Unusual history books
Sweat: A History of Exercise
From Insomniac City author Bill Hayes, who can tackle just about any subject in book form, and make you glad he did (SF Chronicle)--a cultural, scientific, literary, and personal history of exercise.
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Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
A fascinating look at four of the most spectacular cities in human history - and why they were all abandoned.
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Maiden Voyages
How the Golden Age of transatlantic travel between the wars transformed women's lives across all classes - a vivid portrait of life on-board the iconic ocean liners.
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Land of Wondrous Cold
A history of the first race to Antarctica that weaves the great polar discoveries of the nineteenth century with scientific breakthroughs of the modern era Antarctica, the ice kingdom hosting the South Pole, looms large in the...
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Thrust: A Spasmodic Pictorial History of the Codpiece
A laugh-out-loud visual history of the strangest piece of men's clothing ever created: the codpiece.
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Magdalena: River of Dreams
From the bestselling author and winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize: the epic story of Colombia's Rio Magdalena and of the country's past, present and future
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Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights (The Sunday Times Bestseller)
The first book by the acclaimed journalist Helen Lewis - the imperfect and unfinished story of the battles for women's rights
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The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
Miscast in the media for nearly 130 years, the victims of Jack the Ripper finally get their full stories told in this eye-opening and chilling reminder that life for middle-class women in Victorian London could be full of social...
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The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
Blending fascinating history with lacerating wit, The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth will take you on a tour of some of the funniest, strangest and most wince-inducing corners of medical history.
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The Secret Lives of Colour
The unforgettable history of colours and the vivid stories behind them in a beautiful multi-coloured volume
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A History of the World in 21 Women: A Personal Selection
The inimitable Jenni Murray celebrates great women from around the world - rescuing some from obscurity and shining a new light on familiar names
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Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany
The sensational German bestseller on the overwhelming role of drug-taking in the Third Reich, from Hitler to housewives.
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The Butchering Art
In The Butchering Art, historian Lindsey Fitzharris recreates a critical turning point in the history of medicine, when Joseph Lister transformed surgery from a brutal, harrowing practice to the safe, vaunted profession we know...
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Blue Lake
I'm here already, in the bleak, awful hour on Dudley Flats in which the final dereliction of Elsie Williams will come to pass. I'm beginning with it, so you won't be under any illusion as to how it ends.
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Pirates: A New History, from Vikings to Somali Raiders
A global account of pirates and their modus operandi from the middle ages to the present day
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James Hardy Vaux’s 1819 Dictionary of Criminal Slang
From the award-winning author and illustrator Simon Barnard comes an embellished version of Australia's first ever dictionary, published on its 200-year anniversary
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Wanderlust: A History of Walking
A profound and meandering modern classic about the historical, political and philosophical paths traced by walkers, their routes and the act of walking
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Operation Babylift
The dramatic and heart-warming story of the last-minute evacuation of hundreds of orphaned babies from South Vietnam in the dying days of the Vietnam War and of the brave Australian nurses who made it happen.
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Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life
What if intelligent life on Earth evolved not once, but twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?
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Defeating the Ministers of Death
The compelling story of vaccination.
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it. Us. We are the most advanced and most destructive animals ever to have lived. What makes us brilliant?...
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1947: Where Now Begins
As the clock strikes the end of the war, the time begins to turn towards a new age - the one we call now.
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The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
Putin's bestselling biographer reveals how, in the space of a generation, Russia surrendered to a more virulent and invincible new strain of autocracy.
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The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present
Why have societies all across the world feared witchcraft? This book delves deeply into its context, beliefs, and origins in Europe's history
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