When His­to­ry Is Per­son­al con­tains the sto­ries of twen­ty-five moments in Mimi Schwartz’s life, each height­ened by its con­nec­tion to his­tor­i­cal, polit­i­cal, and social issues. These essays look both inward and out­ward so that these indi­vid­u­al­ized tales tell a larg­er sto­ry — of assim­i­la­tion, the women’s move­ment, racism, anti-Semi­tism, end-of-life issues, ethics in writ­ing, dig­i­tal and cor­po­rate chal­lenges, and court­room justice.

A shrewd and dis­cern­ing sto­ry­teller, Schwartz cap­tures his­to­ry from her van­tage as a child of Ger­man-Jew­ish immi­grants, a wife of over fifty years, a breast can­cer sur­vivor, a work­ing moth­er, a trav­el­er, a ten­nis play­er, a daugh­ter, and a wid­ow. In adding her per­son­al sto­ry to the larg­er nar­ra­tive of his­to­ry, cul­ture, and pol­i­tics, Schwartz invites read­ers to con­sid­er her per­son­al take along­side ​“offi­cial” his­to­ries and offers read­ers fresh assess­ments of our col­lec­tive past.