Nothing like the Federal Theatre Project had ever existed before its creation in the 1930s. 30 million Americans attended its productions. All of this, explains James Shapiro, author of The Playbook (Faber Books), cost no more than a single battleship👇 unseenhistories.com/james-shapiro-…

I went to my publisher’s office in London to see the paperback version of ‘Women in Intelligence’ for the first time Yale University Press London📚 Released on June 25th!

For centuries travellers have been walking the roads to Rome. From the embassies of Henry VIII to the populist politics of today, Catherine Fletcher reflects on the personal journey that lies behind her new book The Roads to Rome: A History (The Bodley Head)👇 unseenhistories.com/catherine-flet…

Unseen Histories includes Nadine Akkerman (Professor Nadine Akkerman) and Pete Langman's (Spycrafty) Spycraft in its New History Books for June 2024 round-up.  Check it out:  unseenhistories.com/new-history-bo…

"The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope." — Samuel Johnson. Farrar,Straus&Giroux have published Life, Liberty, Happiness so elegantly and here it is, newly released in paperback, with Johnson, Franklin, Macaulay and Paine gazing out.

Along with a new government, tomorrow brings a range of excellent new history books. Including titles from Maureen Callahan, AJ West #AlwaysTogether, Nathen Amin ✒️📚 and Andrea Zuvich here's our guide to ten books that will be published in July.👇 unseenhistories.com/july-history-b…

A fascinating insight into the wartime exploits of Polish resistance fighter Elżbieta Zawacka during WW2 by clare mulley at the Hertford Literary Festival — a captivating, extraordinary talk that was very well received. Many thanks Clare! 🇵🇱

The summer of 1969 brought the most thrilling journey in the history of humankind. Today, 55 years ago, the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission began President John F. Kennedy's ambition of landing on the Moon and returning safely to Earth. Read it👇 unseenhistories.com/apollo-11-summ…

research at the Imperial War Museum this week & a chance to see colourised photographs in the First World War gallery. Fantastic to have met Jordan Lloyd of Unseen Histories to discuss these colourisations, the Tutankhamun archive and more! Unseen Histories

The start of August brings our new list of recommended history books for the month ahead. It features titles by Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦, Petroc Trelawny, Alice Loxton, Sara Charles and others. Our preview here👇 unseenhistories.com/history-books-…

Official publication day for God’s Own Gentlewoman coinciding with the publication of this piece I wrote for Unseen Histories. No paywall but sign up to their mailing list to read it. unseenhistories.com/gods-own-gentl…

Here is our list of recommended new history books, all published over the weeks ahead. Including titles by Serhii Plokhy. Dr Sara Lodge, Alice Hunt, William Dalrymple and more! 👇 unseenhistories.com/september-2024…

During a series of lectures on the expeditions to Everest in the 1920s, George Mallory was repeatedly asked what it was that drew him to the mountains. Daniel Light opens his new book on the history of mountaineering with Mallory's answer to that question unseenhistories.com/the-white-ladd…

On Samuel Johnson's (new style) birthday, a little piece on my favourite of his great Rambler essays — No. 2: 'The necessity and danger of looking into futurity' unseenhistories.com/samuel-johnson…

'Hope for Johnson was an emotion that existed in the fraught realm of the human imagination. This was not a ‘serene, objective, rational’ place ... suited to making calm decisions but rather a part of the mind that was restless, devouring and unpredictably alive in its own right’

The execution of King Charles I in 1649 is one of the most dramatic and consequential events in English history. Alice Hunt's new book, 'Republic', tells the story of what happened over the decade that followed. unseenhistories.com/execution-of-k…

Travelling around Japan in olden times was complicated by the shoguns' prohibition of all wheeled transport, save for carts used to carry goods. Author of The Shortest History of Japan, Lesley Downer, recounts the inventive ways people used to get about. unseenhistories.com/travel-in-anci…

Today is publication day for a number of our favourite October history books. Here's the full list, including new titles from Helen Castor, Damien Lewis, Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Annie Gray and more. unseenhistories.com/history-books-…

Gosh, I'm in very good company here.