Drafting the Past

In this episode of Drafting the Past, host Kate Carpenter is joined by Dr. Fahad Bishara. Fahad is an associate professor at the University of Virginia, but he is currently on leave and teaching at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. His first book, A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950, won multiple awards. His second book, which came out in 2025, is Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History. In it, he follows one year of the voyages of a single dhow, a type of sailing ship, and its captain and crew as it travels around the Persian Gulf and Western Indian Ocean. Working at multiple scales, from the details of daily ship life to the circulation of goods and ideas across the Gulf, Fahad gives us a new, ocean-based perspective on Middle Eastern history. It's also a beautifully written book, and I was eager to talk with Fahad about his inventive structure, how he organized his materials, and more. You're going to get a lot out of this conversation with Dr. Fahad Bishara.   Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more. Mentioned in this episode: A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950 Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History OneNote DevonThink Jack Hart, Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction Robert Harms, The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade Greeking Out podcast Nicholas Thomas, Discoveries: The Voyages of Captain Cook In Episode 18 of Drafting the Past, Adam Sowards talked about trying to get three senses into a description Whichever episode someone talks about senses Greg Dening, Islands and Beaches: Discourses on a Silent Land: Marquesas, 1774-1880 Laila Lalami, The Moor's Account Brinkley Messick Engseng Ho This American Life Planet Money and the episode with their formula for storytelling, Episode 1000 The Indicator  

In this episode, host Kate Carpenter interviews labor historian Dr. Shaun Richman. Shaun is a program director at SUNY Empire State College, and he recently completed his PhD in American Studies. But before that, he spent more than a decade as a union organizer and representative. That experience inspires much of his writing, including two books, magazine articles, and op-eds in numerous outlets. His first book was Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century. His second book, which came out in 2025, is We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers' Union, 1912-1953. In addition to being an enthusiastic labor historian, Shaun has a personal connection to this history, as a onetime member of one of the union's featured in the narrative. We talked about how that perspective shapes his work, how he found his way to writing history after years as a labor organizer, and why he's determined to write books that other labor organizers will want to read. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more. Mentioned in this episode: ·       Shaun's website: https://shaunrichman.com/ ·       Shaun Richman, Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century ·       Shaun Richman, We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers' Union, 1912-1953 ·       Nick Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist ·       Ray Ginger, The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene V. Debs ·       George Orwell, A Collection of Essays ·       Michael Harrington ·       Ahmed White, The Last Great Strike: Little Steel, the CIO, and the Struggle for Labor Rights in New Deal America and Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers

In this episode of Drafting the Past, you'll hear from a historian who had to figure out how to wrangle narratives from twenty different countries to tell a new history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. But keeping track of all those threads wasn't her only formidable challenge. In this episode, host Kate Carpenter is joined by historian Dr. Renata Keller. Dr. Keller is a professor at the University of Nevada and a historian of Modern Latin America. She is the author of two books, Mexico's Cold War: Cuba, the United States, and the Legacy of the Mexican Revolution, and The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Hemispheric Cold War. I was eager to talk with Renata about how she grappled with the wide-ranging source material for The Fate of the Americas, but I also wanted to talk with her about another challenge: writing a book while dealing with the isolation of new parenthood, the struggle of postpartum depression and anxiety, and the exhaustion of balancing parenthood and research. In this conversation, you'll hear how she made space for herself and her writing, both physically and mentally, while working on her book. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.   Mentioned in this episode: Renata Keller, Mexico's Cold War: Cuba, the United States, and the Legacy of the Mexican Revolution Renata Keller, The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Hemispheric Cold War Zotero Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Velvet Was the Night Anne Rice, The Witching Hour Historias podcast, which includes the special series on the Cuban Missile Crisis that Renata co-produced Drafting the Past Episode 16: Abby Mullen Finds Focus  

