Show Notes
I talk to a lot of history professors on this show, of course, but I'm always excited when I get a chance to talk to someone who is writing great history but working outside of a university setting. And my guest today didn't even start out as a historian, she found her way to narrative history after writing in other genres and venues first. Dr. Tracy Slater joins me in this episode to talk about her path as a writer and the challenges and freedoms of writing outside the academy while also balancing the work of a caregiver. Tracy has a PhD in English and American literature. You'll hear more about her career path shortly, which includes some adjunct teaching, a freelance writing career, and founding a literary series called Four Stories that took place in both Boston and Japan, where Tracy is now based with her family, although she was temporarily living in Toronto when I spoke with her this summer. Her first book was a memoir about her marriage, her struggle to start a family, and establishing a life in Japan called The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self, and Home on the Far Side of the World. Her newest book is a work of narrative history called Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp. It's a history that is both intimate and expansive and, unfortunately, continues to have increasingly relevant connections to our present-day experiences. For complete show notes, visit DraftingthePast.com.
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Visit draftingthepast.com for even more great nonfiction history book coverage, including book reviews, interviews with authors, and new book releases. Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. If you buy books through these links, you support independent bookstores, our authors, and Drafting the Past! About this episode: In this episode, Kate is joined by Dr. Shane White, the emeritus Challis Professor of History at the University of Sydney. Shane is a historian of US history, especially African American history, and has written or co-written seven books. His newest book is A Moment in the Sun: Black Manhattan Before the Civil War, and it is the product of decades of thinking and research. In it, he details the world of Black men and women in antebellum New York, bringing to life characters and moments that might otherwise be overlooked. As you’ll hear, it’s a book that emerges out of Shane’s incredibly detailed and intimate knowledge of one dense body of sources in particular, the district attorney’s records in the Municipal Archives of the City of New York, hundreds of thousands of files that date back to the 1790s. Listen to their conversation to learn about Shane’s dogged approach to research and his reflections on a career as a historian of the United States who lives and works in Australia. Mentioned in this episode: Shane White, A Moment in the Sun: Black Manhattan Before the Civil War Shane White, Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire Shane White and Graham White, The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History Through Songs, Sermons, and Speech Shane White and Graham White, Stylin’: African American Expressive Culture from Its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit Shane White, Stephen Garton, Stephen Robertson, and Graham White, Playing the Numbers: Gambling in Harlem Between the Wars Shane White, Stories of Freedom in Black New York Shane White, Somewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770-1810 The David Abraham scandal Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 Ian Tyrrell Michael McDonnell, Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America Robert Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York and the Lyndon Johnson books
Visit draftingthepast.com to subscribe and get episode updates, history book reviews, and more. You can subscribe for free, or, if you want to support our work and get ad-free episodes and articles, exclusive content, and other perks, become a paid subscriber today. Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. About this episode: When Katherine Grandjean’s new book, Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution, came out earlier this summer, somehow I missed it. But I’m awfully glad someone corrected that for me (shout out to historian Robert Parkinson), because this was a remarkable book. In it, Grandjean follows the trail of a pair of brothers who terrorized the Kentucky and Tennessee countryside for nine months in 1798, murdering dozens of people for reasons that were unclear to their contemporaries and to the people who have written about them for the past two hundred years. Grandjean not only tells a gripping, beautifully written story, but she weaves it with the uncertain political and social atmosphere of the United States in the wake of the American Revolution. It’s a story about masculine violence, class, property, and the creation of the nation, and it has surprising resonance even now. Dr. Katherine Grandjean is an associate professor of history at Wellesley University, and a historian of early America. Her first book was American Passage: The Communications Frontier in Early New England. In our conversation, she had insightful things to say about building tension, balancing narrative threads, and the hard, tireless work it took to track down the evidence that makes a story like this possible to write. Mentioned in this episode: Katherine Grandjean, Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution Katherine Grandjean, American Passage: The Communications Frontier in Early New England Jane Kamensky Jill Lepore F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye
Bookshop.org links are affiliate links. Subscribe for free to the Drafting the Past newsletter for podcast updates, book reviews, and more. Paid subscribers get ad-free episodes and exclusive content. In this episode, Kate interviews Dr. Thomas Andrews, a historian who cares deeply about the writing—and revision—process. Thomas is a professor of history at the University of Colorado Boulder and is also the faculty director of the Center for the American West. He’s the author of three books, including the Bancroft-award winning Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War, Coyote Valley: Deep History in the High Rockies, and his newest book, The Great Horse Flu: A Forgotten Pandemic and the Fate of Reconstruction America. In addition to his own writing, he has interviewed historians as part of the Writer’s Studio feature in the journal Modern American History, which is a series of terrific interviews about how some of the most highly regarded American historians work. As you might imagine, Kate and Thomas had a great time talking about the writing process and especially Thomas’ love of revision. This one also includes a treadmill desk, a harrowing publishing tale, and why he might have taken Bill Cronon’s dissertation advice a little too seriously. Mentioned in this episode Thomas Andrews, The Great Horse Flu: A Forgotten Pandemic and the Fate of Reconstruction America Thomas Andrews, Coyote Valley: Deep History in the High Rockies Thomas Andrews, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War Susan Orlean, “The Walking Alive,” on using a treadmill desk Writer’s Studio feature archives in Modern American History journal Linda Gordon William Cronon Richard White Donald Worster Patricia Limerick Curb Your Enthusiasm
Note: Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. Thanks for supporting the show and independent bookstores by purchasing books through these links! About this episode For this episode, Kate is joined by Eric Jay Dolin, the New York Times-bestselling author of 17 books, to talk about his writing process and what it’s like to build a career as an author of popular histories. His books include Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America; A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes; Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates; and Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution. His most recent book is The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail. His books have won awards and are frequently named best books of the year. Before writing history books, Eric worked in environmental policy and earned a PhD in environmental policy and planning from MIT. We talked about how his career has developed, the ups and downs of the book market, and he dished about advances, career trajectories, and why he thinks he’d rather have a huge book now than early in his career. Mentioned in this episode: Eric Jay Dolin, The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail Samuel Eliot Morison, The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860 Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History James Truslow Adams, The Founding of New England
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