This month’s Collection Spotlight is featuring microhistories. In order to create what we hope is a far ranging and interesting selection of titles for people to browse, we decided to approach microhistory both from the academic and popular side of things. We hope you will forgive us if in our enthusiasm we stray into some titles that might not meet the strict definition!
Here is a selection of some of the titles that we are showcasing:
A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
To Free a Family: The journey of Mary Walker by Sydney Nathans
Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
Poverty and Piety in an English Village by Keith Wrightson and David Levine
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
If some of these titles spark your interest, consider getting involved with Duke’s own MicroWorlds Lab this year! They even have a section called “What is Microhistory” if you want to explore further what this method of study means.
Please check out the Collection Spotlight rack near our Perkins Library Service Desk on the first floor of Perkins to find your next read!
