George Taliaferro was a multidimensional football player. An All-American and Hall of Famer, he achieved and inspired excellence. Dawn Knight, Taliaferro’s former student and longtime friend, saw that football was only one of... Read More

Nancy E. Davis’s "The Chinese Lady" applies historical detective work to document the life of Afong Moy, who took an unusual journey through nineteenth-century America. It reveals much about the young United States, its view of other... Read More

Bayard Rustin was an important leader in the civil rights movement, but his accomplishments are at times forgotten. Jacqueline Houtman, Michael Long, and Walter Naegle, Rustin’s widowed partner, work to correct that with "Troublemaker... Read More

Stanford M. Adelstein is a major figure in South Dakota business and politics, and Eric Steven Zimmer’s The Question is “Why?“ explains how he succeeded in public life despite being Jewish in a state with a minuscule Jewish... Read More

In 1902, at twenty-six, Rainer Maria Rilke visited Paris for the first time, drawn by his perception—he was not alone—of France as the consummate home of the artist. He sought out Auguste Rodin and, over the course of many years, the... Read More

Little known outside of Palestine, Sophie Halaby was a Russian-Arab painter, Jerusalemite, and member of a prominent Christian family. Laura S. Schor’s "Sophie Halaby in Jerusalem" is a careful, elegant portrait that highlights the... Read More

Stroll along Rue Montcalm or enter a Parisian cabaret through this charming biography of Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen that celebrates the excitement of France in the late 1800s. The artist was known for his post-war lithographs and... Read More

Thomas G. Alexander’s "Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith" is a complex, reflective portrait of Brigham Young, the nineteenth-century Mormon leader who brought his flock to Utah, where they found a permanent and... Read More