Brief Histories of Almost Anything packs 50 books into one! Each slice of history has been pared right down to the most fascinating facts and intriguing asides. With subjects as diverse as Islamic Civilization, Jeans, Money, American Rebels and Contraception there is a surprise around every corner in this book, but one thing you can be certain of is a concise and original view of our collective past. Each mini-history has been thoroughly reconstructed, distilled and refined into a short, sharp and easily digestible shot. Where else would you find the whole of the 20th century reduced to lists of five? Or the history of megalomania from the Roman Empire to the US Empire? Or the key ethical philosophers down the ages summarized in a few pages? Yes, most of the hard work has been done for you. And these tasty morsels have been instilled with a revolutionary twist – one that prefers not to accept a conventional view of history, and which constantly questions the way the world works.