It’s election day and there’s every chance you’re about to wait in a fairly long line and will need something to read to pass the time. Or maybe, like many, you’ve voted early and are at home nervously awaiting news and possibly in need of something diverting that can take you outside the current firestorm but still keep you within the general arena of politics and American history. In either case we’ve assembled a little reading list for you. Below you’ll find a collection of some of our favorite recent stories, pulled from some of the best nonfiction books of the year. 2020 has been a wild ride, and it’s still going. But we’ve always got good books to pull us through another intense day.
Good luck out there today, get out the vote, and happy reading.
The Civil War Hoax That Almost Took Down the Union
By Elizabeth Mitchell
In 1864, newspapers printed a message from the President threatening a new draft. Lincoln didn’t write it. So who did?
The FBI, the Second Red Scare, and the Folk Singer Who Cooperated
By Aaron J. Leonard
When the FBI went after musicians with alleged ties to Communism, Burl Ives saved his career by testifying, but at great personal cost.
A Heist on Time and a Half: Inside the Most Corrupt Police Squad in the Nation
By Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg
At a pivotal moment in Baltimore’s history, one cop ran his squad like a war machine. The corruption and abuse would soon spread.
How an Alaska Beach Became, For One Glorious Summer, a Poor Man’s Paradise
By Paul Starobin
In 1899, in the early days of the Gold Rush, miners transformed an Alaska beach into a bold experiment in common property.
The Hollywood Golden Age Producer Turned Cold War Spy
By Jonathan Gill
Boris Morros went to Hollywood to reinvent himself at Paramount. His Soviet handlers came along for the ride.
The Forgotten Kidnapping Epidemic That Shook Depression-Era America
By David Stout
A society under strain turned to wholesale abduction and ransom.
A Brief History of After-Hours Clubs
By Terry William
How new music, new drugs, and new communities sprang up in the legal gray zone known as the ‘after-hours club.’
My Uncle, The Librarian-Spy
By Kathy Peiss
In 1943, a Harvard librarian was quietly recruited by the OSS to save the scattered books of Europe.
