Brief Histories of Almost Anything

Here are fifty concise, entertaining histories on a broad, eclectic range of ideas (borders, feminism), global issues (migration, world trade), commodities (bananas, jeans), regions (Africa, Ireland), and institutions (corporations, the World Bank).

Lucid and irreverent,

Brief Histories of Almost Anything

challenges common perceptions associated with the subjects by going behind the facts. Each history has been selected from the

New Internationalist

magazine, a leading authority on alternative history and “Best International Coverage” winner in the

Utne Reader

Independent Press Awards.

Edited by

Chris Brazier , author of the best-selling

No-Nonsense Guide to World History .