Pamela Toler (she/her)
@pdtoler.bsky.social
Writing unexpected history for smart adults and curious kids - and vice-versa. Author of Women Warriors and the forthcoming The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany. Kickass cook. www.pameladtoler.com
I’m writing from Miami after a full day at the book fair—talking about The Dragon from Chicago, signing books, and trying to stay upright in the crowds. It’s been thrilling and tiring, and I’m deeply grateful you read along with me every week.🗃️
https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
November 27, 2025 at 4:03 PM
I’m writing from Miami after a full day at the book fair—talking about The Dragon from Chicago, signing books, and trying to stay upright in the crowds. It’s been thrilling and tiring, and I’m deeply grateful you read along with me every week.🗃️
https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
Marina Warner’s Stranger Magic reminded me why the Arabian Nights still captivate me. She traces how these street tales traveled into the Western imagination—Galland, Mozart, even Harry Potter. A smart, surprising read.🗃️
https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
November 25, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Marina Warner’s Stranger Magic reminded me why the Arabian Nights still captivate me. She traces how these street tales traveled into the Western imagination—Galland, Mozart, even Harry Potter. A smart, surprising read.🗃️
https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
Did you know parchment was so valuable that people erased entire books to reuse the pages? Some saint’s life may be hiding under a tax record right now.
Which fascinates you more—the erasing or the rewriting?
More stories: historyinthemargins.com
Which fascinates you more—the erasing or the rewriting?
More stories: historyinthemargins.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Did you know parchment was so valuable that people erased entire books to reuse the pages? Some saint’s life may be hiding under a tax record right now.
Which fascinates you more—the erasing or the rewriting?
More stories: historyinthemargins.com
Which fascinates you more—the erasing or the rewriting?
More stories: historyinthemargins.com
Centuries after parchment replaced papyrus, we’re still finding new ways to tell old stories.
Sigrid Schultz’s fight to expose the Nazi threat is one of them.
The Dragon from Chicago—now in paperback.🗃️
https://www.pameladtoler.com/books/
Sigrid Schultz’s fight to expose the Nazi threat is one of them.
The Dragon from Chicago—now in paperback.🗃️
https://www.pameladtoler.com/books/
November 20, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Centuries after parchment replaced papyrus, we’re still finding new ways to tell old stories.
Sigrid Schultz’s fight to expose the Nazi threat is one of them.
The Dragon from Chicago—now in paperback.🗃️
https://www.pameladtoler.com/books/
Sigrid Schultz’s fight to expose the Nazi threat is one of them.
The Dragon from Chicago—now in paperback.🗃️
https://www.pameladtoler.com/books/
Excited to be part of this year’s Miami Book Fair!
I’ll be talking about The Dragon from Chicago—and about Sigrid Schultz, the journalist who risked everything to tell the truth about Nazi Germany.🗃️
Details at miamibookfair.com
I’ll be talking about The Dragon from Chicago—and about Sigrid Schultz, the journalist who risked everything to tell the truth about Nazi Germany.🗃️
Details at miamibookfair.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Excited to be part of this year’s Miami Book Fair!
I’ll be talking about The Dragon from Chicago—and about Sigrid Schultz, the journalist who risked everything to tell the truth about Nazi Germany.🗃️
Details at miamibookfair.com
I’ll be talking about The Dragon from Chicago—and about Sigrid Schultz, the journalist who risked everything to tell the truth about Nazi Germany.🗃️
Details at miamibookfair.com
Charles Perrault—lawyer, courtier, poet, and late-in-life storyteller—helped turn old folk tales into Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Puss in Boots.
He wasn’t the first to write fairy tales, but he may have been their favorite uncle. 🗃️
Read more: https://www.historyinthemargins.com
He wasn’t the first to write fairy tales, but he may have been their favorite uncle. 🗃️
Read more: https://www.historyinthemargins.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Charles Perrault—lawyer, courtier, poet, and late-in-life storyteller—helped turn old folk tales into Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Puss in Boots.
