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I'm a freelance journalist/author based in Washington, D.C. I was a regular contributor to The Washington Post Magazine for more than 20 years prior to its demise in January 2023; other credits include The New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, and Travel & Leisure. I also was a staff features writer at The Baltimore Sun, and a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and John Kennedy's innovative politics-and-culture magazine, George.


My latest book, White Knights in the Black Orchestra, is narrative nonfiction about a group of German government/military/civilian conspirators active before and during World War II. I was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities "Public Scholar" grant for this project. My thanks to NEH for its invaluable support of writers and artists. Chapters 1 and 2 of White Knights are posted on this homepage, just click on the link underneath Selected Work in the column to the right.

 

"A fascinating look at…a loose network of German military officers, diplomats, politicians, and civilians who risked their lives to undermine the Third Reich."

The New York Post, naming White Knights to its list of best reads for Fall 2022

 

"Suspenseful narrative" and "a thoroughgoing history of indispensable purveyors of active and passive resistance in Nazi Germany."

Kirkus

 

"A tale of great heroism. Dunkel's nonfiction narrative is surprisingly suspenseful, as well as elegantly written….The tremendous courage [Nazi resisters] displayed often has been overlooked. Dunkel's book is a stirring corrective."

The Forward


My first book, Color Blind, is the true story of an integrated semipro baseball team that played in North Dakota during the Depression and whose marquee player was Satchel Paige, star pitcher and folk hero of the Negro Leagues. Booklist named Color Blind one of the Top 10 Sports Books of 2013. It is an Amazon "Editors' Pick" for Best History books. A Color Blind excerpt is also posted on this homepage; click on the link underneath Selected Work.

"A delightful read. This is a tale worth telling."
Washington Post

"Tom Dunkel revisits this [semipro] landscape to spin a tale as fantastic as it is true, as American as racism and baseball."
Boston Globe

"Dunkel tells one of the great untold stories about baseball history, one that almost sounds too good to be true."
Chicago Tribune

 

"Dunkel delves into the history of players, towns, and baseball itself in constructing this portrait of a harmonious team rising above a segregated society....a story that transcends championships, and an inspirational reflection on an otherwise dismal human rights history."
Publishers Weekly



My May 27, 2018 cover story of The Washington Post Magazine is about God, guns, and the late Reverend Sun Myung Moon's two sons who founded a breakaway church in rural Pennsylvania. That article attracted a lot of attention then and is still relevant now. Click the link in the right column to read "Locked and Loaded for the Lord". Click on the "Works" tab at the top of this homepage to read some my other magazine and newspaper pieces.