Steam Titans tells the story of a transatlantic fight between 1815 and the American Civil War to wrest control of the globe's most lucrative trade route. Two shipping magnates—Samuel Cunard and Edward Knight Collins—and two nations wielded the tools of technology, finance, and politics to compete for control of a commercial lifeline that spanned the […]

Nate Dondis and memoirist Debra Levy discuss Nate’s memoir A Very Rich Man and the process of writing a memoir. Longtime Falmouth resident Nate Dondis and his memoirist Debra Levy discuss the process of writing Nate’s life story, which resulted in a 150-page book for his family. In his book A Very Rich Man, Nate […]

As Falmouth's Old Stone Dock--the early center of commerce in the town--commemorates its Bicentennial, Old Stone Dock Association President Kevin Doyle will be at the Historical Society to discuss past exploits from the region and how the dock was involved.

While everyone knows of the Ice Bucket Challenge, the viral craze that swept the nation in summer 2014, too few know the truly inspirational story behind it. Pete Frates was a man at war with his own body. A man whose love for others was unshakable. A man who refused to fight alone, and in […]

Americans today have a love/hate relationship with France, but in How the French Saved America Tom Shachtman shows that without France, there might not be a United States of America. To the rebelling colonies, French assistance made the difference between looming defeat and eventual triumph. Even before the Declaration of Independence was issued, King Louis […]

The definitive biography of the transformational world leader by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Khrushchev. When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1985, the USSR. was one of the world’s two superpowers. By 1989, his liberal policies of perestroika and glasnost had permanently transformed Soviet Communism, and had made enemies of […]

Acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin traces the events which ended Romanov rule, ushered the Bolsheviks into power, and introduced Communism to the world. Between 1917 and 1922, Russia underwent a complete and irreversible transformation. Taking advantage of the collapse of the Tsarist regime in the middle of World War I, the Bolsheviks staged a hostile takeover […]

A history of Falmouth as told through a century of Portuguese migration: Strawberries and Portuguese civic, religious and economic associations. A special and FREE event, open to all! This talk provides a history of Falmouth from the point of view of the Portuguese settlers who began coming to the town in the decades before 1900. […]

The Battle of Lexington and Concord challenges the prevailing narrative of the American War of Independence. It was, author George Daughan argues, based as much in economic concerns as political ones. When Massachusetts militiamen turned out in overwhelming numbers to fight the British, they believed they were fighting for their farms and livelihoods, as well […]

The definitive narrative history of the New England Patriots. The definitive, lively, and robust history of the New England Patriots, from Billy Sullivan to Bill Belichick and everything in between The New England Patriots have become a dynasty, though it didn’t begin that way. Love ’em, hate ’em, the Pats have captured this country’s attention […]

His story begins in Taunton and spans over 60 years, through the Civil Rights Movement, The Cuban Missile Crisis and many other important events in American history. He is the son of Portuguese immigrants, part of a hard-working, close-knit family that values its culture and customs like “The Pig Stabbing.” He attended medical school and […]

  D-Day was the start of the Great Crusade to free Europe from Nazi domination. It may surprise you to know that what many name consider to be the most important date in history, has many ties to good Olde Cape Cod. Join us for an hour-long, illustrated talk with Joe Yukna, co-founder of the […]

NEW LOCATION: First Congregational Church 68 Main Street, Falmouth Long before the Civil War, Lucy Stone and other Massachusetts abolitionists opposed women's exclusion from political life. They launched the organized movement at the first National Woman's Rights Convention, held in Worcester. After the war, state activists founded the Boston-based American Woman Suffrage Association and Woman's […]

It took an untold number of weapons to win World War II:  tanks, submachine guns, flame throwers, rifles, and grenades.  But one of the Allies’ most powerful weapons was the art of deception.  Elaborate plots, phantom armies, fictious radio transmissions, controlled leaks, double agents and other clever ruses spun a deadly web of deception for […]

The day before Woodrow Wilson took the presidential oath of office in 1913, he expected a throng of onlookers when he arrived in Washington.  He was upstaged by one woman--twenty-five-year old Alice Paul—and 8,000 suffragists, who marched with banners and floats down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. A half million spectators, supporters and detractors […]