He wasn’t the first to write fairy tales, but he may have been their favorite uncle. 🗃️
Read more: https://www.historyinthemargins.com
He wasn’t the first to write fairy tales, but he may have been their favorite uncle. 🗃️
Read more: https://www.historyinthemargins.com
Trying to chose my next traveling book to carry on planes and city buses
November 17, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Trying to chose my next traveling book to carry on planes and city buses
From the archives: Toby Wilkinson’s The Nile floats through Egypt’s past and present, tracing the river from Aswan to Cairo while navigating history’s shifting currents.🗃️
Read more: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
Read more: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
November 14, 2025 at 4:06 PM
From the archives: Toby Wilkinson’s The Nile floats through Egypt’s past and present, tracing the river from Aswan to Cairo while navigating history’s shifting currents.🗃️
Read more: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
Read more: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
Revisiting one from the archives: the story of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones—who turned loss into activism and became a relentless advocate for American workers.
Read it here: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2024/09/02/from-the-archives-the-mother-jones-monument/ 🗃️
Read it here: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2024/09/02/from-the-archives-the-mother-jones-monument/ 🗃️
November 13, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Revisiting one from the archives: the story of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones—who turned loss into activism and became a relentless advocate for American workers.
Read it here: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2024/09/02/from-the-archives-the-mother-jones-monument/ 🗃️
Read it here: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/2024/09/02/from-the-archives-the-mother-jones-monument/ 🗃️
I write about the corners of history textbooks miss—the women, rebellions, and footnotes that deserve center stage.
If that’s your kind of history, subscribe at History in the Margins:
http://www.historyinthemargins.com/🗃️
If that’s your kind of history, subscribe at History in the Margins:
http://www.historyinthemargins.com/🗃️
November 12, 2025 at 4:04 PM
I write about the corners of history textbooks miss—the women, rebellions, and footnotes that deserve center stage.
If that’s your kind of history, subscribe at History in the Margins:
http://www.historyinthemargins.com/🗃️
If that’s your kind of history, subscribe at History in the Margins:
http://www.historyinthemargins.com/🗃️
In the second century BCE, Egypt cut off papyrus exports to keep Pergamum’s library from competing. It didn’t work. The scholars invented parchment instead.
Librarians: 1. Monopoly: 0.
🗃️
Read more: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9 (Subscribe with you are there too!)
Librarians: 1. Monopoly: 0.
🗃️
Read more: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9 (Subscribe with you are there too!)
November 11, 2025 at 4:03 PM
In the second century BCE, Egypt cut off papyrus exports to keep Pergamum’s library from competing. It didn’t work. The scholars invented parchment instead.
Librarians: 1. Monopoly: 0.
🗃️
Read more: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9 (Subscribe with you are there too!)
Librarians: 1. Monopoly: 0.
🗃️
Read more: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9 (Subscribe with you are there too!)
I didn’t expect the Papyrus Institute to be the highlight of my Egypt trip.
No costumes, no time travel—just a quiet demo on turning reeds into paper.
Turns out, watching history made by hand never gets old.
Read More about my time: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
No costumes, no time travel—just a quiet demo on turning reeds into paper.
Turns out, watching history made by hand never gets old.
Read More about my time: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
November 7, 2025 at 4:03 PM
I didn’t expect the Papyrus Institute to be the highlight of my Egypt trip.
No costumes, no time travel—just a quiet demo on turning reeds into paper.
Turns out, watching history made by hand never gets old.
Read More about my time: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
No costumes, no time travel—just a quiet demo on turning reeds into paper.
Turns out, watching history made by hand never gets old.
Read More about my time: https://www.historyinthemargins.com/
We know Clara Barton. But have you heard of Laura Birkhead?
During World War I, she ran ambulance services, hospitals, and organized relief for French war orphans—she earned the French Medal of Honor.
Her story is a reminder that history is full of quiet heroes.
https://tinyurl.com/4t6464jd 🗃️
During World War I, she ran ambulance services, hospitals, and organized relief for French war orphans—she earned the French Medal of Honor.
Her story is a reminder that history is full of quiet heroes.
https://tinyurl.com/4t6464jd 🗃️
November 5, 2025 at 4:10 PM
We know Clara Barton. But have you heard of Laura Birkhead?
