History Reading Resources

May 27, 2022

Once Upon a Time, Things Also Weren’t So Great

These novels remind us that people have made horrible mistakes since the beginning of time. (They also contain love, joy and triumph!)

May 20, 2022

Haiti's Lost Billions

Two decades after Haiti won its independence from France, a squadron of warships returned with an ultimatum from King Charles X.
Dec 28, 2021

Time Capsule in Virginia Yields a Trove of Memorabilia, but No Prized Picture

Historians had hoped to find a rare, century-old photo of Abraham Lincoln in a box discovered beneath a pedestal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. It was not to be.
Dec 05, 2018

9-Year-Old Boy Helps Repeal Snowball Throwing Ban in Colorado Town

Dane Best, 9, a student at Range View Elementary school in Severance, Colo., threw a snowball in the Town Hall parking lot on Monday.
Feb 20, 2019

Overlooked No More: Dorothy Bolden, Who Started a Movement for Domestic Workers

Dorothy Bolden circa the 1970s, when she led the National Domestic Workers Union of America. “When she saw something that wasn’t fair, or just, or right, she would say something,” Representative John Lewis of Georgia said.
Mar 20, 2019

What’s Wrong With This Diorama? You Can Read All About It

This diorama at the American Museum of Natural History was amended in a way that allows museumgoers to see the historical inaccuracies it perpetuates.
Apr 07, 2019

In San Francisco, Making a Living From Your Billionaire Neighbor’s Trash

SAN FRANCISCO — Three blocks from Mark Zuckerberg’s $10 million Tudor home in San Francisco, Jake Orta lives in a small, single-window studio apartment filled with trash.
May 14, 2019

Chinese Railroad Workers Were Almost Written Out of History. Now They’re Getting Their Due.

It’s been 150 years since two railroads were joined together to form the first Transcontinental Railroad. At a ceremony in Utah, Chinese railroad workers were recognized for the pivotal role they played in its construction.
Mar 14, 2022

At Angkor Wat, ‘You Have One of the World’s Wonders to Yourself’

Few have visited Cambodia during the pandemic, making it possible to imagine that you alone have rediscovered the glorious temple complex.
Jan 04, 2022

The Nobel Peace Prize That Paved the Way for War

This is the story behind how Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, won a Nobel Prize for making peace with his country’s longtime enemy — and then used the alliance to plan a war.