Skip to main content
H
Henrico County Public Library
All Lists
General Recommendations
Hidden History
Unpublished
Share
Little-known, hidden or unusual stories from history.
Updated September 25, 2023
Lewisville Public Library
A list cannot be published until it has at least four items.
List was unpublished.
List was published.
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Slaying the dragon : a secret history of Dungeons & Dragons
Riggs, Ben
Paper Book
Role-playing game historian Ben Riggs unveils the secret history of TSR-- the company that unleashed imaginations with Dungeons & Dragons, was driven into ruin by disastrous management decisions, and then saved by their bitterest rival. "Ben Riggs manages to...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The quiet zone : unraveling the mystery of a town suspended in silence
Kurczy, Stephen
Paper Book
In this riveting account of an area of Appalachia known as the Quiet Zone where cell phones and WiFi are banned, journalist Stephen Kurczy explores the pervasive role of technology in our lives and the innate human need for quiet. "Captures the complex beauty of a...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Wake : the hidden history of women-led slave revolts
Hall, Rebecca
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour-de-force that tells the "powerful" (The New York Times Book Review) story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall's...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Code girls : the true story of the American women who secretly broke codes in World War II
Mundy, Liza
Paper Book
In the tradition of Hidden Figures and The Girls of Atomic City, Code Girls is the amazing true story of the young American women who cracked German and Japanese military codes during World War II. More than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The way I heard it
Rowe, Mike
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Executive producer and host Mike Rowe presents a delightfully entertaining, seriously fascinating collection of his favorite episodes from America's #1 short-form podcast, The Way I Heard It, along with a host of personal memories,...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
In the shadow of the moon : America, Russia, and the hidden history of the space race
Cherrix, Amy E.
Paper Book
An exhilarating dive into the secret history of humankind's race to the moon, from acclaimed author Amy Cherrix. This fascinating and immersive read is perfect for fans of Steve Sheinkin's Bomb and M. T. Anderson's Symphony for the City of the Dead. You've heard of the space race, but do...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The secret history of home economics : how trailblazing women harnessed the power of home and changed the way we live
Dreilinger, Danielle
Paper Book
The term "home economics" may conjure traumatic memories of lopsided hand-sewn pillows or sunken muffins. But common conception obscures the story of the revolutionary science of better living. The field exploded opportunities for women in the twentieth century by reducing domestic work and...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The burning blue : the untold story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA's Challenger disaster
Cook, Kevin
Paper Book
Winner of the American Astronautical Society's 2021 Eugene M. Emme Award The untold story of a national trauma--NASA's Challenger explosion--and what really happened to America's Teacher in Space, illuminating the tragic cost of humanity setting its sight on the...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Empire of pain : the secret history of the Sackler dynasty
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR * A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
This land is their land : the Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the troubled history of Thanksgiving
Silverman, David J.
Paper Book
Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the Plymouth colony's founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the story.In March 1621, when Plymouth's survival was hanging in the balance, the Wampanoag sachem (or chief),...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
American Sherlock : murder, forensics, and the birth of American CSI
Dawson, Kate Winkler
Paper Book
Known as the 'American Sherlock Holmes,' Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America's greatest forensic scientists, with a skill level that seemed almost supernatural. Heinrich spearheaded the invention of new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics,...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Liberty is sweet : the hidden history of the American Revolution
Holton, Woody
Paper Book
A "deeply researched and bracing retelling" (Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian) of the American Revolution, showing how the Founders were influenced by overlooked Americans--women, Native Americans, African Americans, and religious dissenters. Using more than...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Cattle kingdom : the hidden history of the cowboy West
Knowlton, Christopher
Paper Book
A revolutionary new appraisal of the Old West and the America it made The open range cattle era lasted barely a quarter-century, but it left America irrevocably changed. These few decades following the Civil War brought America its greatest boom-and-bust...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Gateway to freedom : the hidden history of the underground railroad
Foner, Eric
Paper Book
More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Beyond measure : the hidden history of measurement from cubits to quantum constants
Vincent, James (Journalist)
Paper Book
A New Yorker Best Book of 2022 Finalist for the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science & Technology A vibrant account of how measurement has invisibly shaped our world, from ancient civilizations to the modern day. From the cubit to the kilogram, the...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The puzzler : one man's quest to solve the most baffling puzzles ever, from crosswords to jigsaws to the meaning of life
Jacobs, A. J.
Paper Book
The New York Timesbestselling author of The Year of Living Biblicallygoes on a rollicking journey to understand the enduring power of puzzles- why we love them, what they do to our brains, and how they can improve our world. "Even though I've never attempted the...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
American sirens : the incredible story of the Black men who became America's first paramedics
Hazzard, Kevin M.
Paper Book
The extraordinary story of an unjustly forgotten group of Black men in Pittsburgh who became the first paramedics in America, saving lives and changing the course of emergency medicine around the world Until the 1970s, if you suffered a medical crisis, your...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The facemaker : a visionary surgeon's battle to mend the disfigured soldiers of World War I
Fitzharris, Lindsey
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize | Named a best book of the year by The Guardian "Enthralling. Harrowing. Heartbreaking. And utterly redemptive. Lindsey Fitzharris hit this one out of the park." --Erik Larson, author of...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The declassification engine : what history reveals about America's top secrets
Connelly, Matthew James
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE * Every day, thousands of new secrets are created by the United States government. What is all this secrecy really for? And whom does it benefit? "A brilliant, deeply unsettling look at the history and inner workings of 'the dark state'.......
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Sisters in resistance : how a German spy, a banker's wife, and Mussolini's daughter outwitted the Nazis
Mazzeo, Tilar J.
Paper Book
In a tale as twisted as any spy thriller, discover how three women delivered critical evidence of Axis war crimes to Allied forces during World War II: "A tantalizingly novelistic history lesson" (Kirkus). In 1944, news of secret diaries kept by...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
The five : the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper
Rubenhold, Hallie
Paper Book
Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Five devastating human stories and a dark and moving portrait of Victorian London--the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper. Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine...
Comment
Save
Cancel
Check Availability
Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or
log in here.