During World War I, she ran ambulance services, hospitals, and organized relief for French war orphans—she earned the French Medal of Honor.
Her story is a reminder that history is full of quiet heroes.
https://tinyurl.com/4t6464jd 🗃️
During World War I, she ran ambulance services, hospitals, and organized relief for French war orphans—she earned the French Medal of Honor.
Her story is a reminder that history is full of quiet heroes.
https://tinyurl.com/4t6464jd 🗃️
A pharaoh carved his greatness into a mountain.
3,000 years later, the world took the mountain apart to save it.
Abu Simbel still catches the sunrise twice a year — thanks to the kind of collaboration only humans can dream up.🗃️
Continue the journey here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9
3,000 years later, the world took the mountain apart to save it.
Abu Simbel still catches the sunrise twice a year — thanks to the kind of collaboration only humans can dream up.🗃️
Continue the journey here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9
November 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
A pharaoh carved his greatness into a mountain.
3,000 years later, the world took the mountain apart to save it.
Abu Simbel still catches the sunrise twice a year — thanks to the kind of collaboration only humans can dream up.🗃️
Continue the journey here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9
3,000 years later, the world took the mountain apart to save it.
Abu Simbel still catches the sunrise twice a year — thanks to the kind of collaboration only humans can dream up.🗃️
Continue the journey here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9
Love the garden moment when the big hydrangea changes color.
November 4, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Love the garden moment when the big hydrangea changes color.
Excited to join Joe Dunthorne at the Miami Book Fair this November. His book Children of Radium dives into a legacy of science, guilt, and the shadows history leaves behind. Hope to see you at the panel! 🗃️
November 3, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Excited to join Joe Dunthorne at the Miami Book Fair this November. His book Children of Radium dives into a legacy of science, guilt, and the shadows history leaves behind. Hope to see you at the panel! 🗃️
Sitting near the front door ready for hordes of trick-or-treaters
October 31, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Sitting near the front door ready for hordes of trick-or-treaters
On our way to Sakkara, our guide gestured out the window: “On the left, the City of the Dead.”
Centuries of tombs. Families still living among them.
Haunting, beautiful, and absolutely unforgettable.🗃️
It’s not a ghost story… but it’s close. Read more here: https://www.historyinthemargins.com
Centuries of tombs. Families still living among them.
Haunting, beautiful, and absolutely unforgettable.🗃️
It’s not a ghost story… but it’s close. Read more here: https://www.historyinthemargins.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:04 PM
On our way to Sakkara, our guide gestured out the window: “On the left, the City of the Dead.”
Centuries of tombs. Families still living among them.
Haunting, beautiful, and absolutely unforgettable.🗃️
It’s not a ghost story… but it’s close. Read more here: https://www.historyinthemargins.com
Centuries of tombs. Families still living among them.
Haunting, beautiful, and absolutely unforgettable.🗃️
It’s not a ghost story… but it’s close. Read more here: https://www.historyinthemargins.com
Headed to Miami Book Fair soon to talk about The Dragon from Chicago—and about Sigrid Schultz, the journalist who made courage a verb.
If you’re in Miami, come say hello. I’ll be the one talking about history’s troublemakers.🗃️
http://miamibookfair.com
If you’re in Miami, come say hello. I’ll be the one talking about history’s troublemakers.🗃️
http://miamibookfair.com
October 29, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Headed to Miami Book Fair soon to talk about The Dragon from Chicago—and about Sigrid Schultz, the journalist who made courage a verb.
If you’re in Miami, come say hello. I’ll be the one talking about history’s troublemakers.🗃️
http://miamibookfair.com
If you’re in Miami, come say hello. I’ll be the one talking about history’s troublemakers.🗃️
http://miamibookfair.com
Visited the Step Pyramid at Sakkara—built by Imhotep, the world’s first recorded architect.
He took a mud-brick tomb and turned it into stone architecture’s first masterpiece. Centuries later, they worshiped him as a god.🗃️
Read more about my time here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9 (Subscribe too!)
