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27 books about travel in a historical context to inspire your next trip.

Historic Travel Books

Historic adventurers who inspire travel, historical fiction to inspire travel adventures, travel history in the making, there you have it; my personal recommendation of 27 books grounded in a historical context that will inspire travel adventures while you are safe at home. did you enjoy this post sharing is caring....

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The Best Books of 2021

This Year's Must-Reads

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2021

With many of our wings still clipped by Covid-19 this year, we needed to travel vicariously through these adventurous reads

Jennifer Nalewicki

Travel Correspondent

To put it mildly, the year 2021 has been an interesting one in terms of travel, thanks to the pandemic. While many countries are reopening their borders and inviting visitors back with open arms, others remain completely locked down to foreigners. Many travelers have seen this as a sign to keep their vacations closer to home, favoring road trips over intercontinental flights and cruises, while others prepare for long-awaited excursions they were forced to cancel due to Covid-19. 

Fortunately, one thing that the pandemic hasn’t changed is the ability to escape and experience new places through a book. Here are ten travel book releases from 2021 that are getting us excited about getting out on the open road again. 

Winter Pasture: One Woman’s Journey with China’s Kazakh Herders , by Li Juan

After many years of running a convenience store with her mother in China’s Altai Mountains, author Li Juan decided she wanted to experience the country’s rough and rugged landscape for herself and joined a family of Kazakh herders to help them with the challenging task of moving their livestock from one grazing area to another. Faced with minus-20-degree temperatures and a herd of 30 camels, 500 sheep and more than 100 cattle, Li experiences what herding life is like firsthand and chronicles it in her memoir, Winter Pasture , translated to English for the first time. In describing the inspiration for her book, she writes in an excerpt, “At first, my ambitions were grand. I wanted to spend the winter in a destination that was at least 250 miles away, which would mean over a dozen days by horseback, so that I could get a taste of the hardest, most unforgiving aspects of nomadic life.” Li had trepidations about traveling on horseback and withstanding the harsh elements though, eventually opting to spend just three days with the herders. Slate writes, “People can figure out how to survive under the most punishing circumstances, and learning about how these people do it—how they have done it for centuries—makes Winter Pasture an unlikely but inspiring getaway read for the late pandemic.”  

Winter Pasture: One Woman's Journey with China's Kazakh Herders

Winner of the People's Literature Award, Winter Pasture has been a bestselling book in China for several years. Li Juan has been widely lauded in the international literary community for her unique contribution to the narrative non-fiction genre. Winter Pasture is her crowning achievement, shattering the boundaries between nature writing and personal memoir.

There and Back: Photographs from the Edge , by Jimmy Chin

Chances are good that you’ve seen Jimmy Chin’s work. Not only have his adventure photographs appeared in National Geographic , but his film Free Solo , which follows professional rock climber Alex Honnold’s gripping attempt to free climb Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan, won an Oscar for best documentary in 2019. Now the photographer-director-mountaineer is adding another hyphenate to his name as book author with the December 7 release of There and Back: Photographs from the Edge . Capturing some of Chin’s greatest (and most death-defying) adventures, from skiing Mount Everest to crisscrossing Tibet’s high-altitude Chang Tang region without a support crew, the book contains more than 200 striking photographs shot on all seven continents. Chin’s imagery is coupled with profiles of some of the world’s most exceptional athletes and adventurers, including Honnold and ski-mountaineer Kit DesLauriers. Fellow photographer Paul Nicklen has this to say about Chin’s work: “Jimmy’s photography takes you on a journey to places few have ever visited. No one else is capable of capturing such beauty while hanging by a thread from a towering rock face or skiing down the legendary slopes of Mount Everest. It is a pleasure to finally have all his most iconic images in one volume. I can't wait for you to get lost in the poetry he has unearthed at the most extreme corners of our planet.”  

There and Back: Photographs from the Edge

The Academy Award–winning director of Free Solo and National Geographic photographer presents the first collection of his iconic adventure photography, featuring some of the greatest moments of the most accomplished climbers and outdoor athletes in the world, and including more than 200 extraordinary photographs.

