In a book that weaves historical detail with personal reportage, Howard W. French retells the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in America, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe’s dehumanizing engagement with the “darkest” continent. Born in Blackness retrieves the lives of major African historical figures whose legacies have been downplayed or erased, telling the story of gold, tobacco, sugar, and cotton — and the greatest “commodity” of all, the millions brought in chains to the New World, whose reclaimed histories help explain our present world.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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This best-selling, award-winning biography by Les Payne and Tamara Payne is the culmination of nearly 30 years of exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews conducted with then still-living immediate family and contemporaries of the legendary Black leader, Malcolm X. With access to such important figures as Malcolm’s siblings, classmates, former ministers of the Nation of Islam, collaborators, street buddies, and even the men falsely imprisoned for his murder, the book presents a deeply nuanced and unprecedented portrait of how “East Lansing Red” gave way to “Detroit Red” and ultimately begat the icon, “X.” Here is Malcolm Little in his formative years, whose father, a fearless supporter of the Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, was run over by a streetcar in 1931 (though the insurance company evaded payment by claiming it was a suicide) and whose equally forceful mother was penniless but determined to hold her family together before succumbing to mental illness. The book offers new revelations on milestones in Malcolm’s life: the years in Boston and Harlem as drug dealer, pimp, and burglar; the religious awakening and conversion to Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary; the bizarre 1961 “summit” with the KKK; and the final minutes leading up to his assassination in New York’s Audubon Ballroom in 1965. In this comprehensive work, the Paynes have greatly expanded our understanding of Malcolm X’s life, placing him within the larger arc of African American history. The Dead Are Arising has won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work — Biography.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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In 1825, Martha Parker, a gifted, ambitious young woman from New England who aspired to become an educator and a foreign missionary, accepted a marriage proposal from schoolmaster Thomas Tenney. But several weeks later, she rejected Tenney in favor of rival suitor Elnathan Gridley, a clergyman headed for the mission field. Tenney’s male friends retaliated by sending an anonymous letter to the head of the foreign missions board impugning Parker’s character, and Tenney himself threatened to reveal more about their relationship, ruining her future prospects as a missionary. The scandal provoked a resistance within evangelical ranks over womanhood, manhood, and, surprisingly, homosexuality, that ultimately threatened to destroy the foreign missions enterprise.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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For four thousand years, the size and vitality of cities, economies, and empires were heavily determined by infection. The cycle of plagues set the tempo of civilizational growth and decline, since common response to the threat was exclusion—quarantining the sick or keeping them out. The unprecedented hygiene and medical revolutions of the past two centuries have allowed humanity to free itself from the hold of epidemic cycles, but climate and population fluctuations and global trade have left us more vulnerable than ever to newly emerging plagues. Greater global cooperation toward sustainable health is urgently required, with millions of lives and trillions of dollars at stake.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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This is the first definitive account of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination in 1963 to the alarming scandals, secrets, and mismanagement during the Obama and Trump years, right up to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The book reveals a toxic and politicized work culture, outdated equipment and training, a deep resentment of the agency’s leadership, and a dedicated band of patriots who battle it all to try to keep the president safe. To expose these shortcomings, the author interviewed numerous current and former agents and whistleblowers who risked their careers to speak to her.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Born into slavery during the Civil War, Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954) would become one of the most prominent activists of her time, with a career bridging the late 19th century to the civil rights movement of the 1950s. The first president of the National Association of Colored Women and a founding member of the NAACP, Terrell collaborated closely with the likes of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and W. E. B. Du Bois. This is the first full-length biography of Terrell, bringing her vibrant voice and personality to life.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Many think of Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone, but as the son of a deaf woman (and, later, husband to another), his goal in life from adolescence was to teach deaf students to speak. He became a leading advocate for the oralist movement, which valued teaching deaf students how to speak English verbally and shunned the use of American Sign Language — in spite of growing evidence that this led to the detriment of all other learning, causing not only stalled development, but also social isolation. The author describes the harm that many people, including her grandparents, experienced as a result of Bell’s movement to stamp out ASL and explains how the deaf community reclaimed their once-forbidden language.

This presentation is co-sponsored by the Delaware Association of the Deaf, Deaf Outreach, Inc., and Epworth United Methodist Church.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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These days, what and where we eat says as much about us as the clothes we wear or the places we live, and social media has allowed us to share our private food experiences as never before. But this fixation is not new. “As a species, we’re hardwired to obsess over food,” says author Matt Siegel. In this entertaining exploration of the historical, cultural, scientific, sexual, and culinary subcultures of this most essential part of life, Siegel sets out to uncover “the hidden side of everything we put in our mouths.”

This presentation is co-sponsored by the Historic Lewes Farmers Market.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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In the author’s first novel, Ailey Pearl Garfield, a young African American woman, seeks to come to terms with her identity by journeying through her family’s past, uncovering tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and White—in the Deep South. She discovers a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself. The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois is a recent Oprah Book Club selection.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Presumed Guilty is a troubling history that reveals how the Supreme Court has enabled racist policing and sanctioned law enforcement excesses. The fact that police are nine times more likely to kill Black men than other Americans is no accident, the author says, but the result of an elaborate body of doctrines that allow the police and courts to presume that suspects are guilty before being charged. Beginning during Nixon’s presidency, the ascendance of conservative justices has led to rulings permitting the practice of “stop and frisk,” limiting suits to reform police departments, and abetting the use of chokeholds. Chemerinsky argues that an approach to policing that continues to exalt “Dirty Harry” can be transformed only by a robust court system committed to civil rights.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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In November 1921, Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and India’s future ruler, arrives in Bombay to begin a national tour. As local unrest spirals into riots, Freny Cuttingmaster, an 18-year-old female student, falls from a gallery just as the prince’s procession is passing by her college. Freny had consulted with Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female solicitor, before her death, and Perveen suspects that something Feny confided during their conversation led to her murder. She determines to seek justice for Freny’s family.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Blanche Moses, a descendent of one of this country’s most prominent Jewish families, was researching her family history when she made an astounding discovery: her grandmother and great-uncle were not Sephardic Jews but actually began their lives as poor Christian slaves in Barbados. Sarah and Isaac Brandon transformed themselves, becoming free, wealthy, Jewish, and — at times — white. Their story sheds new light on the fluidity of race, and the role of religion in racial shift, in the first half of the 19th century.

