Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 070

A curious cabinet of wonders from the historical record, this volume gathers twenty short nonfiction pieces that span centuries and continents. From a 1920 journalist's hopeful query about lunar travel to an account of an 1862 balloon ascent to 37,000 feet where the explorer passed out from lack of oxygen and had to guess his own altitude, these pieces capture humanity's relationship with technology, progress, and the unknown. Other selections examine Byzantine political factions, Victorian-era attitudes toward marginalized peoples, Stoic philosophy, and Theodore Roosevelt's take on the Ninth Commandment. The collection also includes historical documents about public observances like Veterans Day and the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. What unites these disparate pieces is a certain timeless human impulse: to understand our world, to measure it, to argue about it, and to remember those who shaped it. For readers who treasure the peculiar satisfaction of stumbling upon a forgotten essay that feels startlingly relevant today, this collection offers twenty such discoveries.