When Abigail Adams begged her husband to "remember the ladies" in drafting a new code of laws, John wrote back that he "could not but laugh" at her extraordinary suggestion.  While it took almost 150 years, in the early part of the 20th century, women were working, voting, and experiencing the first taste of freedoms […]

In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony banned the celebration of Christmas because of its seasonal excess. (Bah humbug!) It wasn't until the mid 19th century when a German immigrant introduced the Christmas tree and Louis Prang brought his colorful Christmas cards to the city, that Bostonians began to show some holiday spirit. This festive book […]

Author and SEA professor Richard J. King talks about his new book, “Ahab’s Rolling Sea: A Natural History of Moby-Dick” and its connections to Falmouth whaling captain Lewis Lawrence. Captain Lawrence sailed the Pacific in the same era as Melville. His unique, data-heavy logbook and chart reveal how 19th-century whalemen understood their impact on whales […]

In this undersea retelling of the holiday classic, Sea Santa makes his annual Christmas journey, pulled in his clamshell sleigh by his eight faithful minnows. Sweet and clever rhyme by Christina Laurie and beautiful watercolor paintings by Elizabeth Moisan  illustrate his visit to a family of lobsters on the night before Christmas.      

DOGFIGHT OVER TOKYO The Last Air Battle of the Pacific War It was the early morning of August 15, 1945. When Billy Hobbs and his fellow Hellcat aviators from Air Group 88 lifted off from the venerable Navy carrier USS Yorktown, they had no idea they were about to carry out the final air mission of […]

ONE BASE AT A TIME How I Survived PTSD and Found My Field of Dreams In the summer of 1981, David Mellor was just a baseball-crazed kid, a star high school pitcher dreaming of someday taking the mound in Fenway Park for his beloved Boston Red Sox. That dream was derailed in a McDonald’s parking […]

AMERICA'S FIRST FREEDOM RIDER Elizabeth Jennings, Chester A. Arthur, and the Early Fight for Civil Rights It wasn’t easy to get around New York City in 1854. Omnibus accidents were commonplace. The Five Points gangs regularly attacked pedestrians. Pickpockets, drunks and kidnappers were part of the daily street scene. And, rival police forces watched and […]

SUDDEN COURAGE Youth in France Confront the Germans from 1940-1945 On June 14, 1940, German tanks rolled into Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation.  Most citizens adapted; many even allied themselves with the new fascist leadership. Yet others refused to capitulate and joined the French Resistance. But, this is […]

YALE NEEDS WOMEN How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant Special Surprise:  The author will talk with two women interviewed for the book 1969 was a landmark year. More than 350,000 rock-n-roll fans flocked to Woodstock, the Boeing 747 jumbo jet made its debut, and the Apollo 11 […]

THE CROWDED HOUR Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders and the Dawn of the American Century When America declared war on Spain in 1898, the US Army numbered 26,000 men, scattered around the country.  Hardly an army at all.  In fact, Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders was born out of desperation. At first glance, they were a […]

JEFFERSON'S WHITE HOUSE  Monticello on the Potomac Welcome to the White House.  Jefferson’s White House, “a lovely Irish-Palladian white palace set in the mud and muck” of the nation’s capital, under construction and fraught with the political tension of a young and ambitious nation. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to occupy the White House […]

SHE CAME TO SLAY The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman Everybody knows she was one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad. Everybody knows she risked her life to lead hundreds of slaves to freedom. But there’s so much more to know about the indomitable and indefatigable Harriet Tubman.  She was a […]

HOW TO GET RID OF A PRESIDENT History's Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives Party intrigue, personal betrayals, conspiracies, and backroom shenanigans.  Just another day in politics.  And, when it comes to term limits, there are no limits to what people have done and will continue to do to remove unpopular, unable […]

THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK The Bootleg King, the Women who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America Move over Al Capone.  There was once a bigger bootlegger than you.  In the early days of Prohibition, George Remus quit practicing law and started trafficking whiskey.  By the summer of 1921, The teetotaler owned […]

NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS The Untold Story of Hitler's Plot to Kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin Tehran, 1943.  Allied leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin have planned a top-secret conference.  The problem—the Nazis had already learned about it. Although the war is undoubtedly lost, Hitler sees it as his last chance to […]

