The Books Briefing: History, Reconsidered
If history is written by the victors, as the old adage goes, then revisiting and questioning stories of the past are necessary pursuits. Karina Longworth, host of the podcastdives into Old Hollywood secrets to uncover the real stories of famed actors’ lives in her latest book, . Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series is also reanalyzed in light of the author’s portrayals of American Indian characters. A recovered work by Zora Neale Hurston, ,tells the story of Cudjo Lewis (née Oluale Kossola), the “last living survivor of the transatlantic slave trade.” Though the book—and Kossola’s story—never reached the public during Hurston’s lifetime because it was written largely in Kossola’s vernacular English, readers can now delve into a recounting of immense resilience, without the trappings of romanticization.