This is the first episode of 2026, which means that we are at the beginning of the fifth season of this show. That's a lot of great conversations about writing history, and I want to thank you for being here for them. There are many more to come this year! First up, in this episode I'm talking with Dr. Jeff Roche, author of the new book The Conservative Frontier: Texas and the Origins of the New Right. Jeff is a professor of history at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Along with his new book, he is the author of Restructured Resistance: The Sibley Commission and the Politics of Desegregation in Georgia and the editor of two additional books. I'll confess to you that I wasn't entirely sure about this book when the press first reached out to tell me about it, but it blew me away. The history is fascinating, but even more, Jeff's writing is lively, smart, and often funny. I was excited to get to ask Jeff about how the book came together and how he has developed such an engaging writing voice. You'll even learn why he considered '90s hip-hop and Texas country music to be essential to his writing process. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.  

Welcome back to Drafting the Past, and to the final episode of 2025. This  episode is all about you! I asked listeners to call in and share the best history books they read in 2025, and they delivered. We've got history books covering a huge range of subjects. Some were published recently, some as long as 90 years ago. Some are about huge subjects, others about tiny places. We even let one historical novel sneak into the mix. It's a reminder that the Drafting the Past community is awesome, full of thoughtful, smart listeners who love talking about great history writing just as much as I do. In this episode, you'll hear from some of those listeners, and, if you're anything like me, you'll add a bunch of new books to your reading list.   For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.  

I have a soft spot for historians who follow their curiosity through a range of subjects that might, at first glance, seem unrelated. So I was especially delighted to get to interview this episode's guest, Dr. Amy Erdman Farrell. Amy is a professor and endowed chair of American Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Dickinson College. Her first book was Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism. From there, she wrote a second book titled Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture, followed by an edited collection, The Contemporary Reader of Gender and Fat Studies. For her newest book, out earlier this year, she turned her focus to an American institution: the Girl Scouts. The book is called Intrepid Girls: The Complicated History of the Girl Scouts of the USA. I was eager to talk more with Amy about how she has come to each of her books, how her publishing career has unfolded, and especially her decision to sign with an agent to represent her most recent book. A little extra note for this episode: Amy followed up after we spoke to tell me that she forgot to add an additional important note about her organization and research process. Here's what she had to say: "The key for me is: my paper notebook! For both Fat Shame and Intrepid Girls I have always carried a paper notebook (turned out to be two for Intrepid Girls) in which I would take notes along the way, jotting down the date, where I was doing research, and perhaps more detailed notes depending upon the archive and the context. It was really fundamental to my process. I carried it everywhere. I referred to it constantly in doing my writing, revising, thinking, confirming footnotes, following leads. It's so important I can't believe I didn't mention it." An excellent idea for research--a project notebook! Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.  

Welcome back to Drafting the Past, a podcast about the craft of writing history. For this one, I'm joined by historian of science Dr. Alex Wellerstein. I've been a fan of Alex since at least his first book, Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States, which came out in 2021. But I was first introduced to Alex's work, like many people are, through his NUKEMAP project, which is a web-based nuclear weapons effects simulator. It's a great—and terrifying—teaching tool, and just one of many projects that Alex has worked on as not only a historian but also a computer programmer. Alex is an associate professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, and he's currently also a visiting researcher at the Nuclear Knowledges program at the Center for International Studies in Paris. You can also find Alex's writing on his blog and his Substack newsletter, both of which I'll link in the show notes. He has also written extensively for popular publications. Today, we're talking about his brand-new book, The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age. This was a fascinating and wide-reaching conversation into how Alex researches and writes and how he sees his work. You'll hear about everything from why he does not recommend programming your own research database to why he has to talk himself out of italicizing every other word when he writes. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.  

