Sarah Vowell, former contributing editor for NPR’s “This American Life,” is the New York Times bestselling author of six nonfiction books on American history and culture. By examining the connections between the American past and present, she offers personal, humorous accounts of everything from presidents and their assassins to colonial religious fanatics, as well as thoughts on American Indians, utopian dreamers, pop music and the odd cranky cartographer. She is most recently the author of “Unfamiliar Fishes,” the intriguing history of our 50th state, Hawaii. Replete with a cast of beguiling and tragic characters, Vowell’s history is told with brainy wit and droll humor.