When I was young, I never liked history in school. It was always a dry topic, capped off by having to remember a string of names and dates of things that I wasn’t interested in anyway. We never learned anything really interesting, like the first recorded instance of a parachute (in a manuscript from the 1470s) or when people started eating snails (49,000 years ago, in Africa).
At college, I had to take a Western Civilization class, and studying history finally made sense to me. I had a wonderful professor, Dr. Moran, who would stride across the classroom, his tie swinging, wildly gesticulating as he recounted some major event and its aftermath. Dr. Moran tied causes and events together, and I could finally see the relevance of learning about the past.
Now, Guinness World Records is, arguably, history - and we do have it in the library. It’s the kind of history I wanted to learn back in the day: factoids instead of facts, curiosities and odd occurrences rather than names and dates. It’s still interesting and entertaining, but there are a lot of other fascinating books on history for adults to choose from. A few to enjoy:
- History: A Very Short Introduction by John Arnold (2000) - the Very Short Introduction series, by different authors, covers a variety of subjects in short format (usually around 150pps.) This book details, with examples, how our definition of history has changed over time.
- Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh (2023) - Ghosh won several awards for this book, which sprung from his research for his novels. It traces the effects of the opium trade on Britain, India and China.
- Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford (2005) - an acknowledged historian on the Mongol world, Weatherford has written two other books about the influence of Khan’s empire building.
- The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan (2015) - while not a short read, this book details how the East and the West influenced each other through trade and conquest occurring through the Silk Roads.
And for those who prefer their history in smaller chunks:
- The Rest is History: History’s Most Curious Questions Answered (2023) - more a book of lists than a history per se. But who doesn’t want to know the Top Ten Dogs in History? This is a companion to the popular history podcast.
- The Infographic History of the World by Valentina D’Efilippo (2014) - for the history buff who loves graphics.
- The Course of History: Ten Meals that Changed the World by Struan Stevenson (2019) - apparently, some of the most consequential decisions in history were made at the dinner table.
- A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins (2024) - the ships, the people, and the history from an underwater archaeologist.
If none of these perks your interest, try browsing the 902 area of the library for more general history books.
New at the Library
Fiction
- Isola: A Novel by Allegra Goodman
- Looking for You by Alexander McCall Smith
- Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
Nonfiction
- A History of Ancient Rome in Twelve Coins by Gareth Harney
- House of Huawei: The Secret History of China’s Most Powerful Company by Eva Dou
- The Inherited Mind: A Story of Family, Hope and the Genetics of Mental Illness by James Longman
Children
- Paloma Flies Away by Maria J. Guarda
- Life or Death in the Desert: An Interactive Survival Adventure by Elliott Smith
- Mountain Upside Down by Sara Ryan