An Indian Among Los Indígenas: A Native Travel Memoir, by Ursula Pike

A member of the Karuk Tribe from Northern California, Ursula Pike joined the Peace Corps in her mid-20s in hopes of building relationships with indigenous groups far from home. As she writes in her debut book, An Indian Among Los Indígenas , it wasn't lost on her, though, that when she arrived in La Paz, Bolivia, to start her volunteer term, she “followed in the footsteps of Western colonizers and missionaries who had also claimed they were there to help.” Pike's travel memoir grapples with the lasting repercussions she witnesses of colonization across South America, providing an honest, straightforward and non-white-washed perspective. “Acutely aware of the legacy of colonialism on her own people, Pike examines her own potential complicity with frankness and wit,” writes Ms. Magazine . 

An Indian Among Los Indígenas: A Native Travel Memoir

An Indian among los Indígenas upends a canon of travel memoirs that has historically been dominated by white writers. It is a sharp, honest, and unnerving examination of the shadows that colonial history casts over even the most well-intentioned attempts at cross-cultural aid.

The Bears Ears: A Human History of America’s Most Endangered Wilderness , by David Roberts

Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah has been a hotly contested region over the last few years. In December 2017, former president Donald Trump signed legislation that decreased the monument’s size by 85 percent in an effort to put the land on the auction block for future development as a drilling and mining site—one of the largest reductions of protected land by a president in history—only for the Biden administration to restore the territory to its original form this October. Now that the environmental battle has ended, author David Roberts takes readers on a trek through this rugged 1.35-million-acre expanse, which he calls “his favorite place on earth.” In The Bears Ears , Roberts combines archival research with his own personal adventures exploring some of the monument’s more than 100,000 archeological sites , which comprise nearly 14,000 years’ worth of human history. “Most tribes feel that North America is still theirs, that it’s been stolen from them by the government, by white people,” Mark Maryboy, a retired Navajo politician and activist, told Roberts for an opinion piece he wrote for The New York Times in February. “We still worship in those lands. The Bears Ears is our church, our cathedral.”   

The Bears Ears: A Human History of America's Most Endangered Wilderness

A personal and historical exploration of the Bears Ears country and the fight to save a national monument.

Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women , by Annabel Abbs

In her new book, English author Annabel Abbs adds weight to the famous quote , “Well behaved women rarely make history”—originally uttered by Harvard professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and often misattributed to Eleanor Roosevelt. Following along the paths of notable artists, authors, musicians and scholars, she embarks on an inspirational journey with the many women throughout history who refused to conform to gender norms and instead left behind their conventional homemaking roles to enter spheres historically populated by men. Abbs, who describes her own childhood experiences of growing up carless and relying on her own two feet to get around, “walks” alongside artist Georgia O'Keeffe in the secluded desert of New Mexico, English author Daphne Du Maurier and the River Rhone, and French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir amidst the wild forests and mountains of France. Throughout Windswept , Abbs poses this simple yet thought-provoking question: “How does a woman change once she becomes windswept?”

Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women

Annabel Abbs follows in the footsteps of women who boldly reclaimed wild landscapes for themselves, including Georgia O’Keeffe in the empty plains of Texas and New Mexico, Nan Shepherd in the mountains of Scotland, Gwen John following the French River Garonne, Daphne du Maurier along the River Rhône, and Simone de Beauvoir―who walked as much as twenty-five miles a day in a dress and espadrilles―through the mountains and forests of France.

Postcards from the Baja California Border: Portraying Townscape and Place, 1900s-1950s , by Daniel D. Arreola

For many people, including Daniel D. Arreola, popping a postcard in the mail to friends and loved ones back home is a necessary part of traveling. In Postcards from the Baja California Border, the cultural and historical geographer looks at the history of some of the Mexican border’s many communities, particularly Tijuana, Mexicali, Tecate and Algodones, training his focus specifically on the first half of the 20th century. The book is the final installment of a four-part series that includes postcards from the Río Bravo, Sonora and Chihuahua. “In each of these excursions the goal has been the same: to understand how a popular media form, the postcard, is a window into the historical and geographical past of Mexican border communities that were tourist destinations from the 1900s through the 1950s,” Arreola writes in the book’s introduction. Many of the postcards are from Arreola’s personal collection while others are from archives. By spotlighting dozens of colorful postcards, Arreola shows what the borderlands look like from the perspective of visitors and provides a time capsule of the many cabarets, curios shops and other popular tourist haunts that have all but disappeared over time.  

Postcards from the Baja California Border: Portraying Townscape and Place, 1900s–1950s

Postcards have a magical pull. They allow us to see the past through charming relics that allow us to travel back in time. Daniel D. Arreola’s Postcards from the Baja California Border offers a window into the historical and geographical past of storied Mexican border communities.

Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am , by Julia Cooke

Pan American World Airways, or simply Pan Am, is arguably one of the most recognizable and iconic international carriers in the world, leaving an impressionable mark on the airline industry long after it filed for bankruptcy in 1991. In her tell-all book Come Fly the World , author Julia Cooke brings the allure of traveling by air back to life, sharing the experiences of flight attendants (then called stewardesses) who worked for the airline between 1966 and 1975. Not only does Cooke highlight some of the ridiculous standards put forth by the airline for its employees, like requiring flight attendants to be between 5′3" and 5′9", 105 and 140 pounds, and under 26 years of age, but also their role during the Vietnam War, including providing assistance during Operation Babylift, which saw the mass evacuation of some 2,000 orphaned children in April 1975, during the fall of Saigon, who were later adopted by new parents throughout America. In a review of the book, author Kate Bolick ( Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own ) writes, “Viewing the untold story of jet-age stewardesses through a modern feminist lens, Cooke brings vividly to life a contradictory profession, one that, for all its limitations, offered many women a chance for true liberation.”

Come Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am

Glamour, danger, liberation: in a Mad Men –era of commercial flight, Pan Am World Airways attracted the kind of young woman who wanted out, and wanted up.

Around the World in 80 Books , by David Damrosch

As a professor of literature at Harvard University, David Damrosch knows a thing or two about books that have shaped the field of literature and also touched people’s lives. For Around the World in 80 Books , he pulls from his comprehensive knowledge of the written word and his personal library of texts to create an analysis of 80 books that offer readers a strong sense of place. From Charles Dickens ( Great Expectations ) and Eileen Chang ( Love in a Fallen City ) to Chinua Achebe ( Things Fall Apart ) and Marcel Proust ( In Search of Lost Time ), Damrosch draws together a diverse array of talented authors from all walks of life. They are both widely and lesser known, but all have one key thing in common: Their writing has the ability to transport readers to places near and far without ever needing to leave home.   

Around the World in 80 Books

A transporting and illuminating voyage around the globe, through classic and modern literary works that are in conversation with one another and with the world around them.

Islands of Abandonment , by Cal Flyn

During the early pandemic and subsequent lockdown, it became strikingly apparent how quickly nature takes over once human interference subsides. Air quality improved in cities around the world, and birds flocked to urban areas they normally would avoid. In Islands of Abandonment , investigative journalist and nature writer Cal Flyn takes things one step further by visiting places around the world abandoned by humans over time, whether it be due to war or famine, including the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that serves as a buffer between North and South Korea, and Chernobyl , the site of a deadly nuclear disaster that remains risky to human health nearly 40 years later. The book, which was a finalist for the Wainwright Prize , awarded to works that “include a celebration of nature and our natural environment or a warning of the dangers to it across the globe,” acknowledges the negative impacts humans have had on Earth, while making a strong case for humans’ collective ability to help rehabilitate the planet for future generations.  

Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape

A beautiful, lyrical exploration of the places where nature is flourishing in our absence

Freedom , by Sebastian Junger

Over the course of a year, Sebastian Junger, the New York Times bestselling author of Tribe , and three of his friends—a conflict photographer and two military veterans—challenged themselves to leave behind the creature comforts they were used to for the everyday struggles that come with life on the road. Using the railroad lines coursing up and down the East Coast as their guide, they set out on a mission to experience what life is like without the safety net provided by conventional food and shelter. They spent their weeks living in the elements, sleeping under overpasses, escaping railroad police and scrambling to cobble together each day’s meals. Freedom places the group’s experiment in independence into context with historical accounts of labor strikes, resistance movements and life on the open frontier, ultimately shedding new light on the meaning of community and freedom. “Junger contemplates the intersection of autonomy and coterie at a time when the word itself, while holding so much meaning, is so often misunderstood,” writes Sarah Sicard in a review for the Military Times .

Throughout history, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don’t coexist easily. We value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. In this intricately crafted and thought-provoking book, Sebastian Junger examines the tension that lies at the heart of what it means to be human.

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Jennifer Nalewicki | | READ MORE

Jennifer Nalewicki is a Brooklyn-based journalist. Her articles have been published in The New York Times , Scientific American , Popular Mechanics , United Hemispheres and more. You can find more of her work at her website .

