Visit shaethehistorian.substack.com to view all the wonderful articles that have been posted this week or read some old ones. We’re thinking of creating a section on the website specifically for updates on nonfiction book releases and curated book recommendations. If you’d be interested in this respond to this email or comment below.
For now, here is a round up of what’s been happening!
I can’t believe we’re more than 60 episodes in which means less than 40 days until election day! Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
Here are some highlights from this week’s episodes:
Imagine being arrested in the middle of the night, not for a crime, but for loving the person you married. This is the story of Mildred Loving, whose quiet defiance against injustice changed the course of American history.
Listen here:
Imagine walking into a press conference, the only Black woman in the room, and asking the U.S. president a question so bold, it shakes the political establishment. That’s exactly what Ethel L. Payne did, and she made sure the struggles of Black Americans couldn’t be ignored by those in power.
Listen here:
At just six years old, she was escorted by federal marshals into a classroom, while an angry mob of adults shouted outside. Ruby Bridges didn’t just attend school that day—she walked into the heart of America’s battle over segregation and became a symbol of bravery far beyond her years.
Listen here:
Coming Home by Brittney Griner
I’m only a few pages in and I’m literally speechless. Here is the description:
“On February 17, 2022, Brittney Griner arrived in Moscow ready to spend the WNBA offseason playing for the Russian women's basketball team where she had been the centerpiece of previous championship seasons. Instead, a security checkpoint became her gateway to hell when she was arrested for mistakenly carrying under one gram of medically prescribed hash oil. Brittney's world was violently upended in a crisis she has never spoken in detail about publicly--until now.
Here is what our community is reading this week!
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. Dungy
In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013, with her husband and daughter, the community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens.
Lovely One: A Memoir by Ketanji Brown Jackson
With this unflinching account, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson invites readers into her life and world, tracing her family's ascent from segregation to her confirmation on America's highest court within the span of one generation. Named "Ketanji Onyika," meaning "Lovely One," based on a suggestion from her aunt, a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa, Justice Jackson learned from her educator parents to take pride in her heritage since birth.
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb
This is the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction, of the lives of the great, the near-great, and the forgotten.
Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
What is autism? A lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and more--and the future of our society depends on our understanding it. Wired reporter Steve Silberman unearths the secret history of autism, long suppressed by the same clinicians who became famous for discovering it, and finds surprising answers to the crucial question of why the number of diagnoses has soared in recent years.
My Side of the River: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips. She was preparing to enter her freshman year of high school as the number one student when suddenly, her own country took away the most important right a child has: the right to have a family.
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel
Stéphane Bréitwieser is the most prolific art thief of all time.
He pulled off more than 200 heists, often in crowded museums in broad daylight.
His girlfriend served as his accomplice.
His collection was worth an estimated $2 billion.
He never sold a piece, displaying his stolen art in his attic bedroom.
He felt like a king.
Until everything came to a shocking end.
In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, Michael Finkel gives us one of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of our times, a riveting story of art, theft, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.
Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents.
But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran.
Weird Medieval Guys: How to Live, Laugh, Love (and Die) in Dark Times by Olivia Swarthout
Bursting with wisdom and artwork from the Middle Ages, this handy guide will give you time-tested solutions for all of life's biggest problems. Whether it's choosing an appropriate dog name like Garlik or Filthe, becoming an irresistible suitor even though you can't joust, surviving encounters with rabbits and dragons, or coming to terms with your inevitable demise, this book is full of illuminating advice that is sure to brighten up the darkest of times.
The Return of George Washington by Edward J. Larson
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson reveals how George Washington saved the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and serve as our first president.
After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington shocked the world: he retired. In December 1783, General Washington, the most powerful man in the country, stepped down as Commander in Chief and returned to private life at Mount Vernon. Yet as Washington contentedly grew his estate, the fledgling American experiment floundered.
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