List
Listen to a Microhistory with Hoopla Audiobooks
Find yourself staring at your walls? What better time to listen to a microhistory of walls or some other everyday object or practice! You can download these always available downloadable audiobooks on the Hoopla app or website.
-
The American Plate: A Culinary History in 100 Bites
2014 by O'Connell, Libby HaightGet this itemListeners with short attention spans will feast on this audiobook's one hundred bite-sized histories of American food stuffs from maize to molecular cuisine.
-
Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat
2012 by Wilson, BeeGet this itemConsider the fork, indeed. Also other culinary tools and practices from chopsticks to sou vide cooking. You can't ask for a more entertaining or engaging guide than Bee Wilson who even makes a valiant attempt to explain the British habit of boiling vegetables to soggy mush.
-
The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History
2019 by St. Clair, KassiaGet this itemWe live in a world awash in fabric but for most of human history people valued every fiber they could procure be it wool, cotton, silk, or something else. In elegant prose, Kassia St. Clair takes her readers on a journey from mummy wrappings to the Space Age.
-
A History of the World in 6 Glasses
2005 by Standage, TomGet this itemAs someone who regularly consumes four of the six beverages (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and soda) whose histories are explored by Tom Standage, I was fascinated by this audiobook from beginning to end. Along with Mark Kurlanky's Salt, this is one of the best known microhistories.
-
If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home
2012 by Worsley, LucyGet this itemBritish historian and palace curator Lucy Worsley knows her way around bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and other corners of the home. Here she cheerfully shares the history of these places and generally makes you glad you live in the present day.
-
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
2017 by Kang, LydiaGet this itemWarning! You might injure yourself laughing at this history of medical practices that manages to be simultaneously grisly, appalling, and hilarious. Why on earth did medical authorities recommend smoke enemas to treat those rescued from drowning? And how exactly were they administered?
-
The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul
2018 by Herman, EleanorGet this itemThankfully we live in a world where deliberate or accidental poisonings are rare. That wasn't the case for most of human history as this audiobook makes clear. More morbid merriment for listeners with a taste for the macabre.
-
A Short History of Drunkenness: How, Why, Where, and When Humankind Has Gotten Merry From the Stone Age to the Present
2017 by Forsyth, MarkGet this itemDrunkenness may a scourge but it lends itself to humor as this audiobook abundantly demonstrates. You'll wish it were much longer than its 5.5 hours and might decide that Prohibition wasn't such a bad idea.
-
The Taste of Empire: How Britain's Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World
2017 by Collingham, E. M.Get this itemA history of Britain's eating habits may seem specialized or limited, but this is really a culinary history of the entire globe, so great was the reach of the British Empire. The discussion of sugar alone justifies the time spent with this audiobook.
Bookmatch
Bookmatch allows Skokie Library cardholders to receive a custom list of titles prepared for you by the library's expert staff.
Try Bookmatch