Microhistories

Explore history through a single object or event.

Updated October 11, 2025
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The warmth of other suns : the epic story of America's great migration
Wilkerson, Isabel.
Paper Book
From 1915 to 1970, an exodus of almost six million people would change the face of America. With stunning historical detail, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson gives us this definitive, vividly dramatic account of how these journeys unfolded. Based on interviews with...
The mosquito : a human history of our deadliest predator
Winegard, Timothy C.
Ebook
A ground-breaking work of narrative non-fiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on human history. What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution, and how did it lead to Britain colonising Australia? What protected Popes for centuries? And what does...
What the chicken knows : a new appreciation of the world's most familiar bird
Montgomery, Sy
Paper Book
A charming and eye-opening exploration of the special relationship between humans and chickens from Sy Montgomery, "one of our finest chroniclers of the natural world" (The New York Times). For more than two decades, Sy Montgomery--whose The Soul of an...
The rise and fall of the dinosaurs : a new history of a lost world
Brusatte, Stephen
Paper Book
Sweat : a history of exercise
Hayes, Bill
Paper Book
'I was riveted by Sweat and its extraordinary tale of the ups and downs of exercise over millennia' Jane Fonda'Does what all good history books should do: take the past and make it vastly more human' The Times_________________________From the author of...
How to change your mind : what the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence
Pollan, Michael
Paper Book
'It's as if we made entering gothic cathedrals illegal, or museums, or sunsets!' When LSD was first discovered in the 1940s, it seemed to researchers, scientists and doctors as if the world might be on the cusp of psychological revolution. It promised to shed light on the deep mysteries...
Everything is tuberculosis : the history and persistence of our deadliest infection
Green, John
Dead wake : the last crossing of the Lusitania
Larson, Erik
Ebook
One summer America, 1927
Bryson, Bill.
Audiobook
Nothing to envy : ordinary lives in North Korea
Demick, Barbara.
Audiobook
The secret history of the rape kit : a true crime story
Kennedy, Pagan
Marty Goddard dreamed up a new crime-solving tool--a kit that could help rape survivors fight for justice. This thrilling investigation tells the story of the troubled, heroic woman who kicked off a feminist revolution in forensics, and then vanished into obscurity. "Astonishing . ....
Why we swim
Tsui, Bonnie
Ebook
'A jewel of a book, a paean to the wonders of water and our place within it' James Nestor, bestselling of author of Breath 'Glorious' The New York Times Take a dive into the deep and discover what it is about water that seduces us, heals us...
Seabiscuit : an American legend
Hillenbrand, Laura.
Ebook
The song of the cell : an exploration of medicine and the new human
Mukherjee, Siddhartha
Paper Book
**Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2023** A NEW YORK TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, ECONOMIST, MAIL ON SUNDAY and GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 From the prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies, The Song of the Cell...
The rise and reign of the mammals : a new history, from the shadow of the dinosaurs to us
Brusatte, Stephen
Paper Book
The passing of the age of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to become ascendant. But mammals have a much deeper history. They - or, more precisely, we - originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago; mammal roots lie even further back, some 325 million years.Over these...
The dictionary people : the unsung heroes who created the Oxford English dictionary
Ogilvie, Sarah
Paper Book
What do three murderers, Karl Marx's daughter and a vegetarian vicar have in common? They all helped create the Oxford English Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary has long been associated with elite institutions and Victorian men; its longest-serving editor,...
At home : a short history of private life
Bryson, Bill.
Ebook
In At Home, Bill Bryson applies the same irrepressible curiosity, irresistible wit, stylish prose and masterful storytelling that made A Short History of Nearly Everything one of the most lauded books of the last decade, and delivers one of the most entertaining and illuminating...

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