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Florence Kelley’s father, William, taught his daughter to read in 1866 using books that chronicled child labor. When she was seven, he had her studying “a terrible little book with woodcuts of children no older than myself, balancing with their arms heavy loads of wet clay on their heads, in brickyards.” And she didn’t just […]
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, in 1862. “When the dogmas of a sectional party…threatened to destroy the sovereign rights of the States, six of those States, withdrawing from the Union, confederated together to exercise the right and perform the duty of instituting a Government which would better secure the liberties for the preservation […]
A Place to Hide is my ninth novel and the seventh set during World War II. As it frequently happens, research in support of one novel uncovers suggestions for a new and different novel. Thus, research on Denmark in preparation for Defending Britta Stein introduced me to factual scenarios unique to the Netherlands. Although these […]
Kid Curry, born as Harvey Logan. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. It might be hard for some of you to believe that the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the title roles, premiered 55 years ago this week. I bring this up because my book Bandit Heaven — […]
Othniel Charles Marsh & Edward Drinker Cope. Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope: From friends to enemies The participants in this unusual conflict came from very different backgrounds and had many differences. Othniel Charles Marsh was born on October 29, 1831, near Lockport, New York. He was the third child of Mary Gaines Peabody […]
From public radio producer, Nate DiMeo, comes The Memory Palace, a finalist for the 2016 Peabody Award and one of iTunes Best Podcast of 2015. Short, surprising stories of the past, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hysterical, often a little bit of both. “The most potent pieces of audio being produced today.” – The AvClub thememorypalace.us The […]
Climate change, political unrest, random violence – Western society can often feel like what the filmmaker Werner Herzog calls, “a thin layer of ice on top of an ocean of chaos and darkness.” In the United States, polls indicate that many people believe that law and order is the only thing protecting us from the […]
As the Second World War intensified, the Mediterranean became a critical theatre of operations for both the Axis and Allied powers. Control of the sea lanes in this region was vital for the supply lines of the British Empire and the Axis powers, particularly for Italy, which sought to dominate the eastern Mediterranean and secure […]
Rise to the Presidency Johnson was born into poverty and did not have the opportunity to attend school. Despite this, he apprenticed as a tailor and worked in various frontier towns before settling in Greeneville, Tennessee. Although he never received a formal education, he compensated by hiring others to read to him while he worked […]
The moon eyed people were supposedly nocturnal and could not see well during the day, they also supposedly had pale skin due to their lack of exposure to sunlight. Certain stone structures such as the one at Fort Mountain in northwest Georgia are associated with this legend. The Cherokee legend claimed that the moon eyed […]