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- Damn History #81 | August 2024
Skyscraper construction: now that’s hard work!
Even though many popular-history writers love their work, some like to complain about it. The tedium of combing through archival documents for important information, the drudgery of writing, the chores of fact-checking and compiling source notes and indexes, etc., – all draw comparisons with the most agonizing work humans undertake.
“You always hear writers complain about the hellish difficulty of writing, but it’s a dishonest complaint,” Paul Theroux observed. Many jobs, maybe most, are worse. Yes, there are rough stretches, but overall writing popular history is creative, satisfying, and intellectually stimulating.
If you’ve been thinking about trying popular-history writing, why not start now? If you don’t like writing it, you can always read it instead.
Here in Damn History you'll find, as usual, recommendations on good and popularly accessible historical reading, with tips on writing and links to my own work.
Follow me on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @Jack_ElHai
Contact me at [email protected]
Personal Notes
Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, the central figure of my book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, recommended mental evaluations of political office seekers to keep malign people away from power.
For a bountiful collection of my popular-history book, article, and audiobook recommendations, search X (formerly known as Twitter) for the hashtag #popularhistory.
Recent Popular History from All Over
You may find some of these articles behind a paywall if you’ve exceeded the publisher’s allowance of free views.
Lt. Colonel Charity Early thought she’d be court-martialed after she contradicted a general who maligned the competence of the largely Black women in her WAC battalion.
A magician rescued a 1933 book from oblivion.
“The one who’d made a pass at me years ago?” The story of a forgotten campus scandal.
States and organizations have sought to criminalize abortion in the US since the nineteenth century.
Who was Karen Ramsey, who vanished more than 40 years ago?
All-women juries shaped legal history in centuries past.
Photographers spooked Victorian Age Americans who wanted privacy.
“There are many strange ways to die.”
A thrift shop purchase leads to a search for the identity of the women in discarded photographic negatives.
How the 1883 volcanic explosion on Krakatoa inspired artists.
Newly released documents shed light on the 1957 Kyshtym nuclear explosion, long shrouded in secrecy.
Resources
What should you do with your old personal journals?
A short video history of the Doomsday Clock.
If you want a soundtrack for the book you’re reading, you can have one.
How writers of historical fiction work with historical fact.
Tips on avoiding writing scams.
The art of the interview.
The process the world’s largest library uses to decide what becomes history.
Housekeeping
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More next month, and thanks for taking a look. And you are welcome to forward Damn History in its entirety to anyone.
About me: I'm a writer whose beat is history. I've contributed hundreds of articles to such publications as Smithsonian, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Magazine, Wired, Scientific American, Discover, GQ, Longreads.com, and many others. My books include The Lost Brothers: A Family’s Decades-Long Search, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness, Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines, and The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Goering, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WW2. I often give presentations to groups of writers, readers, and others.
Please feel free to get in touch.