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10 of the best travel books

We may not be able to venture far right now, but these travel books, from classics to comic travelogues, take us on journeys around the world Share your favourites in the comments below

Venice by Jan Morris

Recent reports suggest the now-quiet canals of Venice are at their clearest for 60 years, with swans spotted in recent days. The city, of course, has always had a touch of fantasy about it. “Venice is a cheek-by-jowl, back-of-the-hand, under-the-counter, higgledy-piggledy, anecdotal city,” writes Jan Morris in this 1960 masterpiece . “She is rich in piquant wrinkled things, like an assortment of bric-a-brac in the house of a wayward connoisseur, or parasites on an oyster-shell.” The book pens a portrait of a city thick with atmosphere and stuffed with history, conjuring an intoxicating sense of place with Morris’s trademark wit and wisdom. Faber

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy de Lisle

Canadian cartoonist Guy de Lisle is no standard travel writer – and his books are far from standard travelogues. Using simple, unfussy, comic-strip illustrations, he recounts his first-hand experiences of living in some of the world’s knottiest destinations, from Myanmar to North Korea. The result is a series of graphic memoirs that brilliantly juggle the subtleties and oddities of being a stranger in a strange town. Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City is the product of a year-long stay in the region and, over the course of more than 300 pages, tries to make sense of somewhere rarely less than complex. Jonathan Cape

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle by Dervla Murphy

Few travel writers of any era compare to Dervla Murphy. Now in her late 80s, she’s been responsible for dozens of travel books , dwelling on destinations as varied as Cuba, Laos, Romania and Cameroon. Her 1965 debut remains her best known work, and tells the account of an astonishing solo bicycle expedition to Delhi. “Within a few weeks my journey had degenerated from a happy-go-lucky cycle trek to a grim struggle for progress by any means,” she writes, before encountering wolves, broken ribs and heat exhaustion. She also packs a .25 pistol, and has more than one cause to use it. Eland

The Crossway by Guy Stagg

This searingly honest account of an on-foot, 10-month journey from Canterbury to Jerusalem found its way onto more than one awards shortlist following its publication in 2018, and for good reason. Guy Stagg, a self-proclaimed non-believer and non-hiker, undertakes the trek as a form of self-healing, following years of coping with depressive thoughts that “stung and reeled”. If the pretext is downbeat, the journey itself is an odyssey, encountering memorable characters and a rippled patchwork of different cultures and beliefs. Almost unbelievably, he sets off from Kent in the dead of winter, requiring a crossing of the Alps in snow. And he writes like a dream. Picador

Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America with Interruptions by Jenny Diski

After spending three weeks crossing the Atlantic on a cargo ship (“at night, the rabble of stars demanded to be watched”), Jenny Diski travels around the perimeter of the USA by rail . The joy of the book lies as much in her portrayal of characters she encounters en route as the immersive detail of the country she’s passing through. Or, as she writes, “it is much more as if America is passing through you, what you are, what you’ve known”. Part-memoir, and written around 20 years ago, Stranger On A Train captures an America that still feels familiar – albeit with cigarettes in place of smartphones. Virag

French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France by Tim Moore

Few writers since Bill Bryson have nailed the comic travelogue as well as Tim Moore. Dogged in pursuit of an adventure, he’s pedalled the former Iron Curtain on an East German shopping bike, walked the Camino de Santiago with a donkey and, most recently, crossed the USA in a breakdown-prone Model T Ford. He’s also properly, consistently funny, as evidenced in 2001’s French Revolutions , which sees him attempt to cycle the entire course of the Tour de France. The acknowledgement in the title pages (“The Tour de France press office, without whom none of this would have been difficult”) sets the tone for a hugely entertaining read. Yellow Jersey

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West

Readers get evangelical about this vast book, originally published in two volumes, which ostensibly describes Rebecca West’s travels through what was then Yugoslavia in 1937 . It is, however, far more than just a keen-eyed journal. Gathering up centuries of history and blending them with her own often piercing observations, West uses the book to paint a deep and intricate picture of a region on the brink of the second world war. The New York Times has called it a “masterpiece of history and travel”, while Time magazine would later describe West as “indisputably the world’s number one woman writer”. Canongate

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux

“All news out of Africa is bad. It made me want to go there…” So run the opening words of Paul Theroux’s 2002 classic, Dark Star Safari . Written more than two decades after his first long-distance travelogues, and some four decades after living in Africa as a young teacher, the book follows Theroux on a compelling, north-to-south journey down the continent. The narrative doesn’t shy away from harsh judgements – in Kenya “tourists yawned at the animals and the animals yawned back”, while aid workers also come in for some barbed criticism – but the people and landscapes he encounters are portrayed so vividly you can almost feel the equatorial heat from the pages. Penguin

Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-mile Adventure by Monisha Rajesh

Monisha Rajesh has form when it comes to rail travel. This globe-straddling journey is the follow-up to 2010’s well received Around India In 80 Trains , and sees her undertake a 45,000-mile (72,000km) journey through Europe, Asia and North America. Her gift for detail means characters, as well as places, are brought to life. And from a high-altitude ride into Tibet to a trans-Canadian epic – not to mention a homecoming trip on the Venice Simplon Orient Express – the book does a fine job of affirming the things, large and small, that make rail travel such an absorbing way of seeing the world. Bloomsbury

A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush Eric Newby

“CAN YOU TRAVEL NURISTAN JUNE?” With this 1956 telegram – sent by disillusioned London fashion executive Eric Newby to a diplomat friend – begins an engrossing, at times comical, mountaineering journey into Afghanistan. The pair lack anything like the requisite climbing experience, but undergo a brief training period in Wales before travelling to the unforgiving peaks of Asia, with the aim of conquering the 5,800-metre Mir Samir. Newby’s prose is sharp and lively throughout , drawing the reader into remote villages and the “spiky and barren-looking” Hindu Kush, where hardships (and a chance hillside encounter with steely adventurer Wilfred Thesiger, who sneers at their air-beds) await. HarperCollins

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The American Encyclopedia of History, Biography and Travel

Comprising ancient and modern history: the biography of eminent men of europe and america, and the lives of distinguished travelers., publisher description.

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world. Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility. Discover a piece of history with this digital edition eBook of The American Encyclopedia of History, Biography and Travel: Comprising Ancient and Modern History: the Biography of Eminent Men of Europe and America, and the Lives of Distinguished Travelers., by Thomas H. Prescott. Restored with care and true to the original work, this work has been deemed culturally important by scholars and is a fundamental part of our civilization's knowledge base. Pick up your copy today. Genres: Biography, World history

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Exploring History's Greatest Adventures throughout time!

