on this page
recent history (4)
past in pictures (4)
longer ago (7)
history of clothes (3)
18 books
last updated November 2019
What do I know about this?
The present you live in will be the past soon - you are living in history. Other people will read about now and say 'wow, did they really live like that?'
Bear that in mind when you read about the past. Those people were just like you. Except perhaps they didn't have such good taste in clothes.
Well, quite a bit of the past on this page I lived in! I remember the 1990s, and the Berlin Wall. And although I don't actually remember the Middle Ages (which are not the same as middle age), I did study them for years and years at university.
The last century sounds like history, doesn't it? We could even call it the last millennium to make sound longer ago. These books look at recent events. The first two take a more serious view than the last, which is more concerned with boy bands and computer games.
Rachel Carson (Salariya, 2019)
She spotted the effects of global warming on the oceans 70 years ago and started the environmental movement with her fight to ban thoughtless use of dangerous pesticides. A hero of our time.
A Place in History: The Berlin Wall (Franklin Watts, 2011)
From the 1950s to 1990, Europe was divided into East and West. And Berlin was half in one and half in the other, soon divided by a wall that cut the city in half. Anyone crossing the wall was shot. Sounds like a dystopian novel, doesn't it. But it's real history.
Dates of a Decade: The 1990s (Franklin Watts, 2009)
A lot happened in the 1990s, including the worldwide web and cloning.
Zigga Zagga Know it All (Chrysalis, 2002)
The 90s weren't all websites and wars. There were also the Spice Girls and Neopets - really important stuff.
We don't learn history just from written records. We can also learn a lot from looking at pictures. Of course, we can't look at photographs of Romans and dinosaurs - we can only go so far back. These books show how four major cities have changed over 100 years or so, by putting photos of the same place at different times side by side.
Cities Through Time: Paris (Chrysalis, 2005)
Cities Through Time: New York (Chrysalis, 2005)
Cities Through Time: London (Chrysalis, 2005)
Cities Through Time: Los Angeles (Chrysalis, 2005)
History started before the twentieth century, of course. These books put on historical binoculars to see further back into the mists of time. Or something. I wrote all of the first five books, but contributed to the other two.
Sumerian Civilisation (Badger Learning, 2015)
This was a really long time ago.
Stone Age to Iron Age Britain (Badger Learning, 2015)
And this was a really, really long time ago.
Crime and Punishment in Britain (Badger Learning, 2015)
What happens if you did bad stuff back then.
Anglo-Saxons and Vikings (Badger Learning, 2015)
Some examples of people who did some bad stuff.
Surgery Through Time (HarperCollins, Big Cat, 2013)
This will just make you glad you live now instead of then.
Take Me Back (Dorling Kindersley, 2008)
From ancient times to now, with every page having a very visual and unique design ranging from comic strip to Bauhaus poster.
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages (Marshall Cavendish, 2005) 12 vols
As I said, I didn't write all of it...
Somehow I wandered into this little niche of history of costume. It's great fun - jackets made of salmon skin, vests made of rice fibre. You can't get those from Primark. (Or maybe you can...)
The Eighteenth Century (Facts on File, 2005)
The 1950s and 1960s (Chelsea House, 2009)
Costume Around the World: China (Chelsea House, 2008)
Do you want to find out about the way we live? There are books about:
>> technostuff
There are also books for grownups about the history of science. These are not too hard if you are 12+