Larry Gragg

Las Vegas: Who Built America’s Playground?

Larry Gragg digs beneath the glitzy surface of America’s ‘sin city’ to find out how this extravagant home of gambling and glamour came into being.

Published January 18 2007

A Heavenly Visitation

Larry Gragg recounts the reasons for the visit of the Quaker George Fox to Barbados in 1671, and the significance of his presence there.

Published January 21 2002

The Port Royal Earthquake

Larry Gragg describes the earthquake that shattered Jamaica in 1692, and reviews the complex lessons that preachers drew from it.

Published August 31 2000

A Vagabond in Paradise, Thomas Verney in Barbados

Larry Gragg recounts the attempts of a younger son to shake off his reputation in 17th-century Barbados.

Published July 31 1995

Missing Persons

A Volume of Omissions in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Published November 1 1989

The Troubled Voyage of the Rainbow

A tale of kidnapped Africans and an abortive trading voyage casts light on the uneasy relationship between conscience and commerce in New England argues Larry Gragg.

Published July 31 1989

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Lords of the Northern Forest

The Hudson's Bay Company was one of the central forces moulding the development of the vast tracts of land that today are Canada - but as Barry Gough explains here, the circumstances of its launch in 1670 also reveal much about the commercial forces, personalities and rivalries of Restoration England.