I like to read “pop” history books—either looking for readings for future classes or (more commonly) for ways to stretch my thinking about the things I like to teach. Here’s a few of the things I’ve recently been reading:
Cod & A History of the World in Six Glasses specifically fall under the category of “pop” history books. Cod—like Salt (by the same author)—shows how cod was instrumental in European sea exploration of the 1400s, how it helped shape social, political, and economic developments along the Atlantic “rim,” and how it’s indicative of man-made ecological disaster. A History of the World in Six Glasses is similar, in that it shows how six drinks (beer, wine, liquor, tea, coffee, and Coca Cola) have shaped the world—and how a seventh drink (water) will be critical for the future. While Cod is more tightly argued, Six Glasses is broader in scope.
Homage to Catalonia is a different kind of book. It would be great not just for discussion of the Spanish Civil War (as a companion in courses on social revolution, inter-war European history, political ideologies, or a seminar on the Spanish Civil War), but it’s also a great example of journalism “done right.” Though Orwell is up front about his biases (he wrote the book, after all, while serving as a volunteer on the republican side), he doesn’t romanticize the war or the revolution. Instead, one gets a good idea of the internal problems w/in the republican (or “loyalist” or “socialist”) government—and how, ironically, the “revolution” was killed not by the fascists, but by the Stalin-backed communists.
