College life does not afford much time for leisure reading. Only during vacations do we feel we can afford the time to read for pleasure. Our table-top book display Nov. 19-22, 2019 features(ed) fairly recently published histories of topics and things, tangible and intangible, that came to our attention because they seemed unusual, maybe not having been written about before. History is often an unpopular subject in school and college. People think studying or reading about famous or infamous individuals, people groups, wars, eras, ideologies, and noteworthy events is boring. We hope(d) by featuring some of these titles to show you another, hopefully more interesting, side of history. These books are/were all available for checkout to cozy up with over the upcoming holidays. Below is a bibliography of the featured titles.
Almond, Philip C. Afterlife, a History of Life after Death. Ithaca, NY, Cornell Univ. Pres, 2016 BT 903 .A46 2016
Basbanes, Nicholas A. On Paper, the Everything of its Two-thousand-year History. NY, Knopf, 2013. Z 247 .B34 2013
Battles, Matthew. Palimpsest, History of the Written Word. NY, Norton, [2015]. P 211 .B385 2015
Bennett, Lyn Ellen. Perfect Fence, Untangling the Meanings of Barbed Wire. College Station, TX, Texas A and M Univ. Press, [2017]. F 594 .B464 2017
Bradley, Ian C. Water, a Spiritual History. London, Bloomsbury, 2012. BL 450 .B733 2012.
Chamberlin, Silas. On the Trail, a History of American Hiking. NY, Yale Univ. Press, [2016]. GV 199.4 .C43 2016
Chaney, Sarah. Psyche on the Skin, a History of Self-Harm. London, Reaktion Books, 2017. RC 552 .S4 C43 2017.
Christian, David. Origin Story, a Big History of Everything. NY, Little, Brown, 2018. CB 19 .C478 2018
Crystal, David. Story of Be, a Verb’s Eye View of the English Language. Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press, [2017]. PE 1317 .B4 C79 2017
Debarbieux, Bernard. Mountain, a Political History from the Enlightenment to the Present. Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 2015.
GT 3490 .D4313 2015
Dugan, Holly. Ephemeral History of Perfume, Scent and Sense in Early Modern England. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, c2011.
BF 271 .D84 2011
Fagan, Brian M. What We Did in Bed, a Horizontal History. New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, [2019]. GT 3000.3 .F34 2019.
From Personality to Virtue, Essays on the Philosophy of Character. Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press, 2016. BF 698 .F745 2016
Grant, Colin. Smell of Burning, the Story of Epilepsy. London, Jonathan Cape, 2016. RC 372 .G73 2016
Horowitz, Daniel. Happier? The History of a Cultural Movement that Aspired to Transform America. NY, Oxford Univ. Press, [2018]. HN 57 .H59 2018
Horwitz, Allan V. PTSD, a Short History. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2018. RC 552 .P67 H67 2018
Horwood, Catherine. Potted History, the Story of Plants in the Home. London, Frances Lincoln, 2007. SB 419 .H67 2007
Kelsey, Harry. First Circumnavigators, Unsung Heroes of the Age of Discovery. New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, [2016]. G 419 .K45 2016
King, Case. Ambition, a History from Vice to Virtue. New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 2013. E 162 .K59 2013.
Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. Track Changes, a Literary History of Word Processing. Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 2016. Z 52.4 .K57 2016
Koehler, Jeff. Darjeeling, the Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World’s Greatest Tea. NY, Bloomsbury, 2015. HD 9198 .I42 K64 2015
Krondl, Michael. Sweet Invention, a History of Dessert. Chicago, Chicago Review Press, c2011. TX 773 .K7154 2011
Mason, Laura. Sweets and Candy, a Global History. London, Reaktion Books, 2018. TX 83 .M37 2018
McGrath, Christopher. Mr. Darley’s Arabian, High Life, Low Life, Sporting life, a History of Racing in 25 Horses. London, John Murray, 2016. SF 338 .M38 2016
McNeil, Peter. Luxury, a Rich History. Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press, 2016. HB 841 .M36 2016
Moscoso, Javier. Pain, a Cultural History. Basingstoke/New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. BF 789 .S8 M6713 2012.
Muller-Wille, Staffan. Cultural History of Heredity. Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 2012. QH 438.5 .M8513 2012
Notaker, Henry. History of Cookbooks, from Kitchen to Page Over Seven Centuries. Oakland, Cal., Univ. of Cal. Press, [2017]. TX 723.5 .A1 N68 2017
O’Connell, John. Book of Spice, from Anise to Zedoary. NY, Pegasus Books, 2016. TX 406 .O26 2016
Orrell, David. Evolution of Money. NY, Columbia Univ. Press, [2016]. HG 231 .O77 2016
Paine, Lincoln P. Sea and Civilization, a Maritime History of the World. NY, Knopf, 2013. CB 465 .P34 2013
Peavitt, Helen. Refrigerator, the Story of Cool in the Kitchen. London, Reaktion Books, 2017. TP 496 .P43 2017
Porter, Theodore M. Genetics in the Madhouse, the Unknown History of Human Heredity. Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, [2018]. HQ 755.35 .P67 2018
Schaffner, Anna Katharina. Exhaustion, a History. NY, Columbia Univ. Press, [2016]. BF 482 .S33 2016
Schutt, Bill. Eat Me, a Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism. London, Profile Books Wellcome Collection, 2017. GN 409 .S38 2017
Sismondo, Christine. America Walks into a Bar, a Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops. NY, Oxford Univ. Press, c2011. GT 3803 .S57 2011.
Schoenbaum, David. Violin, a Social History of the World’s Most Versatile Instrument. NY, Norton, [2013]. Music ML 800 .S326 2012
Stearns, Peter N. Shame, a Brief History. Urbana, Ill., Univ. of Illinois Press, 2017. BF 575 .S45 S74 2017
Switek, Brian. Skeleton Keys, the Secret Life of Bone. NY, Riverhead Books, 2019. Browsing QM 101 .S5487 2019
Taiz, Lincoln. Flora Unveiled, the Discovery and Denial of Sex in Plants. NY, Oxford Univ. Press, [2017]. QK 827 .T35 2017
Tolinski, Brad. Play it Loud, the Epic History of the Style, Sound, and Revolution of the Electric Guitar. NY, Doubleday, 2016. Music and Browsing ML 1015 .G9 T66 2016
Von Petzinger, Genevieve. First Signs, Unlocking the Mysteries of the World’s Oldest Symbols. NY, Atria Books, 2016. GN 772.2 .A1 V66 2016
