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Microhistory focuses on a single specific place, person, or event, and uses that to explore larger historical themes. Try these microhistories out!
Updated September 19, 2022
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Salt: A World History
Mark Kurlansky
Paper Book
Homer called salt a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. Today we take salt for granted, a common, inexpensive substance that seasons food or clears ice from roads, a word used casually in expressions ("salt of the earth," take it with a grain of salt") without...
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The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Paper Book
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, adapted as a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is "an extraordinary achievement" (The New Yorker)--a magnificent, profoundly humane "biography" of cancer. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science...
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Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
Mark Kurlansky
Paper Book
The codfish. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been spurred by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it, and the settlement of North America was driven by it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious than...
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Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox
Victoria Finlay
Paper Book
In this vivid and captivating journey through the colors of an artist’s palette, Victoria Finlay takes us on an enthralling adventure around the world and through the ages, illuminating how the colors we choose to value have determined the history of culture itself. How did the most precious...
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The Evolution of Useful Things
Henry Petroski
Paper Book
Only Henry Petroski, author of The Pencil, could make one never pick up a paper clip again without being overcome with feelings of awe and reverence. In his new book the author examines a host of techno-trivia questions -- how the fork got its tines, why Scotch tape is called that, how the paper...
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Empire of Cotton: A Global History
Sven Beckert
Audiobook
The epic story of the rise and fall of the empire of cotton, its centrality in the world economy, and its making a remaking and of global capitalism.Sven Beckert's rich, fascination book tells how the story of how, in a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful statesmen recast...
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Rain: A Natural and Cultural History
Cynthia Barnett
Paper Book
Rain is elemental, mysterious, precious, destructive. It is the subject of countless poems and paintings; the top of the weather report; the source of the world's water. Yet this is the first book to tell the story of rain. Cynthia Barnett's Rain <...
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The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History
Kassia St Clair
Paper Book
From colorful 30,000-year-old threads found on the floor of a Georgian cave to the Indian calicoes that sparked the Industrial Revolution, The Golden Thread weaves an illuminating story of human ingenuity. Design journalist Kassia St. Clair guides us through the technological advancements and...
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Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
Simon Winchester
Paper Book
"In many ways, Land combines bits and pieces of many of Winchester's previous books into a satisfying, globe-trotting whole. . . . Winchester is, once again, a consummate guide."--Boston Globe The author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and ...
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The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator
Timothy C Winegard
Paper Book
**The instant New York Times bestseller.** *An international bestseller.* "Hugely impressive, a major work."--NPR A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing...
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Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood
Rose George
Paper Book
An eye-opening exploration of blood, the lifegiving substance with the power of taboo, the value of diamonds and the promise of breakthrough science Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save...
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Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World
Aja Raden
Paper Book
As entertaining as it is incisive, Stoned is a raucous journey through the history of human desire for what is rare, and therefore precious. What makes a stone a jewel What makes a jewel priceless And why do we covet beautiful things In this brilliant account of how eight...
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Face Paint: The Story of Makeup
Lisa Eldridge
Paper Book
New York Times BestsellerMakeup, as we know it, has only been commercially available in the last 100 years, but applying decoration to the face and body may be one of the oldest global social practices. In Face Paint, Lisa Eldridge reveals the entire history of the art form, from Egyptian and...
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The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization
Roland Ennos
Paper Book
A groundbreaking examination of the role that wood and trees have played in our global ecosystem--including human evolution and the rise and fall of empires--in the bestselling tradition of Yuval Harari's Sapiens and Mark Kurlansky's Salt. As the dominant species on...
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Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization
Edward Slingerland
Paper Book
An "entertaining and enlightening" deep dive into the alcohol-soaked origins of civilization--and the evolutionary roots of humanity's appetite for intoxication (Daniel E. Lieberman, author of Exercised). While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history...
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About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks
David Rooney
Paper Book
One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best History Books of 2021 A captivating, surprising history of timekeeping and how it has shaped our world. For thousands of years, people of all cultures have made and used clocks, from the city sundials of ancient Rome to the...
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The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration
Sarah Everts
Paper Book
Sweating may be one of our weirdest biological functions, but it's also one of our most vital and least understood. In The Joy of Sweat, Sarah Everts delves into its role in the body--and in human history. Why is sweat salty? Why do we sweat when stressed? Why do some people produce...
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Delicious: The Evolution of Flavor and How It Made Us Human
Rob Dunn
Paper Book
A savory account of how the pursuit of delicious foods shaped human evolution Nature, it has been said, invites us to eat by appetite and rewards by flavor. But what exactly are flavors? Why are some so pleasing while others are not? Delicious is a supremely...
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