"This collection demonstrates an enormous linguistic gift, and a passion for the possibilities of language. . . . Sometimes the characters are presented realistically, sometimes as aspects of American prose, often as expressions of historical events and even linguistic behavior; but the people on these pages are never mere reflections of the writer's cleverness or (remarkable) knowledge. Every story is different, every story is a voice. While the voices range in tone from stormy to reconciled, most are tinged with genuine humor. And literature is a fact of life in the world of these fictions: Charles Dickens speaks through one character while Branwell Brönte addresses us through another. Aspects of French surrealism, the passion of Spanish locutions, the midwestern solidities abandoned by Dorothy of Oz, the Wolf Boy's insights, and an Adam and Eve to rival Twain's are among the values that speak in this book of voices. But language loved and laid siege to remains the primary speaker throughout. The writer of this book is vastly talented and hungry to tell us stories. History Lessons is a sizzling collection."—Frederick Busch, author of A Memory of War: A Novel

"Each piece is a gem, polished and flawless, full of wit and clarity of vision. Each voice is full of texture and the power of its own telling. . . . This is an exciting book by a deeply talented writer for whom language and image are sheer delight."—Alyce Miller, author of Stopping for Green Light

"A remarkable collection of stories. It's crossbred and eccentric and smart and funny. . . . What Joan Connor is writing about is the declension of history in all its cases, in all its particularization. History is the idiosyncratic. It is most alive in the cracks, in the interstices, in the margins, and the narrators in History Lessons speak from these places."—Darrell Spencer, author of Caution: Men in Trees, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction