Book cover of The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family by Dr. Kerri Greenidge
Biography & Autobiography

The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family

Sarah and Angelina Grimke—the Grimke sisters—are revered figures in American history, famous for rejecting their privileged lives on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand activists in the North. Their antislavery pamphlets, among the most influential of the antebellum era, are still read today. Yet retellings of their epic story have long obscured their Black relatives. In The Grimkes, award-winning historian Kerri Greenidge presents a parallel narrative, indeed a long-overdue corrective, shifting the focus from the white abolitionist sisters to the Black Grimkes and deepening our understanding of the long struggle for racial and gender equality. […Learn More]

Book cover of Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs by Juli Berwald
Biological Sciences

Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs

The story of the urgent fight to save coral reefs, and why it matters to us all

Coral reefs are a microcosm of our planet: extraordinarily diverse, deeply interconnected, and full of wonders. When they’re thriving, these fairy gardens hidden beneath the ocean’s surface burst with color and life. […Learn More]

Book cover of Jamestown, the Truth Revealed by William Kelso
Archaeology

Jamestown, the Truth Revealed

What was life really like for the band of adventurers who first set foot on the banks of the James River in 1607? Important as the accomplishments of these men and women were, the written records pertaining to them are scarce, ambiguous, and often conflicting. In Jamestown, the Truth Revealed, William Kelso takes us literally to the soil where the Jamestown colony began, unearthing footprints of a series of structures, beginning with the James Fort, to reveal fascinating evidence of the lives and deaths of the first settlers, of their endeavors and struggles, and new insight into their relationships with the Virginia Indians. […Learn More]

Book cover of A Nation of Deadbeats: An Uncommon History of America's Financial Disasters by Scott Reynolds Nelson
Biography & History

A Nation of Deadbeats: An Uncommon History of America’s Financial Disasters

The story of America is a story of dreamers and defaulters.  It is also a story of dramatic financial panics that defined the nation, created its political parties, and forced tens of thousands to escape their creditors to new towns in Texas, Florida, and California.  As far back as 1792, these panics boiled down to one simple question: Would Americans pay their debts—or were we just a nation of deadbeats? […Learn More]

Book cover of Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War by David C. Keehn

Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War 

Based on years of exhaustive and meticulous research, David C. Keehn’s study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret southern society that initially sought to establish a slave-holding empire in the “Golden Circle” region of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Keehn reveals the origins, rituals, structure, and complex history of this mysterious group, including its later involvement in the secession movement. […Learn More]