25 Time Travel Novels and series for Children, Middle Grade, and Young Adult

Time Travel Is An Exciting Science Fiction/Fantasy Genre Where The Plot Possibilities Are Truly Endless And They Can Sometimes Be As Educational As They Are Entertaining. Of course, not all time travel books are a set up to teach kids about a specific time period. Many are simply a fun fantasy. They’re the perfect gateway to historical fiction – especially if the child enjoys the time period.   Here are our picks for kid-friendly, time-travel books – some old, some new – including series and stand-alone novels.   A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. This book only makes the list because people would expect to see it. But the brother and sister characters do not travel “back” in time. Instead, they travel through space and time, from galaxy to galaxy in search of their father – perhaps to future worlds? For ages 9 – 12.   Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. There are over 60 books in this series where siblings Jack and Annie go on adventures throughout history experiencing dinosaurs and sabertooth tigers, Vikings, Egyptian Pharoahs and more. These make great early reader books. For ages 5 – 8.   The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls by M. J. Thomas is an adventure-packed chapter book series that follows siblings Peter and Mary and their dog, Hank, as they discover ancient scrolls that transport them back to key moments in biblical history. For ages 6 – 9.   Rescue on the Oregon Trail (Ranger in Time #1of 13) by Kate Messner. Ranger is a time-traveling golden retriever who has a nose for trouble . . . and always saves the day! For ages 7 – 10 years   World’s Worst Time Machine (Volume 1) by Dustin Brady. From the bestselling author of Trapped in a Video Game series, Brady’s laugh-out-loud sense of humor and daring adventure will keep even the most reluctant reader wanting to turn the pages of this new series. For ages 8 – 11.   The Secret Lake by Karen Inglis. Siblings Stella and Tom go back 100 years from their London home to solve a mystery in this page-turning instant classic. For ages 8 – 11.   George Washington’s Spy (Time Travel Adventures trilogy) by Elvira Woodruff. Ten-year-old Matt Carlton and six friends are accidentally swept back in time–to Boston in 1776! The British now occupy the city, and redcoat guards are everywhere! For ages 7 – 10.   One if By Land, Two if By Submarine by Eileen Schnabel. When Paul Revere is kidnapped by a time traveler determined to change the outcome of the American Revolution, thirteen-year-old Kep Westguard is sent to Boston, 1775, to take his famous midnight ride. For ages 10+.   Displaced: Both Feet in the Game by JJ Carroll. Seventh grader Nikola and his friends travel back 100 years and must travel over 4,500 miles with no money, no means of transportation and a sinister FBI agent on their heels. For ages 8 – 12.   Laurella Swift and the Keys of Time by Allison Parkinson. Laurella Swift and the Keys of Time is the first in a new series of Laurella Swift adventures. The historical fantasy takes middle-grade readers on a rip-roaring escapade to the court of Cyrus the Great. For ages 7 – 12.   The Last Musketeer by Stuart Gibbs. On a family trip to Paris, Greg Rich’s parents disappear. They’re not just missing from the city—they’re missing from the century. So, Greg does what any other fourteen-year-old would do: He travels through time to rescue them. For ages 8 – 12.   Anachronist : The Infinity Engines series (Book 1) by Andrew Hastie. Travelling into the past using the timelines of ancient artefacts, the Oblivion Order explore the forgotten centuries, ones that never made it into the history books. They make subtle adjustments to the past – saving us from oblivion in the future. Young Adult.   Glitch by Laura Martin. Glitchers are people who travel through time to preserve important historical events. Regan Fitz finds a letter from his future self, warning about an impending disaster that threatens him and everyone he knows. For ages 10+.   The Rhythm of Time by Questlove. Seventh grader Rahim Reynolds goes back to 1997 and learns what every time traveler before him has: Actions in the past jeopardize the future. For ages 10 – 12.   Stealing the Sword (Time Jumpers series Book 1) by Wendy Mass. Aimed at newly independent readers with easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page. For ages 6 – 9.   Justice for Joe by Dianna Dorisi Winget. When twelve-year-old Birch first learns the rare clock gene she inherited from her grandmother enables her to time travel, she’s not excited–she’s terrified. For ages 8 – 12.   The Hat, George Washington, and Me! By Gregory O. Smith. Part time travel, part crazy school, full-time fun! “Hey Mom, there’s a patriot in my cereal box!” A fast-moving mystery adventure for children ages 8-14.   The Eye of Ra by Ben Gartner . For readers graduating from the Magic Tree House series and ready for intense action, dive into this middle grade novel rich with meticulous historical detail. For ages 8 – 12.   The Thrifty Guide to the American Revolution : A Handbook for Time Travelers by Jonathan W Stokes. If you had a time travel machine and could take a vacation anywhere in history, this is the only guidebook you would need! For ages 8 – 12.   Hot on the Trail in Ancient Egypt by Linda Bailey. Book 1 of the series. All twins Josh and Emma want to do is get out of the creepy Good Times Travel Agency where their little sister, Libby, has led them. But the peculiar shop owner encourages them to open one of his guidebooks first — and they suddenly find themselves transported back in time.   The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Everyone thinks it’s just a game until strange things start happening. Has the Egypt Game gone too far? For ages 8 – 12.   Greg’s First Adventure in Time (Book 1 of 5) by C. M. Huddleston. Archaeology, time travel, and a moose hunt combine to force 12-year-old Greg to face his fears and find his strengths. Greg explores a world that existed more than 3,000 years ago with his new Native American friend Hopelf. While Greg learns about Native American ways of life, how to hunt and fish, and just to survive, he is always searching for a way back home. For ages 10+.   The Time Travelers by Linda Buckley-Archer. Gideon, Peter, and Kate are swept into a journey through eighteenth-century London and form a bond that, they hope, will stand strong in the face of unfathomable treachery. For ages 8 – 12.   Found (Book 1 of 8) by Margaret Peterson Haddix. One night a plane appeared out of nowhere, the only passengers aboard: thirty-six babies. As soon as they were taken off the plane, it vanished. Now, thirteen years later, two of those children are receiving sinister messages, and they begin to investigate their past. Their quest to discover where they really came from leads them to a conspiracy that reaches from the far past to the distant future–and will take them hurtling through time. For ages 10+.   The History Mystery Kids: Fiasco in Florida (Book 1 of 10) by Daniel Kenney. Professor Abner Jefferson is missing. His children watched him get sucked into a book. Now they must find him. By going back… through History! For ages 8 – 10.

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A History of Moscow in 13 Dishes

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Announcing our 2024-2025 Travel Grant Recipients

The Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024-2025 travel grants. Our research centers annually award travel grants to students, scholars, and independent researchers through a competitive application process. We extend a warm congratulations to this year’s awardees. We look forward to meeting and working with you!

