By Julie Winch

The Clamorgans: One Family’s History of Race in America

A fascinating saga of the twists and turns of ever-evolving racial identity in our culture.

Emma Rothschild

The Inner Life of Empires

The fortunes of a large Scottish family illustrate the material opportunities and moral challenges that arose from Britain’s expansion of empire.

Miles Unger

Machiavelli: A Biography

From a journalist and art historian, an accessible guide to understanding the man and the thinker behind The Prince.

Clarence Darrow, Twice

Two fine biographies look at the deeply flawed man behind some of history’s most famous legal cases.

By Kari J. Winter

The American Dreams of John B. Prentis, Slave Trader

This absorbing work looks at one man’s betrayal of his innate sense of justice in pursuit of wealth.

By Scott Miller

The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century

How the Industrial Revolution and political climate of the time caused William McKinley to cross paths with his killer.

Barbara A. Gannon

The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic

Interracial attitudes in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Adam Hochschild

To End All Wars

In lieu of battles, a look at the conflict between supporters and opponents of the war, mostly in Great Britain.