Summer Reads, Part II
Looking to continue your summer history reads? Look no further than part 2 of our summer reading list. Enjoy!
Margaret Leslie Davis, The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book’s Five-Hundred Year Odyssey
Despite the fact that histories most often appear in book form, historians have often overlooked the fascinating histories of book themselves. This study tells the amazing story of one single copy of the Gutenberg Bible—one of the rarest and most prized books in world history. Follow this copy on its 500-year journey across continents and the hands of many owners and gain insight into the book trade and international commerce at the same time.
Seb Falk, The Light Ages: A Medieval Journey of Discovery
This book upends popular assumptions about the Dark Ages by instead focusing on the scientific and technological innovations of the Middle Ages, as seen through the eyes of monk, astronomer, and crusader John of Westwyk.
Sudhir Hazareesingh, Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
This biography traces the life of one of the most fascinating and important figures of the Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions: Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the Haitian Revolution. In archival research spanning across the globe, Sudhir Hazareesingh reconstructs the life, attitudes, and actions of this pivotal figure in world history.
Jamie Mackay, The Invention of Sicily: A Mediterranean History
Escape to the Mediterranean this summer in this book that chronicles the history of one of the sea’s great meeting points. Explore thousands of years of history and dozens of cultures who fought over, traded with, and influenced culture on the island.
Helen McCarthy, Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood
How did Europe change from a culture in which working women and mothers were seen as a social problem to one in which working mothers became the norm? And how did this change happen so quickly? This book uses a vast range of sources to track changing attitudes and possibilities in Britain since the 19th century.
Dennis C. Rasmussen, Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders
Historians often confine their discussions of the Founding Fathers to the years of the Revolutionary War and the early years of the new republic. But some of the founders lived rather long lives—long enough, in fact, to be able to reflect on the country they had created. This book takes a longer perspective on the views of the men responsible for creating the United States and shows that they were not always content with the new political system they had designed.
Camilla Townsend, Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs
Discover a new history of the Mexica (the Aztecs) from their own perspective, as told through annual reports. This research focuses on the century before and the century after Cortes’ arrival.
Anna Malaika Tubbs, The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation
The stories of these three remarkable women are rarely told, and yet their stories could not be more important to the history of the United States and the Civil Rights Movement. Learn about the women who taught these important figures and also gain some insight into the important women that history too often forgets.
Research History Yourself
Circa’s historians work directly with high school students to teach them the skills they need to imagine, research, and present their own history projects.