Welcome back to Drafting the Past. For this episode, I'm thrilled to be joined in this episode by historian Dr. Edward Watts. Ed is a professor of history at the University of California San Diego. He is the author of seven books, including Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny, and The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea. He has published extensively in academic journals and his work is regularly featured in the popular press. You can also check out his YouTube channel, Rome's Eternal Decline, where he shares bite-size facts about Roman history. Ed's newest book is The Romans: A 2,000-Year History, which came out earlier this year with Basic. I was excited to talk with Ed about how he tackled such a vast subject. I was also eager to hear how he gets so much writing done. But above all, I really wanted to dig into his style and talk about what goes in to making such a huge history so enjoyable to read. Let me tell you, he did not disappoint. Even if you focus on history far removed from the Roman Empire, you're going to get a lot out of this one. Enjoy my conversation with Dr. Edward Watts. P.S. This one was so much for that I even asked Ed a bonus question! You can hear that one (truffle hunter or parachutist, IYKYK) as an exclusive audio bonus for Patreon subscribers here. For as little as $2 month, you can help to keep the show going and get access to ad-free episodes, too. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links.   For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.  

This episode's guest and I share a last name (no relation, though), but that's not the only thing we have in common. We both grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where our history education left out most of the violence by white settlers against the region's Indigenous people. It was his righteous anger over the differences between what he had learned and what he read in the archives that prompted my guest today to write first a dissertation and now a book about that violence and the efforts of historians to cover it up. You're listening to Drafting the Past, a podcast about the craft of writing history. I'm Kate Carpenter, and in this episode I'm joined by Dr. Marc James Carpenter. Marc is an associate professor at the University of Jamestown in North Dakota. His first book, out with Yale University Press, is The War on Illahee: Genocide, Complicity, and Cover-Ups in the Pioneer Northwest. I was delighted to have him on the show to talk more about how he dealt with layers of deceptive source material, the research loops he employed to work through those sources, and how a dash of humor is a vital ingredient in this and other dark histories. Here's my conversation with Dr. Marc James Carpenter. Want to give me a little holiday gift this year? Consider taking a minute to leave a review for the show on your favorite podcast app. It helps new people find the show, and it makes me do a little happy dance in my office. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.  

Fair warning, listeners: in this episode of Drafting the Past, my guest and I geeked out pretty hard for a minute about our favorite pens. I'm hoping a lot of you can relate, but if not, you'll just have to forgive our moment of office supply nerdiness. I'm Kate Carpenter, the host of this podcast about the craft of writing history. In this episode, I'm thrilled to be joined by Karin Wulf. Karin is a historian and the current director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library, as well as a professor at Brown University. Previously, she was the director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. She writes and speaks regularly for public audiences. Her new book, Lineage: Genealogy and the Politics of Connection in British America, 1680-1820, came out this summer. In this episode, you'll hear me talk with Karin about what it was like to research a book whose sources were scattered in many different archives, and how she keeps her research and writing alive even in the midst of a very busy schedule. She also told me about a little archival challenge that she likes to give herself that I think will make you smile. Let's be real, we're all nerds here, at least when it comes to history. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.  

I've heard from many academics that writing their second book can be even harder than writing their first book. That might be surprising, especially if you're still struggling with the first book. But with less free time and without the support of a dissertation adviser, some historians find that second book to be more challenging than they expected. But today's guest turned that struggle into an opportunity for herself and other writers by launching a workshop specifically for writers of second books. I'm Kate Carpenter, and this is Drafting the Past, a podcast about the craft of writing history. In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Jessica Lepler. Jess is an associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire. Her first prize-winning book was The Many Panics of 1837: People, Politics, and the Creations of a Transatlantic Financial Crisis. Her second book came out this year. It's called Canal Dreamers: The Epic Quest to Connect the Atlantic and Pacific in the Age of Revolutions. It's a history of the ultimately failed effort to build the world's first interoceanic canal in the 1820s. Even though it was published a decade after her first book, I was surprised to learn that she actual started working on it alongside her dissertation and first book. We talk more about that research process in our interview. You'll also hear more about starting a second-book workshop, and why some of her best ideas come in the swimming pool. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.   Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links.  