FIRE AND FORTITUDE The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941-1943 Please Note Change of Date While the Marines are celebrated as the victors of the Pacific, the often unsung Army soldiers did most of the fighting—and dying—in the war against Japan. This is their story. It starts with Pearl Harbor, a rude awakening for […]

HONORABLE EXIT How a Few Brave Americans Risked All to Save Our Vietnamese Allies at the End of the War Please Note Special Start Time 3:00 pm The iconic photograph of the Fall of Saigon shows desperate Vietnamese scrambling to board a helicopter evacuating the last American personnel from Vietnam. It is an image of […]

WASHINGTON’S END The Final Years and Forgotten Struggle This story begins where most leave off.  After eight years as president, George Washington exits the office and enters what would become the most bewildering stage of his life.  Surrendering power proved to be more difficult than he imagined and brought his life to an end he […]

THOMAS JEFFERSON’S EDUCATION This beautifully written history about Thomas Jefferson’s campaign to save Virginia through education reveals the origins of a great university in the dilemmas of slavery.  It also reveals a lot about Jefferson himself, who was never quite the egalitarian we wish him to be. Although he was devoted to educating his granddaughters […]

AMERICA THE INGENIOUS How a Nation of Dreamers, Immigrants, and Tinkerers Changed the World The skyscraper and subway car.  The telephone and telegraph.  The safety elevator and the safety pin. All made in America.  Not to mention the microprocessor, amusement park, MRI, supermarket, Pennsylvania rifle, or that magnificent Golden Gate Bridge.  Without doubt, America is […]

THE IMPEACHERS: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation It was a dangerous time in America.  When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice-President Andrew Johnson became “the Accidental President,” the country was in turmoil. Congress was divided over how the Union should be reunited: when and how the secessionist South […]

LINCOLN ON THE VERGE: Thirteen Days to Washington February 11, 1861.  On the eve of his 52nd birthday, Abraham Lincoln boarded a train. The President-Elect of the United States was on the way to the White House for his inauguration, an inauguration Southerners vowed to prevent by any means necessary. He was uncertain what he […]

                THE PLEASURES OF AGE: Old Women and Political Power in the Women's Sufrage Movement On her seventieth birthday in 1885, suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered a speech on "The Pleasures of Age". She declared that "fifty not fifteen is the heyday of woman's life."  While touring the country […]

SUSAN B. ANTHONY Re-Enactor, Sheryl Faye This is going to be the best party ever. One of the most famous women in American history is celebrating her 200th birthday this year—and you’re invited. Susan B. Anthony was born February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts.  The famous social reformer and activist devoted her life to racial, […]

THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD The Revolutionary Lives of Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr. "The Sword and the Shield" is a landmark. It is what happens when one of America's greatest historians of African America shines the same light on two of African America's greatest historical figures. Peniel Joseph deploys his supreme talents […]

CAPE COD AND THE TEA CRISIS OF 1773 Everyone knows about America's famous "tea party." On December 16, 1773, American Patriots dressed as natives tossed 343 chests of  East India Company tea into Boston Harbor.  However, few know that five days earlier a fourth ship bound for Boston wrecked on Cape Cod--and some of its […]

THEY KNEW THEY WERE PILGRIMS: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty Sinners or saints? In 1620, separatists from the Church of England set sail across the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. They saw themselves as spiritual pilgrims, seeking the freedom to worship God in accordance with their understanding of the Bible. Others have an […]

THE DYNASTY They had never won a championship. They were nearly bankrupt. And, they were the laughingstock of the NFL. But that all changed in 1994 when Robert Kraft acquired the franchise and brought head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady on board. Since then, the New England Patriots have made ten trips to […]

FORMATION: A Woman's Memoir of Stepping out of Line Named by "Esquire" as one of the Best Nonfiction Books of the Year Ryan Dotie never imagined herself on the front lines of a war halfway around the world. But a conversation with an Army recruiter in her high-school cafeteria changed the course of her life.  After […]

