Author

Adam Hochschild

Adam Hochschild has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books and other magazines, and is the author of seven books. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, as was his recent To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918. His Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN USA Literary Award.

Reporting and writing historical narrative: Author Adam Hochschild on accessible prose + scene/setting + character + plot

Reporting and writing historical narrative: Author Adam Hochschild on accessible prose + scene/setting + character + plot

Several years ago, Adam Hochschild, the acclaimed author of King Leopold’s Ghost and other nonfiction narratives, told a Vanderbilt University audience that academic writing doesn’t have to be boring. Scholars of history and science — theoretically…
June 29, 2014
"Why's this so good?" No. 61: John McPhee and the archdruid

"Why’s this so good?" No. 61: John McPhee and the archdruid

The New Journalism of the 1960s and 1970s – by Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson, and others – made the biggest collective splash in recent American nonfiction, and certainly enlarged our…
October 2, 2012

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, part 4: plot

[This last installment in a four-part series on writing historical narratives focuses on the importance of plot in nonfiction storytelling. The series is based on a lecture given by Adam Hochschild…
April 11, 2011
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, part 3: character

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, part 3: character

[This third installment in a four-part series on writing historical narratives focuses on the importance of characters. The series is based on a lecture given by Adam Hochschild at Vanderbilt University…
April 5, 2011

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, part 2: setting

[This second installment in a four-part series on writing historical narratives focuses on the importance of setting and scenes in nonfiction storytelling. The series is based on a lecture given by…
March 28, 2011
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, part 1

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, part 1

[This four-part series on storytelling and historical narratives is based on a talk given at Vanderbilt University in February 2011.]Half a century ago, the novelist and physicist C.P. Snow wrote…
March 25, 2011

First Person Singular: It's not just about you

Getting stuck next to a compulsive talker is one of the worst things that can happen at a dinner party or on a long bus ride. Even worse: the self-centered…
June 28, 2006