History in Five

Bart Ehrman, a master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, shows how a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries.

Bart Ehrman, a master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, shows how a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries.

Bart Ehrman, a master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, shows how a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries.

We check out Mark Whitaker’s SMOKETOWN, a history of Pittsburgh’s renaissance that featured one of the nation’s most influential African-American newspapers, two dominant Negro League teams, a host of jazz greats honing their chops, and an overall sense of black entrepreneurship.

THE ROAD TO CAMELOT by veteran political reports Tom Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie chronicles John F. Kennedy's bid for the White House that practically invented modern campaigning and forever changed politics.

PRESIDENT MCKINLEY by Robert A. Merry recounts the political life of the 25th President of the United States, whose accomplishments - especially in foreign policy - are often overshadowed by his successor, Teddy Roosevelt.

We check out John Avlon's WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL about founding father and first president George Washington's landmark farewell address, which contained some stern warnings to the young nation.

A fascinating and cautionary case study of how genocide can take root at the local level—turning neighbors, friends, and even family members against one another—as seen through the eastern European border town of Buczacz during World War II. Historian Omer Bartov’s ANATOMY OF A GENOCIDE, profoundly changes our understanding of the social dynamics of mass killing and the nature of the Holocaust as a whole.

Fed up with their government, these are the stories of how Americans came together to form the unstoppable movement of the people.

Given current echoes of the Cold War, as Putin’s Russia rattles the world order, the tenuous balance of power and uncertain order of the late 1940s is as relevant as ever. THE MARSHALL PLAN provides critical context into understanding today’s international landscape.