Archive of Documentary Arts

Elizabeth Barahona, Ph.D. candidate, Northwestern University, “Black and Latino Coalition Building in Durham, North Carolina 1980-2010.” (Joint award with the Human Rights Archive)

Diana Ruiz, Faculty, University of Washington, Seattle, “Apprehension through Representation: Image Capture of the US-Mexico Border.” (Joint award with the Human Rights Archive)

Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture

Mary lily research travel grants.

Taylor Doherty, Ph.D. candidate, University of Arizona, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, “Minnie Bruce Pratt’s Anti-Imperialist Lesbian Feminist ‘Longed-for but Unrealized World.’”

Thalia Ertman, Ph.D. candidate, University of California, Los Angeles Department of History, “U.S. Feminist Anti-Nuclear Activism and Women’s Bodies, 1970s-1990s.”

Samuel Huber, Faculty, Yale University, Department of English. “A World We Can Bear: Kate Millett’s Life in Feminism.”

Alan Mitchell, Ph.D. candidate, Cambridge University, Faculty of Art History and Architecture, “Redefining Phoebe Anna Traquair through the lenses of historicism and intersectionality.”

Emily Nelms Chastain, Ph.D. candidate, Boston University, School of Theology, “The Clergywoman Question: The International Association of Women Preachers and Ecclesial Suffrage in American Methodism.”

Ana Parejo Vadillo, Faculty, School of Creative Arts, Cultures and Communications, Birkbeck, University of London, “Bound: The Queer Poetry of Michael Field.”

Carol Quirke, Faculty, American Studies, SUNY Old Westbury, “Feminism’s ‘Official Photographer:’ Bettye Lane, News Photography and Contemporary Feminism, 1969-2000.”

Paula Ramos, Independent Researcher, “Spatiality and gender: spatial circumstances of the creative process of feminist artists in the 1970s and 1980s.”

Dartricia Rollins, Graduate Student, University of Alabama, School of Library and Information Studies, “‘You Had to Be There:’ Charis’ 50-Year History as the South’s Oldest Independent Feminist Bookstore.”

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Research Travel Grants

Ipek Sahinler, Ph.D. candidate, University of Texas Austin, “A Portrait of Young Women as Proto-Queer Thinkers: Eve Sedgwick vis-à-vis Gloria Anzaldúa.”

David Seitz, Faculty, Harvey Mudd College, “‘No Less Realistic’ but with ‘Different Ambitions’: Reparative Reading, Human Geography, and a Return to Sedgwick.

Doris Duke Foundation Travel Grants

Olivia Armandroff, Ph.D. candidate, University of Southern California, “Volcanic Matter: Land Formation and Artistic Creation.”

Cameron Bushnell, Faculty, Clemson University, Department of English. “‘The Invisible Orient’ in Orientalism Otherwise: Women Write the Orient.”

John Hope Franklin Center for African and African American History and Culture

Thomas Blakeslee, Ph.D. candidate, Harvard University, History Department, “Domestic Disturbances: The Resistant Masculinity of Black Fatherhood from Anti-Slavery to Civil Rights.”

Mara Curechian , Ph.D. candidate, School of English, University of St Andrews, “Acting Like Family: Performing Kinship in the Literature of the Civil War and Reconstruction.”

Michelle Decker, Faculty, Scripps College, English Department, George Washington Williams’s and Amanda B. Smith’s Appalachian Origins and African Explorations.”

Timothy Kumfer, Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgetown University, 2023-2024 Mellon Sawyer Seminar, “Counter-Capital: Grassroots Black Power and Urban Struggles in Washington, D.C.”

Hunter Moskowitz, Ph.D. candidate, Northeastern University, “Race and Labor in the Global Textile Industry: Lowell, Concord, and Monterrey in the Early 19th Century.”

Summer Sloane-Britt, Ph.D. candidate, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, “Visions of Liberation: Gender and Photography in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 1960-1970.”

Mila Turner, Faculty, Clark Atlanta University, “Bridging Histories: Connecting the Atlanta Student Movement with College Student Activism throughout the Southeast”

Harry H. Harkins T’73 Travel Grants for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History

Kadin Henningsen, Ph.D. candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “Walt’s Companions.”

Julie Kliegman, Author, book-length exploration of transgender pioneers.

John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History

John furr fellowship.

