Paula Tarnapol Whitacre is a transplanted New Englander who now lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She became a freelance writer shortly after DC’s “Blizzard of 1996,” when she realized she could make a living from home instead of trudging downtown to an office. Her biography of Julia Wilbur, A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time (Potomac Books, 2017), tells the story of another woman who made a mid-life change — an abolitionist from Rochester, NY, who worked as a relief agent in Union-occupied Alexandria during the Civil War and then spent the rest of her life in Washington.
18 entries by Paula Tarnapol Whitacre
A 19th-century political movement feels eerily familiar in the 21st.
Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?: Letters of Love and Lust from the White House
By Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
This mostly staid compilation is far from sexy.
The Huxleys
By Alison Bashford
A sweeping, intelligent look at a trailblazing family.
American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860
By Edward L. Ayers
A broad, beneficent examination of the six decades before the Civil War.
Two Roads Home: Hitler, Stalin and the Miraculous Survival of My Family
By Daniel Finkelstein
A harrowing account of escaping the Nazis and the Gulag.
Tabula Rasa: Volume 1
By John McPhee
The master wordsmith reflects on his stumbles and false starts.
The Turning Point
By Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
A deftly wrought, limited glimpse of the canonical author’s life and environs.
I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War against Reconstruction
By Kidada E. Williams
Harrowing firsthand accounts of the infamous “night riders.”
The Huxleys: An Intimate History of Evolution
By Alison Bashford
A sweeping, intelligent look at a trailblazing family.
The Last King of America
By Andrew Roberts
He’s hardly the bumbling, rapping monarch from “Hamilton.”
The Turning Point: 1851 — A Year That Changed Charles Dickens and the World
By Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
A deftly wrought, limited glimpse of the canonical author’s life and environs.
The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III
By Andrew Roberts
He’s hardly the bumbling, rapping monarch from “Hamilton.”
Stolen
By Richard Bell
A little-known part of the Peculiar Institution is brought to light in this turbulent, affecting story.
Lady First
By Amy S. Greenberg
A pre-Civil War political spouse recognizes the power of her position.
A little-known part of the Peculiar Institution is brought to light in this turbulent, affecting story.
Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk
By Amy S. Greenberg
A pre-Civil War political spouse recognizes the power of her position.
The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell’s Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West
By John F. Ross
Meet the public servant who secured one of the country's iconic national treasures.
The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur
By Scott S. Greenberger
One of America’s lesser-known commanders-in-chief finally gets his due.