He took a mud-brick tomb and turned it into stone architecture’s first masterpiece. Centuries later, they worshiped him as a god.🗃️
Read more about my time here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9 (Subscribe too!)
October 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Visited the Step Pyramid at Sakkara—built by Imhotep, the world’s first recorded architect.
He took a mud-brick tomb and turned it into stone architecture’s first masterpiece. Centuries later, they worshiped him as a god.🗃️
Read more about my time here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9 (Subscribe too!)
He took a mud-brick tomb and turned it into stone architecture’s first masterpiece. Centuries later, they worshiped him as a god.🗃️
Read more about my time here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9 (Subscribe too!)
Writing from a ship on the Nile. My grad-school Egypt is colliding with the real thing: dust, camels, pita by bicycle.
I write about the unexpected overlap of past and present in my newsletter.
Subscribe: I follow history down rabbit holes so you don’t have to.
https://tinyurl.com/2ydt6tuh
I write about the unexpected overlap of past and present in my newsletter.
Subscribe: I follow history down rabbit holes so you don’t have to.
https://tinyurl.com/2ydt6tuh
October 27, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Writing from a ship on the Nile. My grad-school Egypt is colliding with the real thing: dust, camels, pita by bicycle.
I write about the unexpected overlap of past and present in my newsletter.
Subscribe: I follow history down rabbit holes so you don’t have to.
https://tinyurl.com/2ydt6tuh
I write about the unexpected overlap of past and present in my newsletter.
Subscribe: I follow history down rabbit holes so you don’t have to.
https://tinyurl.com/2ydt6tuh
First day in Egypt: a visit to Muhammad Ali Pasha’s mosque. Not on my bucket list, but a nice chance to be reminded of the five pillars of Islam
October 25, 2025 at 4:20 PM
First day in Egypt: a visit to Muhammad Ali Pasha’s mosque. Not on my bucket list, but a nice chance to be reminded of the five pillars of Islam
On this day in 1910, Blanche Stuart Scott became the first American woman to fly solo—possibly by accident.
The throttle slipped, the plane lifted, and history followed.🗃️
Read more about the “Tomboy of the Air”:
https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/blanche-stuart-scott/
The throttle slipped, the plane lifted, and history followed.🗃️
Read more about the “Tomboy of the Air”:
https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/blanche-stuart-scott/
October 23, 2025 at 4:02 PM
On this day in 1910, Blanche Stuart Scott became the first American woman to fly solo—possibly by accident.
The throttle slipped, the plane lifted, and history followed.🗃️
Read more about the “Tomboy of the Air”:
https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/blanche-stuart-scott/
The throttle slipped, the plane lifted, and history followed.🗃️
Read more about the “Tomboy of the Air”:
https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/blanche-stuart-scott/
Thrilled to join Rachel Cockerell at the Miami Book Fair this fall. Her book Melting Point uncovers the lost story of a plan to create a Jewish homeland—in Texas. Yes, Texas. Come for the history, stay for the surprises.
Get all the information you need here: http://miamibookfair.com/
Get all the information you need here: http://miamibookfair.com/
October 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Thrilled to join Rachel Cockerell at the Miami Book Fair this fall. Her book Melting Point uncovers the lost story of a plan to create a Jewish homeland—in Texas. Yes, Texas. Come for the history, stay for the surprises.
Get all the information you need here: http://miamibookfair.com/
Get all the information you need here: http://miamibookfair.com/
Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm is a masterclass in narrative history—science, politics, and hubris colliding in the 1900 Galveston hurricane.
I read it in airports and on buses for months. Worth every page. And don’t skip the footnotes.🗃️
Catch up here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9
I read it in airports and on buses for months. Worth every page. And don’t skip the footnotes.🗃️
Catch up here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9
October 21, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm is a masterclass in narrative history—science, politics, and hubris colliding in the 1900 Galveston hurricane.
I read it in airports and on buses for months. Worth every page. And don’t skip the footnotes.🗃️
Catch up here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9
I read it in airports and on buses for months. Worth every page. And don’t skip the footnotes.🗃️
Catch up here: tinyurl.com/37kkd4n9