I've talked to many historians who have interviewed sources in order to write their histories over more than 70 episodes of Drafting the Past, but I don't think any has spent quite as much time getting to know their subject in person as today's guest. I'm Kate Carpenter, and in this episode I'm joined by Dr. Mary Frances Phillips to talk about her first book, Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins. Mary is an associate professor of African American studies at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and considers herself a historian and scholar-activist. Black Panther Woman is the first biography of Black Panther Party member Ericka Huggins, emphasizing Huggins' use of spiritual wellness practices to care for herself and her community during her unjust incarceration and following her release.  Mary and I talked about what it was like to write a book about a subject she had gotten to know so well. And while Black Panther Woman shared a subject with Mary's dissertation, in many ways it was an entirely different project. We talked about that change, how she keeps a sense of joy and play in her writing even when the subject is difficult, and I pushed for details on her accountability system, because I know many of us could use ideas for keeping our writing projects on track. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links.

Historians never quite know what kind of discoveries will enable them to write a history. For today's guest, the list of things that contributed to his most recent book included a long-shot grant proposal, an elementary school fundraiser, and the rise of digitized genealogical records. On this episode of Drafting the Past, Kate spoke with Dr. Tyler Anbinder. Tyler is an emeritus professor history at George Washington University. He is the award-winning author of four books, including Five Points: The Nineteenth-Century New York City Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum, and City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York. His most recent book, which came out last year, is Plentiful Country: The Great Potato Famine and the Making of Irish New York. You'll hear Tyler talk about how each of his research projects led to the next, how he works to blend remarkable detail with compelling writing, and how he tries to teach writing skills to his students—including one featured on a previous episode of Drafting the Past. We also talked about the humbling process of having his book reviewed by a fact checker. For show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit DraftingthePast.com. Note: Bookshop.org links are affiliate links. If you purchase books through these links, Drafting the Past gets a small percentage that helps to keep the show going.

Even though Dr. Joanne Paul had wanted to be a writer for a long time, she had lost sight of that identity and had to find her way back to it. But now, she has embraced creativity and imagination as a historian, and is here to encourage you to do the same. I was thrilled to be joined in this episode by Dr. Joanna Paul. Joanne is a historian of the Renaissance and Early modern periods, especially of their political, intellectual, and cultural histories. In addition to two academic books, she is the author of two books for a general audience. The first The House of Dudley, was published in 2022. It follows the Dudley family's history alongside that of the Tudors, telling the story of the family's proximity to the throne and, as she puts it, "revealing some of the period's most talented, intelligent, and cunning individuals." Her most recent book, out this year, is Thomas More: A Life and Death in Tudor England. In it, she tells the story of one of the most infamous figures in English history in a fascinating biography on this complicated man. I can tell you that both of these books are genuine page-turners, and I loved getting to ask Joanne more about how she wrote them. For links to the books and other subjects mentioned in this episode and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com.

How do you write a history if you're not quite sure which—if any—of your sources is telling the truth? All historians have to deal with sources who exaggerate, or mislead, or just come from differing perspectives. But my guest in this episode had to wrestle with this question on a whole different level for his newest book. Were his subjects performing miracles, or conning people with magic tricks? And in the end, does it really matter? This is Drafting the Past, a podcast about the craft of writing history. I'm Kate Carpenter, and in today's episode I'm joined by Dr. Raphael Cormack. Raph is an editor, writer, and translator, as well as an assistant professor of modern languages and cultures at Durham University in the United Kingdom. He is the author of two books. The first, Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age: A Forgotten History of the Occult in 2021 and is now available in paperback. And his newest book, out earlier this year, is Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring '20s. In it, he follows two charismatic and mysterious faith leaders who emerged in the uncertain interwar period in both Europe and the Middle East. We talked about how he dealt with those deeply unreliable sources, why the narrative structure that came so easily to one book didn't work for the second one, and, well, his mother. You'll see what I mean.  For complete show notes, visit draftingthepast.com. For updates on the show and more on writing history, sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter.

