To say that there were more than a few things I found shocking when writing about Joe Kennedy is a massive understatement. Of course, I knew about his womanizing (but didn’t know about Babe Paley)—a predatory trait … Read the article
Spanning 160 years and seven generations, teeming with some of ancient Rome’s most vivid figures, Steven Saylor’s novel Dominus brings to vivid life some of the most tumultuous and consequential chapters of human history, events which reverberate still. Read an … Read the article
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
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 … Read the article
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 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 article
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
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.
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 article
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