Harriet Tubman is well-known for being a conductor of the Underground Railroad. She helped dozens of people escape the slave-owning south through her bravery, wisdom and skill. But as Edda Fields-Black discovered, she also helped Union troops raid rice plantations in South Carolina and free hundreds of people who were living in some of the worst conditions imaginable. On this episode, we talk with this newly-minted Pulitzer Prize winner about how she wrote "Combee" and how her own family's history is tied to Harriet Tubman.

Edda Fields-Black's website can be found at https://eddafieldsblack.com/

Information on her book from Oxford University Press can be found at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/combee-9780197552797?cc=us&lang=en&

Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at

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https://instagram.com/axelbankhistory

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From the publisher: On June 7, 1907, a ship packed with Russian Jews set sail—not to Jerusalem or New York, where many on board had dreamed they would go, but to Texas. The man who encouraged the passengers to go was David Jochelmann, Rachel Cockerell’s great-grandfather. The journey marked the beginning of the Galveston Movement, a forgotten moment in history when ten thousand Jews fled to Texas in the lead-up to World War I.

The charismatic leader of the movement was Jochelmann’s closest friend, Israel Zangwill, an internationally acclaimed novelist. As antisemitic violence rose in Eastern Europe, Zangwill embarked on a desperate search for a temporary homeland—from Australia to Canada, Angola to Antarctica—before reluctantly settling on Galveston. He feared the Jewish people would be absorbed into the great American melting pot, but there was no other hope.

In a highly inventive style, Cockerell gives us history exactly as it unfolds, weaving letters, diaries, memoirs, newspaper articles, and interviews into a vivid account. MELTING POINT follows Zangwill and the Jochelmann family through two world wars, to London, New York, and Jerusalem as their lives intertwine with some of the most memorable figures of the twentieth century. As each person chooses whether to cling to their history or melt into their new surroundings, the book ultimately asks what it means to belong, what can be salvaged from the past, and whether a promised land can ever live up to its promises.

Rachel Cockerell's website can be found at https://www.rachelcockerell.co.uk/

Her social media feed can be found at https://x.com/rachelcockerell

Information on her book can be found at https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374609269/meltingpoint/

Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at

https://twitter.com/axelbankhistory

https://instagram.com/axelbankhistory

https://facebook.com/axelbankhistory

From the publisher:

Since protestors ripped through the Capitol Building in 2021, the threat of constitutional crisis has loomed over our nation. The foundational tenets of American democracy seem to be endangered, and many citizens believe this danger is unprecedented in our history. But Americans have weathered many constitutional crises, often accompanied by the same violence and chaos experienced on January 6. However, these crises occurred on the state level. In Sedition, Marcus Alexander Gadson uncovers these episodes of civil unrest and examines how state governments handled them.

Information on his book can be found at https://nyupress.org/9781479828883/sedition/

Marcus Gadson can be reached on social media at https://x.com/MarcusAGadson

Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at

https://twitter.com/axelbankhistory

https://instagram.com/axelbankhistory

https://facebook.com/axelbankhistory