History of the Paperbacks
It's small. Portable. Affordable. Easy to slip into a coat pocket or toss into a suitcase. But the paperback book didn't just change how we read—it changed who could read. Before the 20th century, boo...
14 Maalis 10min
Conversations: How a Motley Crew of Characters Stopped the Invasion of America, w/ Sara Vladic
In this gripping Conversation Series episode, historian and investigative author Sara Vladic joins History Shorts to discuss her explosive new book, The Dangerous Shore: How a Motley Crew of Scientist...
13 Maalis 29min
Why American Troops Mutinied After VE Day
The war was over—but for thousands of American soldiers stationed overseas, the fight felt far from finished. In late 1945 and early 1946, frustration boiled over among U.S. troops waiting to be broug...
12 Maalis 9min
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a vast, secret network of safe houses, guides, abolitionists, and ordinary citizens who risked fines, imprisonment, and even death to help enslaved people escape bondage i...
11 Maalis 9min
What did the Founders Think About Religion?
Were America's Founding Fathers devout Christians, skeptical deists, or something more complicated? The answer is far less simple—and far more interesting—than modern debates often suggest. Figures li...
10 Maalis 9min
The Flying Tigers
Before the United States officially entered World War II, a small band of American volunteer pilots took to the skies over China to fight a war that wasn't yet theirs. Known as the Flying Tigers, this...
9 Maalis 10min
The Man Who Jumped from Space
In the thin, freezing edge of Earth's atmosphere, long before private spaceflight captured headlines, one man stepped out of a balloon gondola and fell toward the planet below. Joseph Kittinger, a U.S...
8 Maalis 8min
The Patty Hearst Kidnapping Ordeal
In 1974, America watched in shock as newspaper heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped from her California apartment by a radical group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. What began as a high-p...
7 Maalis 10min
