Damn History / October 2025

I am a drudge

Most popular-history writers are drudges. We spend years researching in archives that are too hot or too cold, paging through allergenic folders that are mostly useless to us. Then we wrangle our notes; we struggle with our thoughts and the thoughts of other people and type and delete for months on end. Much of the time nobody pays attention to us in our solitary work.

Sometimes, at rare moments, we stumble into public notice to discuss our work, or even rarer, to slosh through a media ballyhoo foreign to us. This latter experience overtook me last month, when the movie Nuremberg, adapted from my book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. I attended the event with my family.

We walked the Red Carpet outside the theater. It was strikingly red with crowds of movie fans in bleachers on both sides. These people fell into a baffled silence when we passed. They did not know who we were. One kind woman called out a compliment to my wife’s jumpsuit, and when I waved to the crowd one person waved back. (The crowd reanimated when Russell Crowe and Rami Malek followed us.)

In the screening hall, with all 2,000 seats filled, the film’s director James Vanderbilt identified me to the audience twice. I got whistles and applause. I wanted to take notes but felt inhibited. The person sitting in front of me asked if she could take a picture of me. Within hours that photo, with me dazed in the flash, illustrated an online article about the movie.

Nuremberg is excellent, a gigantic effort involving thousands of people to marvelous effect, and I feel good about recommending it. The post-screening party was full of famously familiar faces and happy people who congratulated me for a book I wrote in solitude thirteen years ago.

Back home, I scooped the cat litter box and took out the trash. I went back to work on my next popular-history book, due to the publisher in November. I’m still puzzling out the motivations of the people in the new narrative. I type and delete, and no one pays attention. I am, after all, a drudge.

Nuremberg opens in theaters worldwide beginning on November 7. Please linger for my credit.

In Damn History you'll find, as usual, recommendations on good and popularly accessible historical reading, with tips on writing and updates on my own work.

 — Jack El-Hai

Follow me on X at @Jack_ElHai, on Bluesky at @jackelhai.bsky.social, and on Threads at @jackelhai1.

Contact me by email at [email protected]

Personal Notes

My book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist is one of only two nonfiction titles on a list of ten books being adapted this fall for film.

For my recommendations of popular-history books, search X, Bluesky, or Threads for #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.

British fascists fueled the popularity of yoga in the West.

Other fascists plotted against Hollywood.

Business cards have a beautiful and unexpected history.

Miscarriage was and is a crime.

News of a vicious attack on a Vermeer painting in 1968 was suppressed.

Eighteenth-century sedan chairs did not offer smooth rides.

For 19 years, the trail was cold in the search for a young hiker.

Artificial eyes have blended art and craft for centuries.

Science has always needed outsiders.

Playing in the orchestra at Auschwitz was gruesome.

The Victorians were champs at humiliating each other.

Refrigeration changed how foods taste.

So many dramas here!

Resources

An audiobook reader says AI narrators are incapable of replacing him.

The Trump Administration is removing the history of slavery from national parks.

Registering work with the U.S. Copyright Office is the only way to fully protect your writing.

Do we live in a golden age of biography?

Scams continue to target writers. Ignore texts and social media direct messages from strangers.

“We emphasize that combating misinformation requires more than detecting falsehoods; it also requires understanding belief.”

Signs emerge that the humanities are not dead in colleges and universities.

“It is a characteristic of the weak and criminal to attribute to others the misfortunes that are the result of their own wickedness.” – Edgar Rice Burroughs, born 150 years ago last month

Housekeeping

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About me: I'm a history and science writer. I've contributed hundreds of articles to such publications as Smithsonian, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Magazine, Wired, Scientific American, Discover, GQ, Longreads 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 frequently give talks and lead workshops on the topics of my books as well as on the craft of nonfiction writing. To book me for your event, please contact Jayme Boucher, Hachette Speakers Bureau, at [email protected].

Please feel free to get in touch.