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History and Current Events January 2026 |
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Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen
by Cheryl W. Thompson
NPR investigative journalist and the daughter of a Tuskegee Airman, Cheryl W. Thompson explores the stories of the 27 Tuskegee Airmen - the Black pilots who fought for America in WWII - who went missing in combat, the lives they lived, the reasons their planes went down, why the remains of all but two were never found, and the impact their disappearances had on their families and communities. In 1945, World War II ended one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Geared for battle were nearly 1,000 trailblazing Black pilots trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, an unrepentantly segregated facility in Alabama. Hailing from the Iowa cornfields to the Texas Gulf Coast to the tobacco plantations of North Carolina, the Tuskegee Airmen already proved, under the toughest circumstances, to be among the most resilient and defiantly patriotic men of the Army Air Corps. 27 of them disappeared during the final critical missions in Europe. So, too, would the government's efforts to find them or help to bring closure to the loved ones that the valiant 332nd Fighter Group left behind. In Forgotten Souls, award-winning investigative journalist Cheryl W. Thompson delves into the true stories of the Black combat pilots who faced unimaginable racism--before, during and after the war--from a military that told them they were less than, even as their courage and aviation prowess saved scores of White brothers-in-arms from the enemy and possibly death. As cruel as war itself could be, the friends, family, communities and fellow Tuskegee Airmen who mourned the lost pilots never imagined how unforgivable it could get. After 80 years, Forgotten Souls honors the impact they made, and the sacrifices they endured on America's behalf.
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| Captain's Dinner: A Shipwreck, an Act of Cannibalism, and a Murder Trial That... by Adam CohenIn 1884, the starving crew of the shipwrecked yacht Mignonette killed and cannibalized the vessel's cabin boy in accordance with the "custom of the sea." The resulting murder trial set a precedent that changed the course of legal history. Journalist Adam Cohen's engaging true crime account offers a richly detailed chronicle of the rapidly shifting mores of the Victorian era. For fans of: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann. |
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| Driven by the Monsoons: Through the Indian Ocean and the Seas of China by Barry CunliffeArchaeologist Barry Cunliffe's sweeping and illuminating history surveys nearly two millennia of Asian history by exploring the role the Indian Ocean played in trade and travel. Try this next: The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple. |
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| Mexico: A 500-Year History by Paul GillinghamHistorian Paul Gillingham's evocative and nuanced history of Mexico's global influence chronicles the country's evolution, from Spain's colonization of the Aztec empire in the early 16th century to Mexico's role today. Further reading: America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin. |
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Sweet Victory: How the Berlin Airlift Divided East and West
by Joseph Pearson
The fascinating story of how a forgotten group of airmen--who had spent World War II dropping Allied bombs on Berlin--risked their lives in 1948-49 dropping chocolate bars from the sky. After Hitler's defeat in World War II, Europe's ruins were divided between East and West. The center of the struggle for influence was Berlin, split between the victorious Allied powers: the Soviets on one side and the Anglo-American and French forces on the other. Berlin was closer to the Soviet border than Paris, a strategic springboard for Stalin to rule Central Europe. In June of 1948, three years after the war, Stalin made his move to take complete control of the city. Laying siege, he blocked off supplies and transport to the Western sectors. The stakes could not have been higher: the Russian leader risked nuclear conflict. A false move--even one American plane shot down by Russian fighters--could mean the atomic drop that American generals were contemplating. Was Berlin worth this enormous risk, and how would the West react? The Soviets expected West Berlin would be easy to win. They were stunned when their adversaries launched, instead, a daring operation to supply Berlin by plane. With 277,500 flights in total, one landing in Berlin every three minutes, British and American pilots delivered 2.3 million tons of essentials such as coal and flour and, famously, candy and chocolate. The Berlin Airlift became the largest air operation in history. The airlift, meanwhile, transformed West Germans from foes into willing partners against Stalin. In this sense, the first victory against Germany came in 1945--when the Allied powers pummeled it into submission. The sweet victory came three years later when the Western powers conquered the hearts and minds of their former enemy. The Berlin Airlift is one of the century's most dangerous and least understood crises of the twentieth century. Inexperienced and armed to the teeth, the world's superpowers surveyed each other for the first time. The Cold War began in this city in 1948-49, just as it would end there forty years later.
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Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire
by Julian Sancton
The riveting true story of a legendary Spanish galleon that sunk off the coast of Colombia with over $1 billion in gold and silver--and one man's obsessive quest to find it--from the New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth Roger Dooley wasn't looking for the San José. But an accidental discovery in the dusty stacks of a Spanish archive led him to the story of a lifetime, the tale of a great eighteenth-century treasure ship loaded with riches from the New World and destined for Spain. But that ship, the galleon San José, met a darker fate. It was drawn into a pitched battle with British ships of war off the coast of Cartagena, and when the smoke cleared, the San José and its bounty had disappeared into the ocean, its coordinates lost to time. Though a diver at heart, Dooley was an unlikely candidate to find the San José. He had little in the way of serious credentials, yet his tenacity and single-minded devotion to finding and excavating the ship powered him across four decades, even as he became a man in exile from the country of his birth. As Dooley jousted with famous treasure hunters and well-funded competitors, he slowly homed in on a patch of sea that might contain a three-hundred-year-old shipwreck--or nothing at all. Neptune's Fortune is a thrilling adventure, taking readers from great naval battles on the high seas to the sun-soaked shores that nurtured history's most notorious treasure hunters, to the archives that held the secret keys to lost fortune on the ocean floor.
