This month we’re thankful for a bounty of new history reads publishing across a wide history books. Whether you want to explore the complex, high-stakes world of America’s First Ladies, uncover the untold stories of the women who brought the Nazis to justice, or walk the halls of the Forbidden City alongside its final emperor, there is a new history book sure to enthrall every reader.
Spanning the most defining decades of the twentieth century, from the New Deal era, to the myth-making Kennedys, to the turbulent, MAGA-influenced 2020s, The East Wing is the captivating true story of the First Lady’s staffers and their role in the executive branch of governance, as well as the evolution of female leadership in our country.
Academic and Pulitzer-Prize finalist Azadeh Moaveni blends original reporting, including extensive interviews with key players from past East Wings, with expert research and analysis to take readers deep inside the fascinating and high stakes world of the First Lady’s office like never before.
Bestselling author and historian Natalie Livingstone tells the story of the Nuremberg trials in a new way: through the lens of eight women who were there on the ground.
From the major stories about justice, gender, and politics at a pivotal moment in the twentieth century to the smaller, daily intimate tales of the women’s affairs and bar-room disputes, The Nuremberg Women shows the most famous trial of the twentieth century in a new light—making a brave new case for it having been a more diverse and democratic exercise than has often been recognized. Thanks to these eight women and many others, justice was served.
In Solo and Together, New York Times bestselling author James R. Hansen uncovers the intricate tapestries of two of the 20th century’s most iconic personalities: America’s pioneering aviator, Charles Lindbergh, and his accomplished wife-writer, Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
Through groundbreaking archival research and intimate interviews with family members, Hansen navigates the triumphs and tragedies that defined the Lindberghs’s shared journey—from Charles’s historic transatlantic flight to their family’s darkest chapter: the infamous kidnapping and murder of their first child.
It is a must-read for anyone captivated by the lives of those who dare to soar beyond boundaries while also providing a definitive account of love, ambition, betrayal, and resilience.
In the early 1920s, the former-Emperor of China, Puyi and his Empress, Wanrong, were sequestered inside Peking’s ancient Forbidden City. Surrounded by scheming courtiers, fawning servants, and corrupt eunuchs, Puyi did not know from one day to the next whether he would experience restoration, expulsion, or assassination.
The Last Emperor of China delves into the final years of the Manchu Dynasty, calling upon previously unpublished letters from the Emperor’s tutor and the diary of Wanrong’s English teacher, her closest companion, to shed an entirely new light on the days before the imperial court’s brutal expulsion.
The first biography of Hans Morgenthau, the political philosopher who escaped Nazi Germany and pioneered realism―the approach to foreign policy that guided the United States through the Cold War and explains today’s world
“International politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power.” Hans Morgenthau wrote those words at the dawn of the Cold War. His book, Politics Among Nations, quickly became the defining textbook on international relations in the country, shaping generations of citizens, scholars, and policymakers.
The Realist reveals how Morgenthau’s realism was rooted in the traumas that he experienced in post-World War I Germany, which led him to conclude that abstract ideals could not protect him and that power only yielded to countervailing power.
Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Sacks’s biography shows how Morgenthau’s ideas continue to shape the course of the twenty-first century.
From the bestselling co-author of Apollo 13 comes the thrilling untold story of the pioneering Gemini program that was instrumental in getting Americans on the moon.
Told with Jeffrey Kluger’s signature cinematic storytelling and in-depth research and interviews, Gemini is an edge-of-your-seat narrative chronicling the history of the least appreciated—and most groundbreaking—space program in American history. Finally, Gemini’s story will be told, and finally, we’ll learn the truth of how we landed on the moon.
Now available in paperback.
The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the so-called Golden Age of Exploration, there were women working and exploring before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Before men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration.
In Women in the Valley of the Kings, Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative, revealing how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.
Now available in paperback.
In 2020, a bipartisan act of Congress mandated changing the names of nine military bases previously named for Confederate soldiers. Over the course of twenty months, the commission completed their mission, carefully combing through years of American history and hearing from tens of thousands of Americans from all walks of life. The commission ultimately chose ten Americans whose individual heroics reflect the collective best of all that America is and could be.
This is the inspiring story behind the ten American heroes whose names had been originally chosen, told by two members of the Naming Commission that selected them.
Now available in paperback.