This presentation is co-sponsored by the Seaside Jewish Community of Rehoboth Beach.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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People tend to believe that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were lacking in any major cultural developments or geopolitical encounters — that the Europeans hadn’t yet reached North America and the farthest feat of sea travel was the Viking invasion of Britain. But how do we explain the presence of blond-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Did the Vikings find their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire? Drawing on nearly 30 years of research, historian Valerie Hansen argues that bold explorations and daring trade missions connected all of the world’s societies by the end of the first millennium.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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This novel is based on the true story of James Miranda Barry, who began life as a penniless Irish girl but ended up successfully practicing medicine as a man in 19th-century Cape Town, South Africa. Barry changed from daughter to son in order to enter medical school and provide for family but soon embraced the freedom of living life as a man. After befriending the aristocratic Cape Governor, he rose to the pinnacle of society, before the two were publicly accused of a homosexual affair that scandalized the colonies and nearly cost them their lives.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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In the late 1800s, one of the first international serial killers murdered as many as ten people in the United States, Britain, and Canada. Over the span of 15 years, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream targeted vulnerable and desperate women who came to him for medical advice, using his knowledge of poisons to conceal his crimes. This definitive account of his life exposes the flawed detection methods, bungled investigations, corrupt officials, and stifling morality of Victorian era society that allowed Dr. Cream to prey on victims undetected, time after time.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Like many historical icons, Daniel Boone’s image in popular culture leans toward caricature. He was a frontiersman—arguably America’s first and greatest pathfinder—and Revolutionary War hero whose explorations into the frontier beyond the Appalachian Mountains became the stuff of legend. This book tells the unvarnished story of Boone’s life and the era that gave birth to a nation, illuminating the history of the early United States through the eyes of both the ordinary and larger-than-life men and women, white and Native American, who witnessed it.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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NASCAR has traditionally been a Southern, white man’s sport, but that changed when Bill Lester entered the field. Lester did not grow up in the sport as many drivers have. He raced as a side hobby while working as an engineer until, at the age of 37, he quit his job to pursue racing full time. Lester had a trifecta of odds against him: he was Black, middle-aged, and not a Southerner, and many fans did not hide their contempt. Winning in Reverse explains how he was able to rise above it all and make history time and again, becoming the first African American to race in NASCAR’s Busch Series, and the first to participate in the Nextel Cup.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Vespasiano da Bisticci operated a bookshop during the 15th century “Golden Age” of Renaissance Florence. At a time when all books were made by hand, he produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his shop, which became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. His books were works of art in their own right, and his clients included popes, kings, and princes who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries. Vespasiano had reached the summit of his powers as Europe’s most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared to challenge his influence: the printed book.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Picking up where To Wake the Giant: A Novel of Pearl Harbor left off, Jeff Shaara transports readers to the spring of 1942, when U.S. Navy Commander Joe Rochefort cracks the Japanese military encryption. Now Admiral Chester Nimitz will know precisely what the Japanese are planning. But the battle to counter those plans must still be fought. Shaara describes the conflict through the eyes of both U.S. forces and the Japanese, who have no idea that the Americans are anticipating their every move. Ultimately, the Battle of Midway will change not only the outcome of a war but the course of global history.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Before Hamilton, before The Wiz, and even before Porgy and Bess, there was Shuffle Along, the all-Black Broadway musical from 1921 that was an enormous success at a time when no one was sure if America was ready for a show featuring nuanced, thoughtful portrayals of Black characters. Footnotes is the story of how composers Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, along with comedians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, overcame poverty, racism, and violence to harness the energy of the Harlem Renaissance and produce a runaway Broadway hit that launched the careers of many of the 20th century’s most beloved Black performers.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Lady Bird Johnson’s complex role — as a political partner to her husband, President Lyndon Johnson, as a vital yet underappreciated presence in the White House, and as a critical advisor and strategist — is recast in this new biography. The story is told in Lady Bird’s own words through the largely unknown and overlooked audio diaries that she kept during her five-plus years in the White House: 123 hours of tape totaling 1,750,000 words. The tapes show her to be a formidable storyteller and historian and a conscious creator of legacy.

The 2021 History Book Festival is presented by Delaware Humanities and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices I Gallo Realty. We appreciate their generous support of the festival.

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Eternal is the tale of a love triangle that unfolds in the heart of Rome, in the creeping shadow of fascism. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco, the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro, a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful. Both Sandro and Marco hope to win Elisabetta’s heart. But in the autumn of 1937, Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy’s Fascists with Hitler’s Nazis; anti-Semitism takes legal root, and eventually World War II erupts. In 1943, after Italy aligns itself with the Allies, the Nazis invade Rome, and with their occupation come new atrocities against the city’s Jews, culminating in a final, horrific betrayal. Against this backdrop, the intertwined fates of Elisabetta, Marco, Sandro, and their families will be decided, in a heartbreaking story of both the best and the worst that the world has to offer.

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