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Queens at War: England's Medieval Queens Book Four
by Alison Weir
The tumultuous period in English history that marked the end of the medieval era and the rise of the Tudors comes to stunning life in the final volume of Alison Weir's four-part Medieval Queens series, filled with dramatic true stories chronicling the turbulent reigns of the last five Plantagenet queens. The fifteenth century was a violent age. In Queens at War, Alison Weir chronicles the five queens who got caught up in wars that changed the courses of their lives: the Hundred Years' War between England and France, and the Wars of the Roses between the royal Houses of Lancaster and York. Against this tempestuous backdrop, Weir describes the lives of five Plantagenet queens, who occupied the consort's throne from 1403 to 1485. Joan of Navarre was happily married to King Henry IV but was accused of witchcraft by Henry's heir and imprisoned. Paris-born Katherine of Valois's political marriage to Henry V was meant to bring peace between England and France. It didn't, and Henry died during the Hundred Years' War without ever seeing his newborn heir, Henry VI, who was wed to another French princess, Margaret of Anjou, in 1445. In the Wars of the Roses, Margaret staunchly supported her husband and son. Henry's successor, Edward IV, became embroiled in scandal after he fell in love with and married Elizabeth Widville, mother of the tragic Princes in the Tower. The notorious Richard III usurped Edward's throne and married Anne Neville, who died after losing her only child, forsaken by her husband. Underpinned by extensive reading of original sources (The Washington Post), Weir's Medieval Queens series strips away centuries of historical mythologizing to shed light on the genuine accomplishments and bravery of these fascinating female monarchs. Queens at War brings the series to an action-packed close.
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Running Deep: Bravery, Survival, and the True Story of the Deadliest Submarine in World War II
by Tom Clavin
The true story of the deadliest submarine in World War II and the courageous captain who survived torture and imprisonment at the hands of the enemy. There was one submarine that outfought all other boats in the Silent Service in World War II: the USS Tang. Captain Richard Hetherington O'Kane commanded the attack submarine that sunk more tonnage, rescued more downed aviators, and successfully completed more surface attacks than any other American submarine. These undersea predators were the first to lead the offensive rebound against the Japanese, but at great cost: Submariners would have six times the mortality rate as the sailors who manned surface ships. The Tang achieved its greatest success on October 24, 1944, when it took on an entire Japanese convoy and destroyed it. But its 24th and last torpedo boomeranged, returning to strike the Tang. Mortally wounded, the boat sunk, coming to rest on the bottom, 180 feet down. After hours of struggle, nine of the 87 crewmen, including O'Kane, made it to the surface. Captured by the Japanese, the Tang sailors joined other submariners and flyers - including Louis Zamperini and Pappy Boyington - at a torture camp whose purpose was to gain vital information from inmates and otherwise let them die from malnutrition, disease, and abuse. A special target was Captain O'Kane after the Japanese learned of the headlines about the Tang. Against all odds, when the camp was liberated in August 1945, O'Kane, at only 90 pounds, still lived. The following January, Richard O'Kane limped into the White House where President Truman bestowed him with the Medal of Honor. This is the true story of death and survival in the high seas--and of the submarine and her brave captain who would become legends.
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Lincoln's Ghost: Houdini's War on Spiritualism and the Dark Conspiracy Against the American Presidency
by Brad Ricca
The incredible untold story of how the world's greatest magician, Harry Houdini, waged war upon Spiritualism, uncovering unknown magic, political conspiracies, and surprising secrets along the way.You won't live forever, Houdini. You've got to DIE. I put a curse on you . . . During a séance in 1924, Houdini--the greatest entertainer in the world--was cursed by a vengeful spirit, who said his days were numbered. Houdini laughed. He believed talking to the dead was impossible. By 1926, Houdini was dead. This is the untold story of the last performance of Harry Houdini, who--inspired by his hero Abraham Lincoln--devotes himself full-time to a personal crusade against Spiritualism, the practice of speaking to the dead. In a spellbinding journey across Jazz Age America, haunted by the aftermath of the Great War and a deadly pandemic, Houdini encounters modern-day haunted houses, warlocks, and monsters, and uncovers a shocking conspiracy that stretches all the way to the American presidency--and to the House of Houdini itself. In a compelling dual-timeline narrative alternating between Houdini's 1926 dramatic courtroom testimony before Congress and the last otherworldly cases he takes on that lead him there, Lincoln's Ghost is a powerful examination of deception, love, politics, the afterlife, and the very nature of magic itself.
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