Gil Troy

Gil Troy is a professor of history at McGill University. His latest book — his tenth — is The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s .

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• 
  Jan 7, 2018
  

  The Colonel Who Plotted the 14 Points of World Peace

  by Gil Troy

  Edward M. House was an oil tycoon who became the Wilson whisperer.

  

• 
  Jan 1, 2018
  

  The Labor Journalist Blinded by Union Thugs

  by Gil Troy

  While fighting to keep the labor movement pure, Victor Riesel became a walking, wounded symbol of unions’ corruption, when a thug blinded him with acid.

  
  
  

• 
  Dec 24, 2017
  

  How a Shy Jewish Boy’s Nose Issues Gave America Rudolf for Christmas

  by Gil Troy

  Crafting a parable, Robert Lewis May remembered the taunts he endured as a Jewish kid for his nose. Why not make an “underdog – a loser … triumphant in the end,” he thought.

  

• 
  Dec 17, 2017
  

  How America’s First Black Ambassador Became a Popular Hero

  by Gil Troy

  Ebenezer Bassett was the first American diplomat to offer a dissident asylum— and in doing so, became the first to defy his bosses at the Department of State.

  

• 
  Dec 11, 2017
  

  How the American Sappho Published the First Book of Lesbian Love Poetry

  by Gil Troy

  Elsa Gidlow helped invent the stereotype of the mellow, mindful, bed-hopping, pagan-worshiping, self-indulgent, perpetually seeking Northern Californian.

  

• 
  Dec 8, 2017
  

  Female Reporter Broke Epic Congressional Sex Scandal—In 1850

  by Gil Troy

  A brave female journalist took on one of America’s most powerful senators in history. He lost the nomination, she lost her job.

  
  
  

• 
  Nov 27, 2017
  

  Director Peter Glenville Was a Brilliant Artist, a Conservative—and in the Closet in 1960’s Hollywood

  by Gil Troy

  Peter Glenville led a multifaceted life: a prominent Cold War-era director who worked with Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, a staunch conservative Catholic, and a gay man.

  

• Nov 22, 2017
  

  Samuel Untermyer: The Superlawyer Who Took on Hitler

  by Gil Troy

  The cut-throat qualities that made Untermyer the first American lawyer to nab a one-million-dollar fee morphed into aesthetic impulses that made his multi-million bulb garden grow.

  
  
  

• 
  Nov 22, 2017
  

  Samuel Untermyer: The Superlawyer Who Took on Hitler

  by Gil Troy

  The cut-throat qualities that made Untermyer the first American lawyer to nab a one-million-dollar fee morphed into aesthetic impulses that made his multi-million bulb garden grow.

  
  
  

• 
  Nov 12, 2017
  

  The Builder of World’s ‘Eighth Wonder’ Who Died of Stress

  by Gil Troy

  A tunnel connecting New York City with New Jersey long bedeviled engineers and city planners, until one determined genius solved the puzzle.

  

• 
  Nov 8, 2017
  

  The Confederate General Who Became a ‘Race Traitor’

  by Gil Troy

  Once General Robert E. Lee’s right-hand man, General Longstreet would become known as ‘the Judas of the Lost Cause.’

  

• 
  Oct 25, 2017
  

  The Man Who Created Yankees’ Murderers’ Row

  by Gil Troy

  Edward Barrow changed the face of modern sports, ushering in megastars like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, while also introducing the playing of the national anthem before games.

  

• 
  Oct 15, 2017
  

  The Casting Couch Perverts Who Peddled Fairy Tales

  by Gil Troy

  Hollywood always has, still is, and likely will be full of predators. But two of the most prolific were also two men who dramatically changed the industry.

  

• 
  Oct 9, 2017
  

  The Teen Killer Who Radicalized the NRA

  by Gil Troy

  Harlon Carter transformed the NRA from a rifle club into the take-no-prisoners anti-gun-control powerhouse. But he also had a very dark past.

  

• 
  Sep 17, 2017
  

  The One-Armed Orphan Who Brought Human Rights To The World

  by Gil Troy

  The human wrongs many experienced during the twentieth century—individually and collectively—spawned today’s human rights movement.
  

• 
  Sep 3, 2017
  

  The Preacher Whose Statue Was Booted for Reagan

  by Gil Troy

  A decade ago, the anti-slavery preacher Thomas Starr King was removed from the Capitol and replaced by Ronald Reagan. Maybe his statue should be placed in a certain white house.

  
  
  

• 
  Aug 14, 2017
  

  The Surprisingly Glamorous History of New Jersey Presidential Vacations

  by Gil Troy

  Long before it was the capital of gym, tan, and laundry (or President Trump's "working vacation") New Jersey coastline was the chosen high-end destination for presidents.

  

• 
  Aug 7, 2017
  

  The Truth About Colonel Klink: When America's Favorite Comedy Nazi Commandant Was Played by a Jewish Refugee

  by Gil Troy

  Thirty years after fleeing the Nazis, Werner Klemperer skewered the Nazis by playing them in one of TV's greatest hits.

  

• 
  Jul 24, 2017
  

  This Anti-Slavery Crusader Was The Enemy of Lincoln

  by Gil Troy

  John C. Frémont’s biography, like California’s history, was rocked by earthquakes.

  

• 
  Jul 18, 2017
  

  How Nikola Tesla Sparked the Electric Age

  by Gil Troy

  As we swim in invisible waves transmitting energy all around us, and spend our lives with wireless devices catching a hail of transparent messages, we live in Tesla’s world.