Gilbert King

The Silence that Preceded China’s Great Leap into Famine

Mao Zedong encouraged critics of his government—and then betrayed them just when their advice might have prevented a calamity

September 26, 2012

The Copper King’s Precipitous Fall

Augustus Heinze dominated the copper fields of Montana, but his family's scheming on Wall Street set off the Panic of 1907

September 20, 2012

The Unknown Story of "The Black Cyclone," the Cycling Champion Who Broke the Color Barrier

Major Taylor had to brave more than the competition to become one of the most acclaimed cyclists of the world

September 12, 2012

The Ugliest, Most Contentious Presidential Election Ever

Throughout the 1876 campaign, Tilden’s opposition had called him everything from a briber to a thief to a drunken syphilitic

September 7, 2012

The Smoothest Con Man That Ever Lived

"Count" Victor Lustig once sold the Eiffel Tower to an unsuspecting scrap-metal dealer. Then he started thinking really big

August 22, 2012

Going Nuclear Over the Pacific

A half-century ago, a U.S. military test lit up the skies and upped the ante with the Soviets

August 15, 2012

How Fanny Blankers-Koen Became the 'Flying Housewife' of the 1948 London Games

Voted female athlete of the 20th century, the runner won four gold medals while pregnant with her third child

July 31, 2012

Where the Buffalo No Longer Roamed

The Transcontinental Railroad connected East and West—and accelerated the destruction of what had been in the center of North America

July 17, 2012

Daughters of Wealth, Sisters in Revolt

Gore-Booth sisters, Constance and Eva, forsook their places amid Ireland's Protestant gentry to fight for the rights of the disenfranchised and the poor

July 10, 2012

The Woman Who Took on the Tycoon

John D. Rockefeller Sr. epitomized Gilded Age capitalism. Ida Tarbell was one of the few willing to hold him accountable

July 5, 2012

The “Latin Lover” and His Enemies

Rudolph Valentino fought a long battle against innuendo about his masculinity right up until he died. But now he seems to have won

June 13, 2012

Fritz Haber’s Experiments in Life and Death

The German chemist helped feed the world. Then he developed the first chemical weapons used in battle

June 6, 2012

Team Hollywood’s Secret Weapons System

May 23, 2012

Sacrifice Amid the Ice: Facing Facts on the Scott Expedition

Captain Lawrence Oates wrote that if Robert Scott's team didn't win the race to the South Pole, "we shall come home with our tails between our legs"

May 16, 2012

A Death at Home Plate

May 9, 2012

Theodore Roosevelt’s Life-Saving Speech

When a would-be assassin shot, the 50-page manuscript and metal eyeglasses case tucked against Roosevelt's chest absorbed the blow

April 25, 2012

The Senator and the Gangsters

April 18, 2012

Salk, Sabin and the Race Against Polio

As polio ravaged patients worldwide, two gifted American researchers developed distinct vaccines against it. Then the question was: Which one to use?

April 3, 2012

The Portrait of Sensitivity: A Photographer in Storyville, New Orleans’ Forgotten Burlesque Quarter

The Big Easy's red light district had plenty of tawdriness going on—except when Ernest J. Bellocq was taking photographs of prostitutes

March 28, 2012

Edward Curtis’ Epic Project to Photograph Native Americans

His 20-volume masterwork was hailed as "the most ambitious enterprise in publishing since the production of the King James Bible"

March 21, 2012