Read an excerpt from Elizabeth and Hazel There are no simple stories, if they’re true. Fifty five years ago, a young black student named Elizabeth Eckford moved toward Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas to attend class for the first time. She was part of what would be known as
As ambitious as the project of charting the history of science over the past few centuries sounds, William Bynum takes on the task readily in his latest book, A Little History of Science, fashioned after E.H. Gombrich‘s bestselling A Little History of the World. He brings readers, both young and old, on a
Since Election Day, a host of scapegoats have been blamed for Mitt Romney’s campaign loss – Obama’s “gifts” to minorities, Governor Chris Christie, single women, Former President Bush – the list is tireless. Yet perhaps the most convincing factor has less to do with Romney and more with the Republican
Charles Dickens is perhaps the most beloved figure of British literary heritage. His writing has become a revered aspect of Great Britain’s national identity, one entrenched with the warm Victorian traditions of family, hearth and home. Michael Slater, in his new biography, The Great Charles Dickens Scandal connects Dickens’ celebrity with
Follow @yaleSCIbooks The name Thomas Jefferson brings to mind some of his greatest achievements: Author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and Founder of the University of Virginia. But there’s another side to America’s Renaissance man that, though less well known, is just as praiseworthy.
Acclaimed Israeli novelist Amos Oz is not religious, and yet underpinning his knowledge and his identity, his life and learning, and his family relationships, are Hebrew texts—Torah, Talmud, and Haggadah as well as modern literature and timeless lore. In Jews and Words, published today by Yale University Press, Oz and
Follow @yaleARTbooks In the introduction to Circus and the City: New York, 1793-2010, the catalogue accompanying a fabulous exhibition of the same name currently on view at the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan, curator Matthew Wittmann recalls his own experience watching the hulking elephants of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and
There was a time when historians would have to accept some details of the past as great unknowns. Without the ability to go back in time, recording and relating history will always pose difficulties. But each year, more and more of these oppositions are being removed. Today, modern archaeological research
Who exactly was Geronimo? The legendary Apache fighter is one of the most famous American Indians in history, but his public image has changed dramatically through the years. In his latest book, Geronimo, historian Robert Utley tries to solve the mystery of this persona, questioning the validity of the impressions
Read an excerpt from Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance Carl Van Vechten, the controversial patron of the Harlem Renaissance, was indeed a Renaissance man: art critic, novelist, adviser, social host and man-about-town. Yet in his role as a letter writer we see him as a passionate epistolary friend.