Subject: History
From Garfield to Harding: The Success of Midwestern Front Porch Campaigns
In 1880, James Garfield faced an important question as a presidential candidate–should he stump for office and stay quiet like most 19th Century contestants, or […]
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Fire In the Big House: America’s Deadliest Prison Disaster
On April 21, 1930-Easter Monday-some rags caught fire under the Ohio Penitentiary’s dry and aging wooden roof, shortly after inmates had returned to their locked […]
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The Birth of the FBI: Teddy Roosevelt, the Secret Service, and thevFight Over America’s Premier Law Enforcement Agency
Most people believe the Federal Bureau of Investigation began under J. Edgar Hoover in the 1920s or 1930s. Many also naturally assume it was developed […]
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Freedom libraries: the untold story of libraries for African Americans in the South
This book delves into how these libraries were the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, and the remarkable courage of the people who used them. […]
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For the love of books: stories of literary lives, banned books, author feuds, extraordinary characters, and more
A light-hearted book about books and the people who write them for all lovers of literature. Do you know: Which famous author died of caffeine […]
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We the people: The 500-year battle over who is American
“We the People.” The Constitution begins with those deceptively simple words, but how do Americans define that ‘We’? In We the People, Ben Railton argues […]
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This day in presidential history
For each of the 365 days of the year, Brandus offers fascinating facts, historical anecdotes, and pithy quotations from and about all the presidents of […]
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The plateau
During World War II, French villagers offered safe harbor to countless strangers – mostly children – as they fled for their lives. The same place […]
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The pandemic century: One hundred years of panic, hysteria, and hubris
Chronicles the last century of scientific struggle against deadly contagious disease–from the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic to the recent SARS, Ebola and Zika epidemics–examining related […]
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Moments of truth: a photographer’s experience of Kent State 1970
Working as a photographer for the Kent State University student newspaper and yearbook, Howard Ruffner was a college sophomore when the tragic shootings of May […]
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