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A Long Tale to Tell: Crime and Imprisonment in the United States

by Tony Platt

WCAG Heading In the United States, there is a long history of police…
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America’s Interventionist Course

WCAG Headingby Stephen Kinzer Every member of Congress understood that history was about to be made. President…
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The Lordly Roscoe Conkling

WCAG Headingby Scott S. Greenberger Despite his promising start as a young man, by his early…
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The Mafia’s President: Nixon and the Mob

WCAG Headingby Don Fulsom Unbeknownst to most people even now, the election of 1968 placed the…
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The Mayflower Compact

WCAG Headingby Rebecca Fraser Although the Mayflower’s crew were experienced sailors—Captain Jones had spent a lifetime…
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Women Writers as Scolds, Again

WCAG Headingby Jeff Biggers Brand her a “common scold.” That, in a nutshell, has been the…
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The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Angleton

WCAG Headingby Jefferson Morley CIA spymaster James Angleton was one of the most powerful unelected officials…
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The Importance of “America’s Oldest” Alliance

WCAG Headingby Tom Shachtman In Paris for Bastille Day, President Donald Trump said, “France is America’s…
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united states

The Curious Case of Nuremberg’s Hangman

View of the defendants in the dock at the International Military Tribunal trial of war criminals in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. November 1945. Public domain. Courtesy of Wikimedia.

by Tim Queeney

In his book Rope, author Tim Queeney takes readers on a unique and…
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Featured Excerpt: Gemini

stronaut James Lovell is photographed inside his Gemini spacecraft during the Gemini-12 mission

by Jeffrey Kluger

Named by Time Magazine as one of the most anticipated books of fall…
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Featured Excerpt: Progress

Ancient civilization

by Samuel Miller McDonald

In Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now Threatens to Destroy…
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2025 Holiday Gift Guide

The History Reader 2025 Holiday Gift Guide
This December, we're taking a look back at the many fascinating history books that published this…
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Featured Excerpt: Family of Spies

It began with a mysterious letter from a screenwriter, asking about a story. Your family. World…
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Post-Holocene Progress

Maerten van Heemskerck - Panorama with the Abduction of Helen Amidst the Wonders of the Ancient World

by Samuel Miller McDonald

Samuel Miller McDonald's book, Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now…
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The Last Launch of the Gemini Program

Gemini 12 prime crew: Astronauts James A. Lovell Jr. (right), command pilot, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., pilot.

by Jeffrey Kluger

On November 11, 1966, NASA launched Gemini 12, the last manned spaceflight in…
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Featured Excerpt: A Promise Delivered

Van Thomas Barfoot newly promoted US Army Lieutenant circa 1944.

by Ty Seidule and Connor Williams

In 2020, a bipartisan act of Congress mandated changing the…
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