ATOMIC SPY: The Dark Lives of Klaus Fuchs German by birth. British by naturalization. Communist by conviction. Klaus Fuchs was a brilliant scientist, a fearless Nazi resister and an infamous spy. In 1950, he was convicted of espionage for handing over the designs of the plutonium bomb to the Russians, putting an end to America's […]

WHEN WOMEN WON THE RIGHT TO VOTE: History, Myth, and Memory How well do you know the 19th Amendment? When women achieved passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, they did not win the right to vote—despite repeated claims that they did. Just what, then, did the women’s suffrage amendment do? Join Dr. Lisa Tetrault […]

DEMAGOGUE The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy He’s been called the most dangerous demagogue in American history. Perhaps no other man has caused so much damage in such a short time. When Joe McCarthy finally made it to the Senate, he flailed around in search of an agenda. Finally, after three years, […]

FURIOUS HOURS Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee There are two stories here. The first goes back to the 1970s, down into the Deep South. Reverend Willie Maxwell, a rural preacher, was accused of murdering five of his family members to collect the money from the insurance policies he took out on […]

THE CABINET: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution George Washington took his oath of office as the first President of the United States in 1789.  Two and a half years later, he called his first cabinet meeting. Seriously?  That’s right.  The US Constitution hadn’t created or provided for such a body. In […]

A HISTORY OF THEATER ON CAPE COD Theater on the Cape began in 1916 when a group of artists and writers in Provincetown mounted a production of a one-act play, Bound East for Cardiff, by a little-known playwright, Eugene O’Neill. They staged the play in a rickety old theater on a wharf in what was […]

IN THE WAKE OF THE MAYFLOWER The First Encounter In the Wake of the Mayflower is the story of life after the Mayflower's arrival--from The First  Encounter  through the 50 years of peace that ended with King Philip's  War. It highlights the mutually-dependent relationship between the Pilgrims and the indigenous Wampanoags, documented in  Karen Rinaldo's depiction of "The […]

THE BOSTON MASSACRE: A FAMILY HISTORY Fact. On a late winter evening in 1770, British soldiers shot and killed five local, unarmed citizens. However, from the very beginning, one fascinating truth has been obscured from this often-told story: the conflicts between the British troops and the increasingly rebellious colonists leading up to the historic event […]

THE FIRST FIRST LADIES The Informal Political Power of Early American Women During the 17th and early 18th centuries, social class was ever-so important. And, despite the entrenched tradition of patriarchy, high-ranking women could wield more power than lower-status men. Meet the first First Ladies. The wives of the governors of America's original thirteen colonies […]

From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes
This is the stuff of fairy tales: poor Russian immigrant falls madly in love with the heir to a great American Fortune.  She is Rose Pastor. He is James Graham Phelps Stokes, the crown prince of the Phelps Stokes dynasty. Member of the legendary 400 families of New York high society. Friends with the Morgans and the Vanderbilts.  And he’s totally smitten, too.

The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Pilots of World War II
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Cornelia Fort was already in the air. She had escaped Nashville’s debutante scene at the age of 22 and headed to Hawaii for a fresh start as a flight instructor. When the bombs began to fall, Fort and her student were in the middle of a lesson. They barely made it back to ground that ill-fated morning.

Benjamin Franklin was an abolitionist freethinker from the urban north. George Washington was a slaveholding general from the agrarian south. These vastly different men had a three-decade bond that helped forge the United States.

Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America
In 1869, when the final spike was driven into the Transcontinental Railroad, few were prepared for its seismic aftershocks. America's railways, once a hodgepodge of short, squabbling lines, soon exploded into a titanic industry helmed by speculators, crooks, and visionaries.

The Radical Republican History of the Civil War
In 1862, the ardent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison summarized the events tearing the United States apart: “There is a war because there was a Republican Party. There was a Republican Party because there was an Abolition Party. There was an Abolition Party because there was Slavery.” Garrison’s simple statement expresses the essential truths at the heart of LeeAnna Keith’s When It Was Grand.

The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
By Susan Eisenhower, a DC policy strategist, security expert and Ike's granddaughter
Few people have made decisions as momentous as Eisenhower. Even fewer have had so many diverse decisions to make. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean War to the Cold War crises, from the Red Scare to the Missile Gap controversies, Ike was able to give America eight years of peace and prosperity by relying on a core set of principles.