Books

DEAD FAMOUS: AN UNEXPECTED HISTORY OF CELEBRITY, FROM BRONZE AGE TO SILVER SCREEN

Dead Famous is a surprising, funny, and fascinating exploration of both a bygone age and how we came to inhabit our modern, fame obsessed society. The book spans the Bronze Age to the coming of Hollywood’s Golden Age, and assembles a vibrant cast of over 125 actors, singers, dancers, sportspeople, freaks, demigods, ruffians, and more, in search of celebrity’s historical roots. Greg reveals why celebrity burst into life in the early eighteenth century, how it differs to ancient ideas of fame, the effect it had on public tastes, and the psychological burden stardom could place on those in the glaring limelight.

ASK A HISTORIAN: 50 SURPRISING ANSWERS TO THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW

In Ask a Historian, Greg Jenner provides answers to things you always wondered about, but didn’t know who to ask. Responding to 50 genuine questions from the public, Greg whisks you off on an entertaining tour through the ages, revealing the best and most surprising stories, facts, and historical characters from the past. Bouncing through a wide range of subjects – from ancient jokebooks, African empires, and bizarre tales of medicinal cannibalism, to the invention of meringues, mirrors, and menstrual pads – Ask A Historian spans the Stone Age to the Swinging Sixties, and offers up a deliciously amusing and informative smorgasbord of historical curiosities, devoured one morsel at a time.

A MILLION YEARS IN A DAY

An accessible, humorous book that recounts the history of daily life: A Million Years In A Day: A Curious History of Ordinary Life, From Stone Age To Phone Age takes an ordinary day as the template to reveal the astonishing origins and evolution of the daily practices we take for granted.