Series: The Shortest History Series

The Shortest History of the Dinosaurs tells the 230-million-year epic of these staggeringly fascinating prehistoric creatures, covering their small beginnings, spectacular golden periods, and stunning evolutionary success—before an unthinkable asteroid event brought everything to a screeching halt. But this history digs deeper, using numerous recent fossil discoveries and fresh understandings of genetics and evolution to show how we’ve gleaned so...

The Shortest History of Eugenics offers an accessible and engaging exploration of one of the most controversial scientific movements of the 20th century. Presented by Erik Peterson, this book traces the origins, development, and lasting impact of eugenics. The narrative begins with the creation of the concept by Sir Francis Galton in the late 19th century, capturing how eugenics gained...

How did a simple kicking game conquer the world? In this concise yet comprehensive history, sports historian Brian D. Bunk traces soccer’s unlikely, meteoric rise, showing how a pastime humbly rooted in English schoolyard contests grew to become the planet’s most popular sport. Today, soccer is a cultural and economic juggernaut: The World Cup, the sport’s crown jewel, is now...