History and Commentary experts & authors

Explore history and commentary through the work and perspectives of Aaron Bastani, Adam Makos, Ai Weiwei, and other authors on Chapters.

66 profiles on Chapters.

• Aaron Bastani

  Aaron Bastani is a British political commentator, journalist and author who co-founded Novara Media and writes about automation and post-capitalist society.

  Selected work: Fully Automated Luxury Communism

• Adam Makos

  Adam Makos is an American author and military historian whose nonfiction books recount the experiences of servicemen in World War II and Korea.

  Selected work: Devotion

• Ai Weiwei

  Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist whose political artworks and public commentary address government power, democracy and human rights.

  Selected work: 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows

• Anand Gopal

  Anand Gopal is an American journalist and nonfiction author whose work examines conflict, the Middle East, and Afghan experiences of war.

  Selected work: No good men among the living

• Bee Wilson

  Bee Wilson is a British food writer and journalist whose work explores cooking tools, culinary history, and the ways people understand food.

  Selected work: Consider the fork

• Ben Shapiro

  Ben Shapiro is an American conservative political commentator, media host, and nonfiction author who co-founded The Daily Wire and hosts The Ben Shapiro Show.

  Selected work: How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps

• Beth Macy

  Beth Macy is an American journalist and nonfiction writer whose books include Dopesick, an account of America’s opioid addiction crisis.

  Selected work: Dopesick

• Bill McKibben

  Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist, author, and journalist whose work examines global warming and combines climate campaigning with attention to local solutions.

  Selected work: Oil and honey

• Brittney C. Cooper

  Brittney Cooper is a Black feminist scholar, author, and activist whose academic work spans women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and Africana studies.

  Selected work: Eloquent Rage

• Byung-Chul Han

  Byung-Chul Han is a South Korean-born German philosopher and cultural theorist whose work critiques neoliberalism and its effects on society and individuals.

  Selected work: Psychopolitics

• Candice Millard

  Candice Millard is an American writer and journalist whose nonfiction books cover historical figures, scientific expeditions, and exploration.

  Selected work: Hero of the empire

• Charles C. Mann

  Charles C. Mann is an American journalist and author specializing in scientific topics whose books examine the Americas before Columbus and the Columbian Exchange.

  Selected work: 1493

• Chuck Klosterman

  Chuck Klosterman is an American author and essayist celebrated for his cultural commentary, books on music and sports, and thought-provoking analysis of modern society.

  Selected work: But What If We're Wrong?

• Daniel Bolger

  Daniel Bolger is a military historian and retired U.S. Army lieutenant general whose nonfiction examines warfare, including the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns.

  Selected work: Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

• David E. Hoffman

  David E. Hoffman is an American journalist and nonfiction author whose work examines Soviet espionage, the nuclear arms race, and authoritarian repression.

  Selected work: The Billion Dollar Spy

• David E. Sanger

  David E. Sanger is an American journalist and author whose reporting covers foreign policy, globalization, nuclear proliferation, and the presidency.

  Selected work: The perfect weapon

• David Grann

  David Grann is an acclaimed American journalist and New Yorker staff writer known for his bestselling investigative nonfiction books and reporting.

  Selected work: Killers of the Flower Moon

• Deborah Blum

  Deborah Blum is an American science journalist and author whose work covers scientific research, ethical conflicts, and the history of forensic toxicology.

  Selected work: The poisoner's handbook

• Deborah Harkness

  Deborah Harkness is an American scholar, historian, and novelist known for the All Souls Trilogy, including A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night.

  Selected work: Shadow of night

• Department of Defense

  The United States Department of Defense is an executive department coordinating the American armed forces to deter war and ensure national security.

  Selected work: Weapon of Choice

• George Friedman

  George Friedman is a Hungarian-born American geopolitical author and political scientist whose work examines international relations and long-term shifts in global power.

  Selected work: The Next 100 Years

• Glenn Greenwald

  Glenn Greenwald is an American journalist and author whose reporting covers national security, civil liberties, government surveillance, and American foreign policy.

