Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing
The most celebrated political biographer of our era unveils the painstaking methods out of which his masterworks have been built.
Barbara Spindel
Barbara Spindel is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Daily Beast, The San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York, Tablet, Details, Spin, the New York Times‘ Motherlode blog, and other publications. She holds a Ph.D. in American studies.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
A sweeping new look at the modern history of American Indians challenges many of the narratives that have defined mainstream…
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
A new life of the great foe of slavery and racism contends with its subject’s own monumental work of autobiography.
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
At ground zero of the opiod crisis, a journalist looks at the devastation across communities and families — and how…
The Book that Changed America: How Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation
When a network of American readers passed around a single copy of Darwin’s revolutionary work, they enlisted the book in…
Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon
The complex, tragically brief political career of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. provides biographer Larry Tye an opportunity to look at…
The Necessary Villain: Nathaniel Philbrick on Benedict Arnold and “Valiant Ambition”
Nathaniel Philbrick, author of “Bunker Hill” and “In the Heart of the Sea,” turns his historical imagination to the question…
The Big Shift: Rebecca Traister on the New Single Majority
The author’s new book studies a “revolution of options” that have permanently reshaped America. A conversation with Barbara Spindel.
The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time
You think you’re capable of spotting a swindle? Maria Konnikova argues otherwise, and she’s got science on her side. Review…
The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction
Are we living through a “crisis of attention”? The answer may lie in how we still learn from one another.
Laura Hillenbrand: At the Crescendo of a Life
The author of Unbroken on adapting the book for both film and young adults, finding a sister in Angelina Jolie,…
Even This I Get to Experience
How the creator of Archie Bunker brought political awareness to the idiot box.
Five Days at Memorial
In Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, one hospital’s isolation produced a nightmare for doctors and their patients.
March: Book One
A congressman and civil rights leader looks back on the struggle — in graphic form.
Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion
The complicated woman who pioneered family planning and advocated population control.
Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage
The life of the “first person of African descent in the Americas to publish a book.”
Unbroken
A true story of a World WarII airman’s unimaginable ordeal, and endurance against the odds, from theauthor of Seabiscuit.
Amitava Kumar
The novelist and criticdiscusses the “ecology of terror” and the challenge of writing withhonesty.
When Skateboards Will Be Free
The child of would-be revolutionaries on growing up as a socialist in America.
Pamela Newkirk: Letters from Black America
A new book unveils two centuries of illuminating correspondence.