Histories of the Unexpected: How Everything Has a History

By Sam Willis and James Daybell

'History as you've never seen it before.' Dan Snow

'A wonderful, eclectic and entertaining history of everything, full of fascinating, surprising stories.' Suzannah Lipscomb

Did you know that the history of the beard is connected to the Crimean War; that the history of paperclips is all about the Stasi; and that the history of bubbles is all about the French Revolution? And who knew that Heinrich Himmler, Tutankhamun and the history of needlework are linked to napalm and Victorian orphans?

In Histories of the Unexpected, Sam Willis and James Daybell lead us on a journey of discovery that tackles some of the greatest historical themes - from the Tudors to the Second World War, from the Roman Empire to the Victorians - but via entirely unexpected subjects.

By taking this revolutionary approach, they not only present a new way of thinking about the past, but also reveal the everyday world around us as never before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Release date: Oct 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781786494153

Sam Willis

Sam Willis has lectured at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, and consults on maritime painting for Christie's. Sam spent eighteen months as a Square Rig Able Sea-man, sailing the tall ships used in the Hornblower television series and award-winning film Shackleton< em>. He is the author of Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century: The Art of Sailing Warfare and the highly successful Fighting Ships series.

Reviews for Histories of the Unexpected

[murderbydeath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a weird one.  The book focuses on the premise that everything has a history beyond the obvious, including things like bubbles, clouds and itching, and it's written in a stream-of-consciousness style, so that the history of hands leads to gloves, leads to perfume, etc.  The authors host a podcast by the same name, so I'm guessing this book is the result of the podcast's success.It sort of works.  I genuinely enjoy reading history from any viewpoint that doesn't include wars, battles, skirmishes, politics, genocides or religious persecutions, and for the most part this book delivered on that.  At times the authors slipped into their true historian selves and some of the above made an appearance.  I skimmed those sections, and skipped sections that included histories involving animal cruelty, but there was very little of both.The writing was good enough to hold a reader's attention, but the structure of the book lends itself to limited attention spans, or for dipping into a chapter at a time.  Since it's designed to bounce around, it's difficult to get absorbed in the reading of it.Possibly a good choice for a young adult reluctant to see the point of history.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyable ramblings of a historian, all connected by a chain of themes, like an endless series of digressions. Would buy an unlimited number of pints in a pub to keep listening.