  Selected work: No Place to Hide

• Irving Finkel

  Irving Finkel is an English philologist, Assyriologist, and British Museum curator who specializes in deciphering ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform clay tablets and historical scripts.

  Selected work: The Ark Before Noah

• Isabel Wilkerson

  Isabel Wilkerson is an American journalist and nonfiction author whose books examine the Great Migration and racial hierarchy in the United States.

  Selected work: The Warmth of Other Suns

• J. D. Vance

  J. D. Vance is an American politician and memoirist whose Hillbilly Elegy examines white working-class struggles through his upbringing in Ohio.

  Selected work: Hillbilly Elegy

• James Gleick

  James Gleick is an American author and historian of science who uses narrative nonfiction to explore complex ideas and technology’s cultural impact.

  Selected work: The Information

• Jenny Odell

  Jenny Odell is an American artist, writer and educator whose nonfiction examines attention, capitalist ideas of productivity, and possibilities for political and environmental engagement.

  Selected work: How to Do Nothing

• Jeremy Clarkson

  Jeremy Clarkson is an English television presenter, journalist and author known for motoring programmes, newspaper commentary and the documentary series Clarkson's Farm.

  Selected work: If you'd just let me finish!

• Jia Tolentino

  Jia Tolentino is a Canadian-American writer and editor whose essays examine US culture, the internet, feminism, politics and self-delusion.

  Selected work: Trick Mirror

• Jon Krakauer

  Jon Krakauer is an American writer, journalist, and mountaineer whose nonfiction books cover wilderness experiences, climbing disasters, religion, and Pat Tillman.

  Selected work: Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way

• Jon Ronson

  Jon Ronson is a British-American journalist, author, and filmmaker whose informal, sceptical investigations explore controversial fringe politics, science, and psychopathy.

  Selected work: The Psychopath Test

• Jonathan Eig

  Jonathan Eig is an American journalist and biographer recognized for writing comprehensive non-fiction works, including biographies of Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr.

  Selected work: Ali

• Karen Armstrong

  Karen Armstrong is a British author and commentator known for her books on comparative religion, focusing on commonalities among major faiths such as compassion and the Golden Rule.

  Selected work: The Case for God

• Ken Jennings

  Ken Jennings is an American game show host and nonfiction author whose books explore trivia history, culture, and geography.

  Selected work: Maphead

• Laura Hillenbrand

  Laura Hillenbrand is an American nonfiction author known for Seabiscuit and Unbroken, which tell stories of athletic achievement and wartime survival.

  Selected work: Unbroken

• Laura Ingraham

  Laura Ingraham is an American conservative television presenter and editor with a background in radio broadcasting, government speechwriting, and law.

  Selected work: The Obama Diaries

• Lawrence Wright

  Lawrence Wright is an American writer and journalist known for nonfiction books on al-Qaeda and for examining the COVID-19 pandemic in The Plague Year.

  Selected work: The Plague Year

• Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

  Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a Canadian-American writer, educator, and activist whose work examines disability justice, collective access, and interconnected systems of violence.

  Selected work: Care Work

• Margot Lee Shetterly

  Margot Lee Shetterly is an American nonfiction writer whose first book, Hidden Figures, examines African-American women mathematicians’ contributions to the United States space program.

  Selected work: Hidden Figures

• Mark R. Levin

  Mark R. Levin is an American lawyer, conservative political commentator and author who hosts radio and television programs and writes about politics and media.

  Selected work: Unfreedom of the Press

• Mary Beard

  Mary Beard is an English classicist specialising in Ancient Rome, a British Museum trustee, and classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement.

  Selected work: Women & power

• Mikki Kendall

  Mikki Kendall is an author, activist, and cultural critic whose work examines feminism, media representation, food politics, and current events.

  Selected work: Hood Feminism

• Myron Gaines

  Myron Gaines is a Sudanese-American blogger, author and co-host of Fresh and Fit, a manosphere podcast covering relationships, fitness, finance and politics.

