Recently I got a letter in the mail from former U.S. Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal. This was not completely out of the…
On the morning of June 6, 1944 American soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy to retake Europe, unsure of what lay…
One of my favorite history podcasts, BackStory, selected my book Cork Wars for its monthly book club, BookStory. So the other day…
Not long ago I had the pleasure of talking with the fine writer Cathy Alter for the Washington Independent Review of Books.
My essay on Literary Hub explores how writing about families can lead you down twisting paths.
In a new episode, Angus and I discuss Cork Wars and the circumstances that set up one small industry’s unexpectedly critical importance during the war.
Our conversation ranged across the fears of sabotage in America, the role of cork in American industry, innovation, and wartime intelligence.
At the Virginia Festival of the Book’s panel “Commonplace to Critical” Matthew Roth and I spoke with moderator Nina Earnest about everyday items that became sensations. They either went big overnight in wartime, or over the course of a century. Who gets caught in the middle?
In the closing months of World War II, Americans talked about how and when the war would end, and about how life…
Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a famously unholy mess. After the 2018 celebration, some wondered if it had gone too far.…
