Bellevue Hospital Pioneered Care For Presidents And Paupers
The history of New York's Bellevue hospital is also the history of medicine in the United States. From the days before doctors believed in germs through AIDS, the hospital led the way in innovation.
View ArticleOne Way To Bridge The Political Divide: Read The Book That's Not For You
"We all need to be reading across the lines we've drawn in our lives," says the National Book Foundation's Lisa Lucas. She recommends two books to help readers do just that.
View ArticleEmmett Till's Father Was Also Hanged: A New Book Tells His Story
A decade before his teenage son was lynched in Mississippi, Louis Till was serving overseas in World War II. Writing to Save a Life explores how Till was convicted of rape and murder and put to death.
View ArticleThe Greatest Hits Of 'The Platinum Age Of Television'
"Television has really become where a lot of the action is right now," critic David Bianculli says. His new book revisits the best of the small screen — from I Love Lucy to The Walking Dead.
View ArticleVolume 3 Of Eleanor Roosevelt Biography Chronicles The Rise Of An Activist
Feminist historian Blanche Wiesen Cook published the first volume of her biography of Roosevelt in 1992. Critic Maureen Corrigan says the newly released final volume is exhausting and exhilarating.
View ArticleHospice Chaplain Reflects On Life, Death And The 'Strength Of The Human Soul'
Kerry Egan's job is to help dying people accept their own mortality. It's profoundly sad, but it's also rewarding. "I'm constantly reminded of ... how much love people have for each other," she says.
View ArticleA Harrowing Tale Of Cold War Escape And Suppression In 'The Tunnels'
A new book explores a time in the early 1960s when two groups of diggers built tunnels under the Berlin Wall that were filmed and financed by U.S. television networks.
View ArticleKidnapped, Then Forced Into The Sideshow: The True Story Of The Muse Brothers
Journalist Beth Macy talks about George and Willie Muse, black albino brothers who were born in the Jim Crow South and were forced to become circus freaks. Her new book, Truevine, retells their story.
View ArticleIn 'The Tao Of Bill Murray,' A Lesson On Joy And Spontaneity
A new book reminds me why the actor has been my comedy hero ever since he started on Saturday Night Live when I was just a wisecracking high school student, says Adam Frank.
View ArticleHow Free Web Content Traps People In An Abyss Of Ads And Clickbait
Author and law professor Tim Wu says much of the "free" content on the Web comes at a price to users, who are subjected to ads that are targeted specifically at them and increasingly hard to ignore.
View Article'Truevine' Tells The Tale Of 2 Black Albino Brothers Forced To Work For The...
For years, black children around Roanoke, Va., heard the cautionary tale of Willie and George Muse, African American albino brothers who were kidnapped and forced to perform in a series of circuses.
View ArticleArtist David Hockney Says The Drive To Create Pictures 'Is Deep Within Us'
The nearly 80-year-old artist has written a book called A History of Pictures. It's chock-full of art he has loved looking at and includes one painter he credits with inventing Hollywood lighting.
View ArticleSkeletons In The Closet: What Ghost Stories Reveal About America's Past
Why are so many ghosts unmarried women? And why doesn't Richmond, Va., have ghost stories about slavery? Writer Colin Dickey explores all that and more in a new book called Ghostland.
View ArticleNo, 'You Can't Touch My Hair' And Other Lessons From Comic Phoebe Robinson
In her new book, the stand-up comic and podcast host writes about what it's like to be black and female in America. "Black hair seems to raise a lot of nonblack people's blood pressure," she writes.
View Article'Eyes On The Street' Details Jane Jacobs' Efforts To Put Cities First
Robert Kanigel's new biography recounts the life of Jacobs, a Greenwich Village public intellectual who championed street life and community. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls it a powerful work.
View Article'Kingdom' Examines Afghanistan Through The Prism Of The Karzai Family
Journalist Joshua Partlow was in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2012, a time of corruption, government dysfunction and civilian hostility to U.S. military operations. His new book is A Kingdom of Their Own.
View Article'Hidden Figures': How Black Women Did The Math That Put Men On The Moon
Back in the days of the space race, "computers" were people — often women — who performed vital calculations. Hidden Figures tells the stories of the women who got some of the first men to space.
View ArticleBlogger Luvvie Ajayi Is Judging You With Her New Book
Blogger Luvvie Ajayi discusses her new book I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual, which has her takes on pop culture and more.
View Article'Sing For Your Life' Recounts A Journey From Juvenile Detention To The Opera...
Ryan Speedo Green grew up in a trailer park and did time in juvenile detention before discovering he had a unique singing voice. He now performs at New York's Metropolitan Opera.
View ArticleThe 'Racial Cleansing' That Drove 1,100 Black Residents Out Of Forsyth...
In 1912, white mobs set fire to black churches and black-owned businesses. Eventually the entire black population of Forsyth County was driven out, says Blood at the Root author Patrick Phillips.
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