History - Social History

From the masters of storytelling-meets-science and co-authors of Quackery, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks--how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written...

A landmark book published to rave reviews a decade ago, Pearl Harbor Ghosts has now been updated to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the surprise attack that forever changed the course of history. Full of gripping drama and vibrant details, here is the intimate...

In this concluding volume of The Myth of the Machine, Mumford brings to a head his radical revisions of the stale popular conceptions of human and technological progress. Far from being an attack on science and technics, The Pentagon of Power seeks to establish...

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States,...

A sweeping germ's-eye view of history from human origins to global pandemics Plagues Upon the Earth is a monumental history of humans and their germs. Weaving together a grand narrative of global history with insights from cutting-edge genetics, Kyle Harper explains why humanity's uniquely...

In 1902, Morris and Rose Michtom invented the Teddy Bear--bound by clothing scraps, stuffed with sawdust, and given button eyes with a sad, longing expression--in the back room of their Brooklyn candy store. Together they launched the Ideal Toy Corporation, joining a set of...

A provocative reassessment of a popular narrative that connects museums, the antiquities trade, and theft. In this thought-provoking new work, historian Justin M. Jacobs challenges the widely accepted belief that much of Western museums' treasures were acquired by imperialist plunder and theft. The account...

"As every amateur toxicologist knows, the difference between a poison and medicine is often simply the dose."There is no weapon as insidious, as seductive or as mysterious as poison. In this terrifying account of history's silent assassin, discover the gripping tales of users, abusers...

A compact and comprehensive history of Portland from first European contact to the twenty-first century, Portland in Three Centuries introduces the women and men who have shaped Oregon's largest city. The expected politicians and business leaders appear, but Carl Abbott also highlights workers and...

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The Second World War was the most destructive conflict in history. It left Europe in ruins, its economies severely damaged and millions of its people facing malnutrition, its political systems shaken if not destroyed. Yet three decades later...

The astonishing, hitherto unknown truths about a disease that transformed the United States at its birth A horrifying epidemic of smallpox was sweeping across the Americas when the American Revolution began, and yet we know almost nothing about it. Elizabeth A. Fenn is the...

Author: Cynthia PacesPublisher: Oxford University PressPublished: 09/09/2025Pages: 400Binding Type: HardcoverWeight: 1.60lbsSize: 9.00h x 6.30w x 1.80dISBN: 9780197554838Review Citation(s): Library Journal 08/01/2025 pg. 78Foreword 08/25/2025About the AuthorCynthia Paces is Professor of History at the College of New Jersey. She is the author of Prague Panoramas:...

Go beyond London's famous landmarks and discover the hidden gems. From secluded mews and undiscovered cafes to flower markets and tree-lined streets, prettycitylondon champions the quiet, gentle moments that allow you to escape in a huge capital city like London.If you know where to...

UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF PRINCE HALL FREEMASONRY... An aura of mystery surrounds the Masonic tradition Prince Hall founded. Part of this aura comes from the false perception, held even by many fellow Masons, that Prince Hall Freemasonry is different from "normal" Masonry, with special...

A funny and entertaining history of printed books as told through absurd moments in the lives of authors and printers, collected by television's favorite rare-book expert from HISTORY's hit series Pawn Stars.Since the Gutenberg Bible first went on sale in 1455, printing has been...

Can one person change the world? What qualities determine effective leadership? How do individual talent and historical circumstances combine to shape great leaders? From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, multimillion-copy bestselling classic Guns, Germs and Steel, a landmark study of leadership across politics,...

Can one person change the world? What qualities determine effective leadership? How do individual talent and historical circumstances combine to shape great leaders? From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, multimillion-copy bestselling classic Guns, Germs and Steel, a landmark study of leadership across politics,...

"Fascinating."--Thomas W. Hodgkinson, The Guardian "Richly detailed and frequently illuminating."--Rhys Blakely, Times (UK) "Excellent."--Clare Bucknell, New Yorker A New Yorker Best of the Week Pick A provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the...

What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine--yes, that strychnine, the...

A massively entertaining oral biography of the golden era of critically derided yet monumentally popular radio rock, when Journey, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Toto, and more ruled the airwaves Paul Rees's Raised on Radio is, remarkably, the first biography of AOR ("Album-Oriented Rock"), critically derided...