Azby Brown looks to the past to find future methods for sustainable living in "Just Enough". Centering his studies on Edo-era Japan, Brown focuses on the concept of the “circular economy,” in which resources are preserved and... Read More

Larisa Grollemond and Bryan C. Keene’s "The Fantasy of the Middle Ages" is a comprehensive, inclusive analysis of the many ways in which the Middle Ages inform popular culture. The book tackles the topic of medievalism: how materials... Read More

Art historian Noah Charney describes himself as “a proponent of making art feel accessible to anyone who is willing to meet it halfway,” and "The 12-Hour Art Expert" accomplishes that mission via an anecdotal, conversational approach... Read More

"Birds and Us" is a fascinating look at the relationship between human beings and our avian relatives throughout history, written by ornithologist Tim Birkhead. The text follows the arc of the bird’s flight through human art and... Read More

Paul Miller-Melamed examines the origins of World War I in his historical survey "Misfire". Popular history suggests that World War I began when a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June of 1914.... Read More

A book about flying that includes “all the different ways of defying gravity that have been discovered by humans over the centuries and by other animals over millions of years,” Richard Dawkins’s "Flights of Fancy" also includes... Read More

Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller’s "Bad Gays" is about prominent historical queer figures whose “evilness” is often overlooked when discussing the history of queer politics, and whose queerness is often overlooked when discussing the... Read More

George Uba’s memoir Water Thicker Than Blood reflects upon the personal and cultural intricacies of Japanese American life, before and after World War II. Following the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, President Roosevelt ordered all US... Read More