  Selected work: Why Women Deserve Less

• Naomi Klein

  Naomi Klein is an acclaimed Canadian author, filmmaker, and activist renowned for her analyses of corporate globalization, capitalism, and climate justice.

  Selected work: No Is Not Enough

• Naomi Oreskes

  Naomi Oreskes is an American historian of science whose work examines geophysics, environmental issues, and public controversies over scientific knowledge.

  Selected work: Merchants of Doubt

• Nathalia Holt

  Nathalia Holt is an American historian and nonfiction author whose work includes an account of women’s contributions to Disney animation.

  Selected work: The Queens of Animation

• Niall Ferguson

  Niall Ferguson is a historian and author whose work examines international, economic and financial history, alongside British and American imperialism.

  Selected work: The ascent of money

• Peter Frankopan

  Peter Frankopan is a British historian and writer whose work includes global history, Byzantine research and the history of the Silk Roads.

  Selected work: The Silk Roads

• Rashid Khalidi

  Rashid Khalidi is a Palestinian-American historian whose work examines Middle Eastern history, Palestinian national identity, and the history of the conflict over Palestine.

  Selected work: The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

• Reni Eddo-Lodge

  Reni Eddo-Lodge is a British journalist and author whose writing examines feminism, structural racism and the experiences of people of colour in Britain.

  Selected work: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

• Richard McGregor

  Richard McGregor is an Australian journalist, author and Lowy Institute Senior Fellow whose book The Party examines China's Communist Party.

  Selected work: The Party

• Richard Rothstein

  Richard Rothstein is an American historian and author whose research examines the history of segregation in United States housing and education.

  Selected work: The Color of Law

• Richard Sennett

  Richard Sennett is an American sociologist whose work examines urban social ties, the effects of city life, and the meaning of skilled work.

  Selected work: The Craftsman

• Robert Darnton

  Robert Darnton is an American cultural historian and academic librarian specializing in eighteenth-century France and examining the role of books in society.

  Selected work: The case for books

• Rutger Bregman

  Rutger Bregman is a Dutch historian and author whose nonfiction examines social problems, conventional definitions of success, and careers dedicated to societal benefit.

  Selected work: Moral Ambition

• Solomon Northup

  Solomon Northup was an American abolitionist and memoirist whose account of kidnapping and enslavement documented slavery in Louisiana.

  Selected work: 12 Years A Slave

• Stephen Greenblatt

  Stephen Greenblatt is an American literary historian and author whose expertise includes new historicism, Renaissance culture, and Shakespeare studies.

  Selected work: The swerve

• Stephen Kinzer

  Stephen Kinzer is an American journalist, historian, and author whose books include A Thousand Hills, an account of Paul Kagame and Rwanda.

  Selected work: A Thousand Hills

• Susan Orlean

  Susan Orlean is an American journalist and nonfiction author whose books include The Orchid Thief and The Library Book.

  Selected work: The Library Book

• Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American author and journalist whose nonfiction examines African American life, white supremacy, and cultural, social, and political issues.

  Selected work: Between the World and Me

• Taras Grescoe

  Taras Grescoe is a Canadian non-fiction writer whose book Bottomfeeder examines the seafood industry and the environmental and ethical implications of eating fish.

  Selected work: Bottomfeeder

• Thomas E. Woods

  Thomas E. Woods is an American author and libertarian commentator whose nonfiction addresses American history, the financial crisis, and Austrian economics.

  Selected work: Meltdown

• Thomas L. Friedman

  Thomas L. Friedman is an American political commentator and author whose work covers foreign affairs, globalization, global trade, the Middle East, and environmental issues.

  Selected work: That used to be us

• Timothy Snyder

  Timothy Snyder is an American historian whose expertise covers Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust.

  Selected work: Our Malady

• Winston Lord

  Winston Lord is a retired American diplomat and longtime Henry Kissinger adviser whose career included senior roles in U.S.-China relations and foreign policy.

  Selected work: Kissinger on Kissinger

• Zagloul Kadah

  Engineer, entrepreneur, and theology writer who also publishes alternative interpretations of major political and historical events.

  Selected work: The Flying Oil Tanker