indigenous Governance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School An extraordinary forensic history...

This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.

In a series of penetrating and alarming essays, whose centerpiece is a commentary on the events of September 11, 2001 (deemed then too controversial to publish), Gore Vidal challenges the comforting consensus following September 11th and goes back and draws connections to Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. He asks were these simply the acts of “evil-doers?”

It is where Fidel Castro raised money to overthrow Batista and where two generations of Castro's enemies have raised armies to overthrow him, so far without success. It is where the bitter opera of Cuban exile intersects with the cynicism of U.S. foreign policy. It is a city whose skyrocketing murder rate is fueled by the cocaine trade, racial discontent, and an undeclared war on the island 90 miles to the south.

"Incisive debut treatise... Mohsin brings to the proceedings a reporter's eye for story" — Publisher's Weekly From Bloomberg News reporter Saleha Mohsin, the untold story of how one of America’s most invincible institutions—the Treasury—has used the U.S. dollar to define America’s...

A vivid tour into the subterranean that encourages us to look downwards, revealing how the earth's most biodiverse frontier sustains all life above the soil surface The ground beneath us hums with a staggering abundance of winding roots, interconnecting fungal networks, wriggling creatures, and...

Eye-opening stories and sharp cultural insights from the producer of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill—revealing what we stand to lose when the Judeo-Christian tradition that gives the values we hold most dear is under threat. When Hamas launched its horrific attack on October 7th, many were...