Carve Out Time for October’s New History Reads

Among the standout releases this season is a captivating look at an extraordinary American military figure whose life reads like an action thriller. Written by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, The Phantom chronicles the untold story of Major Pierre “Pete” Ortiz. Born in Manhattan and educated in Paris, Ortiz was a true polymath who grew up fluent in five languages. Before his legendary exploits in the United States military, he lived an adventurous life as a veteran of the storied French Foreign Legion. With the outbreak of World War II, Ortiz was deployed multiple times to complete a string of high-stakes, clandestine missions, operating deep behind enemy lines from enemy-held North Africa to Occupied France.

By the time Ortiz retired as a United States Marine Corps colonel, his extraordinary heroism had earned him two Navy Crosses. He stands uniquely in American military history as one of the very few U.S. Marines to serve in active combat in Europe during World War II, cementing his legacy as one of the most decorated Marine officers of the conflict. Drury and Clavin’s new biography brings his remarkable, previously untold story to light, offering readers a window into the life of a genuine wartime legend whose daring exploits rival any fictional spy novel.

Shifting from the European battlefields of the Second World War to the domestic stage of American governance, Azadeh Moaveni’s The East Wing offers a groundbreaking examination of the executive branch through an entirely different lens. Spanning the most defining and transformative decades of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—from the New Deal era, through the myth-making days of the Kennedys, all the way to the turbulent, sharply polarized political climate of the 2020s—the book presents the captivating true story of the First Lady’s staffers and their pivotal role in the administration of the country.

Moaveni, an academic and Pulitzer Prize finalist, blends meticulous original reporting with expert research and analysis. Crucially, her work includes extensive interviews with key players from past East Wings, taking readers deep inside the high-stakes, often misunderstood world of the First Lady’s office. In doing so, the book not only illuminates the mechanics of presidential support systems but also charts the broader evolution of female leadership in the United States, making it a vital read for those interested in political history and the changing role of women in national governance.

The fall lineup also turns its attention to the titans of American literature, exploring the life of a man whose stories captivated millions while his personal life remained largely shrouded in mystery. In Cormac McCarthy: A Legacy Revisited, authors examine the journey of one of America’s greatest modern novelists. McCarthy was celebrated for his stark, powerful narratives filled with the raw complexities of greed, violence, and love. Yet, despite his monumental literary stature, remarkably little has historically been known about the man behind the prose.

With precision and grace, the new biography recounts McCarthy’s trajectory from poverty to riches, and from relative obscurity to worldwide literary acclaim. By lifting the veil on the man behind the myth, the book provides a must-read narrative that bridges the gap for both lifelong fans of his southern gothic and western masterpieces and new readers discovering his work for the very first time.

Re-examining foundational American narratives is another major theme of the season, notably addressed in Connor Williams’s The Confederacy Myth. As contemporary Americans grapple with deep political and cultural divisions, Williams’s book asks a pressing historical question: What can we learn about our divided country today from the Civil War that divided us in the past?

Williams answers this inquiry with a blistering historical exposé that fundamentally reframes our understanding of the Confederacy. Rather than viewing it through the romanticized lens of lost-cause mythology, the book repositions the Confederacy as what it truly was—a relatively small insurrection of political fanatics that tragically plunged the nation into its deadliest conflict. By unraveling deeply ingrained myths, Williams uncovers the Confederacy’s perilous political tactics, irate ideologies, reckless brand of warfare, impotent governance, and its enduring, central commitment to preserving slavery.

The ongoing process of healing and rebuilding the post-war American fabric is further explored in Headlee’s Freedom’s Daughters. In the waning days of the antebellum South, millions of African Americans were suddenly released from the bonds of enslavement, only to quickly realize that freedom carried heavy, systemic burdens. Newly freed individuals were almost immediately subjected to hundreds of restrictive laws specifically designed to prevent them from voting and, in many cases, from learning to read or write.

Headlee’s book rescues from historical obscurity the exceptional group of women—activists, educators, mothers, and community organizers—who worked tirelessly against staggering odds. Were it not for their relentless efforts, the vital foundations for Black education might never have been laid during a crucial inflection point in American history. Freedom’s Daughters ensures that the remarkable stories of these women, who secured access to literacy for a generation of children born into freedom, are permanently written into the historical record.

For readers with a taste for the unusual, the strange, and the uncanny, the fall publishing schedule also features notable paperback releases that delve into history’s more eccentric corners. Among them is the print edition of Aaron Mahnke’s Cabinet of Curiosities, brought to readers by the creator of the long-running, smash-hit podcast of the same name. The book offers a riveting look inside some of history’s strangest stories, compiling tales of wonderful, astounding, and downright bizarre people, places, and events from across the centuries. It serves as an engaging volume for trivia aficionados, history enthusiasts, and anyone with a documented thirst for unusual historical knowledge.

Another compelling paperback release exploring the intersection of history, mystery, and cultural obsession is Brad Ricca’s Lincoln’s Ghost. The book tells the untold story of the final, dramatic chapter in the life of master illusionist Harry Houdini. Deeply inspired by his personal hero, Abraham Lincoln, Houdini dedicated the latter part of his life to a fierce, full-time crusade against Spiritualism—the popular and lucrative practice of mediums claiming to speak to the dead.

Set against the atmospheric backdrop of Jazz Age America, a society still haunted by the collective trauma of the Great War and a devastating global pandemic, Houdini’s journey takes him through encounters with modern-day haunted houses, purported warlocks, and stage tricksters. Along the way, he uncovers a shocking conspiracy that stretches all the way to the American presidency and into the inner sanctums of his own life. Utilizing a compelling dual-timeline narrative that alternates between Houdini’s dramatic 1926 congressional testimony and the final otherworldly cases that led him there, Lincoln’s Ghost delivers a powerful examination of deception, love, politics, the concept of the afterlife, and the very nature of magic itself.

Rounding out the season’s notable paperback offerings is Frank Tallis’s Mortal Secrets, a work that brilliantly illuminates the life and mind of Sigmund Freud, one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Vienna’s Golden Age, the book chronicles a heady, intellectually electric era in one of the world’s most culturally rich cities—a metropolis that served as the true birthplace of the modern age. Through Tallis’s expert storytelling, readers are transported back to the cafes, clinics, and parlors where psychoanalysis was born, capturing the turbulence and brilliance of a defining historical epoch.