Hannah Pivo, Ph.D. candidate, Columbia University, Department of Art History and Archaeology, “Charting the Future: Graphic Methods and Planning in the United States, c. 1910-60.”

Lewis Smith, Faculty, Brunel University London, Brunel Business School, Division of Marketing, “Marketing the State”: J. Walter Thompson Company and the Marketing of the Public Sector in Britain.”

Alvin Achenbaum Travel Grants

Warren Dennis, Ph.D. candidate, Boston University, “Hard Power Paths: Gender and American Energy Policy, 1960-2000.” (Joint award with History of Medicine with support from the Louis H. Roddis Endowment)

Dan Du, Faculty, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Department of History, “U.S. Tea Trade and Consumption after the American Revolution.”

Will Mari, Faculty, Louisiana State University, Manship School of Mass Communication, “Selling the computer to women media workers: gendered ads during the Cold War.”

Janine Rogers, Ph.D. candidate, University of California Los Angeles, Theater Department, “Performance, Militarization, and Materialisms: Canned Goods in Asian America”.

Jonathan MacDonald, Ph.D. candidate, Brown University, Department of American Studies, “Psychology Hits the Road: Driving Simulators, Billboards, and Hypnosis on the Highway.”

History of Medicine Collections

Warren Dennis, Ph.D. candidate, Boston University, “Hard Power Paths: Gender and American Energy Policy, 1960-2000.” (With support from the Louis H. Roddis Endowment; Joint award with the Hartman Center)

Ava Purkiss, Faculty, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, “After Anarcha: Black Women and Gynecological Medicine in the Twentieth Century.”

Baylee Staufenbiel, Ph.D. candidate, Florida State University, Department of History, “The Seven-Cell Uterus: De Spermate and the Anatomization of Cosmology.”

Brian Martin, Ph.D. candidate, University of Alabama, History Department, “Racial Theory and African American Medical Care in the U.S. Civil War.”

Human Rights Archive

Elizabeth Barahona, Ph.D. candidate, Northwestern University, “Black and Latino Coalition Building in Durham, North Carolina 1980-2010.” (Joint award with the Archive of Documentary Arts)

Diana Ruiz, Faculty, University of Washington, Seattle, “Apprehension through Representation: Image Capture of the US-Mexico Border.” (Joint award with the Archive of Documentary Arts)

Kylie Smith, Faculty, Emory University. School of Nursing, Department of History, “No Place for Children: Disability, Civil Rights, and Juvenile Detention in North Carolina.”

Harrison Wick, Faculty, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) Special Collections and University Archives, “Examination of Primary Sources related to Social Justice and Latin American Immigration in the Human Rights Archive.”

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Dispatches from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University

Personal Reflection

As I think back on my own journey to Türkiye on a familiarization trip with FTI this past February, I’m filled with a sense of awe. The journey took us through most of the Seven Churches of the Book of Revelation – Pergamum, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Ephesus. Standing where the early Christians stood as they received letters from Apostle John, I felt a connection to the past and was moved to share this transformative experience with others. It never occurred to me to go to these places as a way of enriching my faith, as Israel seems like the more obvious choice. But from what I’ve heard from my friends and colleagues about traveling to Israel, it can be hard to find quiet moments to focus while you’re there with all the crowds. However, the churches of Revelation had very few tourists during this time of year, allowing time for reflection and prayer. On this trip, I saw the Scriptures in a new light and felt closer to my faith than ever.

Why Go on a Seven Churches Trip?

This trip offers an opportunity for Christians to deepen their understanding of the Bible by providing cultural and historical context. We truly immersed ourselves in the world of the early Christian church while experiencing firsthand the communities Paul established through the spread of the Scriptures surrounding the Seven Churches.

Visiting these Biblical sites not only provides spiritual enrichment and personal growth, but community and fellowship as well. Participants on this journey share a common faith and purpose, and the shared experiences throughout the trip create a unique bond between group members. If you are looking for a way to bring together members of your congregation, this is it.

This trip also provides unique opportunities for teaching and reflecting. Pastors on our familiarization trip gave sermons at the sites where Paul once preached as our group and accumulating crowds of locals and tourists listened and prayed together.

Ready For a Journey of Faith?

If you’re interested in visiting the Seven Churches, you can view a sample itinerary here . As a full-service travel agency, FTI will package all components of your tour – flights, accommodations, ground services, meals, transportation, travel insurance, and more. All itineraries are completely custom to fit your unique goals and budget. Connect with an advisor to start a conversation!

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