Damn History #89 / April 2025
My free monthly newsletter for readers and writers of history
Great nonfiction stories
This week I have returned home after spending the past three months as a writer-in-residence at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, an institute for advanced study in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities in Delmenhorst, Germany. I mixed with the other international fellows, learned about their projects, wrote an awful lot on my own project, took part in spirited discussions, and gave a presentation on the qualities of a great factual story.
The video of my talk is buried within the website of the institute, so I’ll give you the condensed version of my presentation. Here are the qualities of great nonfiction stories, including popular-history narratives, I discussed:
• intriguing characters, especially in pairs
• wants and obstacles that confront the characters
• change that happens because of the characters’ efforts
• a universal narrative theme, expressible in a single word
• settings that appeal to readers’ senses
Here in Damn History you’ll find, as usual, recommendations on good and popularly accessible historical reading, with tips on writing and updates on my own work.
Follow me on X at @Jack_ElHai, on Bluesky at @jackelhai.bsky.social, and on Threads at @jackelhai1.
Contact me by email at jack@el-hai.com
Personal Notes
My next nonfiction book, Face in the Mirror, will be published on May 20. It’s about Andy Sandness, who shot himself, received grueling facial reconstruction, and ten years later underwent a face transplant at the Mayo Clinic. You can order it now!
Recent Popular History from All Over
You may find some of these articles behind a paywall if you’ve exceeded the publisher’s allowance of free views.
Officials changed the names of many fewer immigrant families at Ellis Island than is popularly believed.
“How can there have been women fascists?”
Louis Pasteur’s research opened up a new invisible world of airborne microbes.
Years after her father’s death, a daughter learns her father was not murdered by a teenage gang, as she had been told.
Cabinet cards offer glimpses of Black history.
Who are the people calling Helen Keller a fraud?
In his 1970 book Future Shock, author Alvin Toffler was flat-out wrong.
In our century, we simplify the sexuality and life of Oscar Wilde.
Some people still deny the history of Chile’s “Disappeared.”
Resources
Learn about forgotten Victorian novels, some not read for over a century.
Sometimes even professional historians are fooled.
Quickly learn the history of a city new to you.
Here’s valuable info on public-records requests and research and reporting tips in libraries. [Scroll halfway down.]
Are you worried about AI overtaking your writing? A solution is to write narrative longform journalism. [Scroll halfway down.]
Do modern audiences have the wherewithal to sit through in-person lectures?
“Writing isn’t about following a trend. It’s following the thing that won’t leave you alone.” — Yrsa Daley-Ward
Housekeeping
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More next month, and thanks for looking. And you are welcome to forward Damn History in its entirety to anyone.
About me: I’m a history and science writer. I’ve contributed hundreds of articles to such publications as Smithsonian, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Magazine, Wired, Scientific American, Discover, GQ, Longreads and many others. My books include The Lost Brothers: A Family’s Decades-Long Search, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness, Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines, and The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Goering, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WW2.
I frequently give talks and lead workshops on the topics of my books as well as on the craft of nonfiction writing. To book me for your event, please contact Jayme Boucher, Hachette Speakers Bureau, at Jayme.Boucher@hbgusa.com.
Please feel free to get in touch.
