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MICROhistories

Welcome to the weird, whimsical world of microhistory, where the intricacies of ordinary life are liberated from the generalized milieu of traditional histories and given proper historiographic treatment. Microhistories originated in response to the weaknesses of broad historical analysis and have become popular mainly for their inherent flexibility and the infinite possibilities of focus. They are the phenomenon that occurs when a historian (or journalist, hobbyist, whatever) becomes uniquely obsessed with one very specific thing (shopping malls? taxidermy? uhh...the body of Abraham Lincoln?) and produces an entire book focusing in on that stimulating subject. Happening upon a microhistory in a library is often a happy accident, they can be found under practically any number of the dewey decimal system in the nonfiction section because when you reduce the historical scale to the everyday life, it connects with everywhere and with everything. This list is only a small sample of the rich curiosities that line our shelves in the form of the microhistory. What sparks your interest?

User from Johnson County Library

100 items

  • Cannibalism

    a Perfectly Natural History

    Schutt, Bill,
    Book, 2017Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017.
  • Flow

    the Cultural Story of Menstruation

    Stein, Elissa
    Book, 2009New York : St. Martin's Griffin, c2009.
  • Book, 2018New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.
  • Gossip

    the Untrivial Pursuit

    Epstein, Joseph, 1937-
    Book, 2011Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, c2011.
  • Wicked Bugs

    the Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects

    Stewart, Amy
    Book, 2011Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2011.
  • Wicked Plants

    the Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities

    Stewart, Amy
    Book, 2009Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009.
  • Rejected Princesses

    Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics

    Porath, Jason,
    Book, 2016New York, NY : Dey Street, [2016]
  • Still Life

    Adventures in Taxidermy

    Milgrom, Melissa
    Book, 2010Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.
  • A Short History of Drunkenness

    How, Why, Where, and When Humankind Has Gotten Merry From the Stone Age to the Present

    Forsyth, Mark,
    Book, 2017New York : Three Rivers Press, [2017]
  • Nine Pints

    a Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood

    George, Rose, 1969-
    Book, 2018New York : Metropolitan Books/ Henry Holt and Company, 2018.
  • Paper

    Paging Through History

    Kurlansky, Mark,
    Book, 2016New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2016]
  • Severed

    a History of Heads Lost and Heads Found

    Larson, Frances, 1976-
    Book, 2014New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, [2014]