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Hello—and thanks for looking in.

If you have ended up on this page and not yet sampled my free Midweeker newsletter, I would suggest popping over to ‘getting started‘ now.

On the other hand, if you have been enjoying your free Wednesday newsletter and are ready to upgrade to a premium subscription, then you’re in the right place.

A premium subscription will turbocharge your love of discovering history.

I’m very proud of the Midweeker newsletter and want readers to always have access free of charge.

But I am growing something far beyond that: a premium resource you can tuck into anytime to learn about people and stories from history, in a style you look forward to which is informative, entertaining… and fun!

For example, the Weekender—delivered to your inbox each Sunday—is a 10 to 15-minute read, usually about a single person and related historical event. It is a deeper dive into a unique moment in history, in which I’ve put the event into a global context and revealed unusual quirks and little-known facts alongside the main substance of the subject.

In other words, instead of just learning who? and when?, you will discover how? and why?

I am continuing to build out the searchable archives each day and will soon be introducing audio, i.e. listen to your Weekender as read by me.

As the archives grow, you can search by event, person or perhaps by a birthday or anniversary, to see what stories come up.

I have other initiatives which I’ll share in due course. In short, the premium content will continue to grow ad infinitum.

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There are many fantastic history blogs and newsletters, many of which I read myself, but only one is written in my style—Dates with History.

This is what some of my premium subscribers have to say…

“Your entire ‘column’ is one of the most interesting ones I’ve read. Period! I’m so pleased to have this to savor. God bless you and your work!” Jack H

“Aloha Steve, I am enjoying your newsletter, teeming with information. It’s keeping my curious mind active. Much more entertaining than reading the news. Thank you, Aloha, stay safe and be well.” Suzie, Hawaii

“Steve my hat is off to you sir....Fan bloody tastic! I enjoyed every bit of your content, subject matter, as well your style of story telling, with humor, sarcasm, and truth with every essential element that keeps a yank like me interested and eager for more! We’ll done! History with your touch makes learning so much fun. I can see you have a great sense of humor. Thank you and have great day. Your new fan from California.” Aaron H.

To summarise, paid subscribers receive:

Dates with History Midweeker (Wednesday); Short snippets of history to top you up during the week, sent directly to your email inbox PLUS…
Dates with History Weekender (Sunday); One week, one event, one story worth telling, also sent directly to your email inbox.
Full access to publication archives.
The warm glow of supporting me and allowing this body of work to exist at all. Thank you.
Direct contact with me: ask any questions you like, about the events I have covered, the writing tools I use, my Batting the Breeze project or anything else that tweaks your interest. I personally respond to all emails. In fact, I welcome yours. The connection I build with readers is the most valuable ‘win’ for me.

By the way, each weekly topic is completely random; one week I might write about Russian Tsar Nicholas II’s disastrous decision on the day a thousand of his citizens lay dead at Khodynka Field, the next may uncover Giuseppe Garibaldi’s extraordinary victory against the Bourbon forces in Sicily in 1860. I might examine how the Polish nobleman, Tadeusz Kościuszko, became an American hero, or maybe share the story of HMS Pandora’s hunt for the Bounty in 1791. And so on.

The beauty of random in the current climate is… well I’ll let David B. explain in his response to my asking readers which articles they particularly like:

“I like all of them. I like that they are topics I know little about, typically never thought about. I look forward to finding surprises in my email every week.

The constant need for ‘likes’ has destroyed the internet, turning infinite variety into boring repetition.

With Dates with History, I like that everything is new to me, unfiltered by algorithms trying to predict what I want to read, which end up limiting me to a tunnel of misconceived likes. I’ve dropped all social media for this tunnel vision/echo chamber reason. And I will not pollute your newsletter’s variety with any recommendation data.

Thanks for your newsletter, you are doing great, don’t change.”

So, if you…

…are curious about history
…are tired of algorithms narrowing down your range of historical topics
…want to turbocharge discovering a limitless range of historical people and events
…want to understand ‘why?’ and ‘how?’, not just ‘who?’ and ‘when?’
…would like to connect with me personally
…are feeling generous enough to support my work and keep this archive growing

…then you have an itch that needs scratching. For the cost of a cup of coffee each week, why not join me on my lifelong quest to have fun discovering history!

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Thanks again.

Steve