Tom Zoellner

Tom Zoellner is an editor at large at LARB and a professor of English at Chapman University. He is the author of eight nonfiction books, including The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire (2006), Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World (2009), The National Road: Dispatches From a Changing America (2020), Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of Arizona (2023), and Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire, which won the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Bancroft Prize in history.

Articles

Hazy Passages
Tom Zoellner speaks with Sameer Pandya, author of “Our Beautiful Boys,” about football, India, teenage hazing, and the tyranny of success.
Tom ZoellnerMar 28
- Fiction
Yelling “Fire” on a Crowded Knoll
Tom Zoellner considers a new history of the Kent State shootings by Brian VanDeMark.
Tom ZoellnerJan 9
- History
What Would Becky Buy?
Tom Zoellner considers Leah Payne’s “God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music.”
Tom ZoellnerDec 30, 2024
- History
- Philosophy & Religion
32 Strips of Paper
Tom Zoellner considers Tim Z. Hernandez’s “They Call You Back: A Lost History, A Search, A Memoir,” about the book that helped solve mysteries associated with a 1948 plane crash.
Tom ZoellnerOct 25, 2024
- Memoir & Essay
- Nonfiction
Is Trump “America’s Hitler”?
Donald Trump is sometimes compared to Adolf Hitler in his narcissism and authoritarianism. Tom Zoellner looks at German history for parallels and contradictions.
Tom ZoellnerOct 11, 2024
- History
- Politics
American Mythology
Is the United States a prisoner of its own mythology? Tom Zoellner looks at “A Great Disorder” by Richard Slotkin.
Tom ZoellnerOct 4, 2024
How Democrats Can Win Back Rural America
Tom Zoellner searches for solutions to the Democratic Party’s “rural problem.”
Tom ZoellnerSep 27, 2024
- Politics
Cupcakes and Crotch Kicks: On Alex Belth’s “What Makes Sammy Jr. Run?”
Tom Zoellner considers the eternal game of cat and mouse between celebrities and journalists in Alex Belth’s “What Makes Sammy Jr. Run? Classic Celebrity Journalism Volume 1 (1960s and 1970s).”
Tom ZoellnerJun 24, 2024
Dubious Dam: A Conversation with Erika Marie Bsumek
Tom Zoellner talks to Erika Marie Bsumek about one of the worst boondoggles in the Southwest, which she explores in her recent book “The Foundations of Glen Canyon Dam: Infrastructures of Dispossession on the Colorado Plateau.”
Tom ZoellnerFeb 11, 2024
- History
- Nonfiction
Sands of an Hourglass: On Geoff Nicholson’s “Walking on Thin Air”
Tom Zoellner reviews Geoff Nicholson’s “Walking on Thin Air: A Life’s Journey in 99 Steps.”
Tom ZoellnerFeb 6, 2024
- Memoir & Essay
Leaving Your Lane: A Conversation with Lydia Otero
Tom Zoellner talks to Lydia Otero about her new account of a young adulthood in Los Angeles, “L.A. Interchanges: A Brown & Queer Archival Memoir”
Tom ZoellnerNov 13, 2023
- History
- Memoir & Essay
The Gravitas of the South: A Conversation with Pete Candler
Tom Zoellner talks to Pete Candler about his new book “The Road to Unforgetting: Detours in the American South, 1997–2022.”
Tom ZoellnerApr 28, 2023
- Art & Architecture
Darkness of Hearts: On Anjan Sundaram’s “Breakup”
Tom Zoellner reviews Anjan Sundaram’s “Breakup: A Marriage in Wartime.”
Tom ZoellnerApr 14, 2023
- Politics
Play Me Some Mountain Music: On Emily Hilliard’s “Making Our Future”
Tom Zoellner reviews Emily Hilliard’s “Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia.”
Tom ZoellnerMar 20, 2023
- History
Republicans and the Purple Crayon: How to Fix Partisan Gerrymandering in Wisconsin and Elsewhere
Tom Zoellner seeks a way forward from gerrymandering.
Tom ZoellnerFeb 22, 2023
- Politics
“Which Stranger Are You?”: On Gregg Mitman’s “Empire of Rubber: Firestone’s Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia”
Tom Zoellner reviews the new book by Gregg Mitman, "Empire of Rubber: Firestone’s Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia."
Tom ZoellnerApr 28, 2022
- History