Aaron Sachs’s "Stay Cool" proposes a lighthearted means of tackling the serious subject of climate change. Declaring that the sanctimonious tones of environmentalists have a demotivating impact, this book muses on how humor might be... Read More

In response to years of clear social upheaval in the United States, from renewed fights for social justice to new threats of authoritarianism, a new, diverse set of comedy voices are using humor in their activism. Caty Borum chronicles... Read More

Cecelia Tichi’s "Midcentury Cocktails" blends history, literature, and cultural critiques to address trends in alcohol and entertainment in the 1950s and 1960s. Despite what jokes about Baby Boomers suggest, the 1950s and 1960s were... Read More

Wendy L. Rouse’s historical survey "Public Faces, Secret Lives" reveals the LGBTQ+ side of the fight for women’s suffrage. Many suffragists, Rouse says, were “very queer”—a term that, in the book, extends to suffragists who... Read More

In 1971, the ratification of the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. Jennifer Frost’s thorough, valuable "Let Us Vote!" celebrates the amendment’s semicentennial by chronicling the long struggle to pass... Read More

"Jazz Age Cocktails" is a vivacious, accessible history of drinking and popular culture during Prohibition era America. Cecelia Tichi writes with enthusiasm and authority about this heady time, and her work is as easy to savor as a... Read More

Donna Florio’s "Growing Up Bank Street" is a vibrant, heartfelt memoir, centered on one of Greenwich Village’s most notable series of blocks. A lifelong New Yorker, Florio combines historical context with personal experiences in her... Read More

Kevin Dann’s "Enchanted New York" is a historical walk down Manhattan’s magical memory lane. Revealing Manhattan to be a site of protracted enchantment, the book’s eight chapters are named for the type of magic and spiritual... Read More