From the glittering ballrooms of London to the dusty backroads of 20th century America to baseball’s early World Series matchups, June has a fascinating array of history books covering a variety of topics. What will you pick up first?
Windsor biographer Alexander Larman takes you behind the doors of Eaton Square, London’s most sought-after address.
In The Secrets of Eaton Square: Sex, Scandal and Infamy on the Road to Buckingham Palace, Alexander Larman opens those doors wide to the scandalous social and political history of Eaton Square that begins in the eighteenth century and runs right up until today. With a cast of characters that includes everyone from Neville Chamberlain, Joachim von Ribbentrop (the lover of Wallis Simpson), Diana Mitford, Vivien Leigh, Margaret Thatcher, and even James Bond, Larman’s book brings Eaton Square alive.
From Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Eric Moskowitz comes the riveting story of the first true coast-to-coast automobile race in U.S. history. The Hardest, Longest Race is a fast-paced tale of the gritty and determined drivers who braved hostile terrain, mechanical failure, and, shockingly, sabotage, to take home the gold in an audacious “Ocean to Ocean” contest from New York City to the Seattle World’s Fair.
The Hardest, Longest Race is a colorful tale of ambition and subterfuge, but it is also a love letter to America at the turn of the Twentieth Century. As a seeming people’s champion—a car for the masses—traverses the vast nation, Moskowitz brings to vivid life the diverse populace and landscape that it would soon transform.
The Magical Game is the story of baseball’s rich magical history and the centuries-old culture of superstition in the sport. Told by journalist and converted baseball fan Addy Baird, this enlightening sports history book is a love letter to the jinxes, curses, rituals and myths of baseball’s past and present — and to the innate mysticism of the game. Funny, poetic, and deeply researched, this book will make readers fall in love with baseball all over again.
A new edition of Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan’s memoir―the story of the “real” Gladys Russell of The Gilded Age.
Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful, and heir to a vast fortune. She was also in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to marry an English Duke.
As the Duchess of Marlborough, Consuelo Vanderbilt was a generous, welcoming, and amused observer of the intricate hierarchy in which she lived. She was also a perceptive witness at glittering balls, huge weekend parties, and major state occasions, allowing her to chronicle her encounters with every important figure of the day―from Queen Victoria, Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas and the young Winston Churchill.
The Glitter and the Gold is a revealing true portrait of a time and the life of a young woman written in her own words.
New York Times journalist Jesse Wegman tells the story of James Wilson, a Founding Father whose bold vision shaped American democracy but whose legacy was lost to scandal.
As a young lawyer, James Wilson made a celebrated case for American independence in an essay that inspired the famous words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” He wrote the first draft of the Constitution and believed that the people are the ultimate source of all power. Appointed as a justice to the first Supreme Court, he was later brought down by reckless land speculation and died of malaria in the back room of a North Carolina tavern while hiding from his creditors.
Instead of being remembered as one of the nation’s great political thinkers, Wilson was virtually written out of history. But in The Lost Founder, Wegman makes a convincing argument that scandal should not diminish the life and impact of a brilliant, complicated man whose vision for his country could not be more relevant today.