I talk to a lot of history professors on this show, of course, but I'm always excited when I get a chance to talk to someone who is writing great history but working outside of a university setting. And my guest today didn't even start out as a historian, she found her way to narrative history after writing in other genres and venues first. Dr. Tracy Slater joins me in this episode to talk about her path as a writer and the challenges and freedoms of writing outside the academy while also balancing the work of a caregiver. Tracy has a PhD in English and American literature. You'll hear more about her career path shortly, which includes some adjunct teaching, a freelance writing career, and founding a literary series called Four Stories that took place in both Boston and Japan, where Tracy is now based with her family, although she was temporarily living in Toronto when I spoke with her this summer. Her first book was a memoir about her marriage, her struggle to start a family, and establishing a life in Japan called The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self, and Home on the Far Side of the World. Her newest book is a work of narrative history called Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp. It's a history that is both intimate and expansive and, unfortunately, continues to have increasingly relevant connections to our present-day experiences. For complete show notes, visit DraftingthePast.com. If you enjoyed this episode, please tell a friend about it!  

This is Drafting the Past, a podcast about the craft of writing history, and I'm your host, Kate Carpenter. In each episode, I'm joined by a historian to dig into their writing process and find out how they bring history to the page. This time around, I'm happy to get to chat with Dr. Andrew Hartman. Dr. Andrew Hartman is a professor of history at Illinois State University. Before that, as you'll learn in this episode, he was a high school social studies teacher, and he specializes in teaching future social studies teachers. He is the author of three books: Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School; A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars; and his newest book, Karl Marx in America. He has also written extensively in publications like the Washington Post, Slate, Jacobin, Bookforum, and more. You'll hear how Andrew tackled such a huge project, a decade in the making, how he became a subject in his own history, and why being an endurance athlete might help if you're a writer.  Find show notes and a transcript here.

In this episode, I'm thrilled to be joined by historian Dr. Ruby Lal.  When I first started thinking about this interview more than a year ago, I read Ruby's book Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan. I was swept away by the book, which is a history biography of Princess Gulbadan in the early decades of the Mughal Empire. Ruby is also the author of Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, another remarkable narrative about a remarkable woman in the Mughal Empire. But before I had a chance to interview her, Ruby came out with another project: Tiger Slayer, which she describes as an illustrated remix of Empress for a young adult audience. I can't tell you how excited I was to talk about all of these projects, and how Ruby brings these narratives from hundreds of years ago to life in such vibrant, enchanting books.  Dr. Ruby Lal is a professor of South Asian History at Emory University. In addition to the books I've already mentioned, she is also the author of two academic books, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World, and Coming of Age in Nineteenth Century India: The Girl-Child and the Art of Playfulness. And as you'll hear in the episode, she thinks deeply and beautifully about crafting historical narrative and the stakes of bringing these stories to readers of all ages.

Stephanie Gorton is a writer, editor, and journalist whose work has been published in a range of outlets including The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and Paris Review Daily. She has worked in editorial roles at several independent presses, and her first book came out in 2020, titled Citizen Reporters: S. S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine that Rewrote America. Her second book, which came out in November, is The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry that Brought Birth Control to America. It's a fascinating dual biography that brings to life two complicated leaders of the birth control movement in the early 1900s, and the lasting impact of their actions and interactions. We spoke early this year, and I loved getting to hear more about Stephanie's research and writing process, especially how she thought about narrative structure and revising with feedback.

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Padraic Scanlan. Padraic is an associate professor at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the history of labor in Britain and the British empire. He's the author of three books, including Freedom's Debtors: British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolutions and Slave Empire: How Slavery Made Modern Britain. His newest book, out this year, is called Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine, and it offers a reinterpretation of the Irish Great Famine of the mid-1800s that shows how massive income inequality, debt, housing prices, precarious employment and more contributed to the disaster. I spoke with Padraic about how he thinks about writing for a general audience, his work with a developmental editor and why he loves editors, and his writerly inspirations.