Improbable Voices
A History of the World Since 1450 Seen From 26 Unusual Perspectives
Improbable Voices
A History of the World Since 1450 Seen From 26 Unusual Perspectives
Derek Dwight Anderson
Improbable Voices
This uniquely told world history interweaves the lives of twenty-six women and men who are not well known with the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that have shaped the human experience through the course of the last 570 years. Meticulously researched and hailed by scholars, yet purposefully written for a broad audience, this book details the lives of doctors and musicians, aristocrats and artists, businessmen and suffragettes, scientists and generals who made essential, but now largely forgotten contributions to places and eras as diverse as Reformation Europe, Mughal India, Tokugawa Japan, colonial Australia, and post-colonial Kenya. Improbable Voices possesses both the vivid depth and the expansive breadth a satisfying history of the world warrants.
About the Author
Derek Dwight Anderson is an independent high school history teacher and librarian with 35 years of teaching experience. He is also a dedicated world traveler who loves museums, large and small. Improbable Voices is Anderson's first book and represents the cumulative integration of his professional and personal interests.
Derek holds a B.A. from Bates College and a Master of Library and Information Science from San José State University. He also studied at the University of Edinburgh. Currently a senior full time faculty member at Marin Academy in San Rafael, California, Anderson lives with his partner in Sausalito. He is currently teaching an interdisciplinary world history course that integrates history, art history, and studio art.
Author's Photograph of the Week
(Ary Scheffer, "The Retreat of Napoleon's Army from Russia in 1812," Detail, 1826.)
I was recently in New Haven doing research for a new book project and saw a depiction of Napoleon's retreat from Russia at the Yale Art Gallery. It was a work I hadn't seen before and I found it captivating. For more information, see this blog entry.
Libraries with copies of improbable voices
Appalachian State University
Arizona State University
Auburn University
Baltimore County Public (MD)
Bates College
Boston University
College of Marin
Dayton Public (OH)
Duke University
Georgetown University
Hamilton College
Harvard University
Haverford College
Hennepin Public (MN)
Horace Mann School
James Madison University
Lafayette College
Larkspur Public (CA)
Library of Congress
Marin Academy
Montana State University
Multnomah Public (OR)
Ocean State Public (RI)
Rice University
Sausalito Public (CA)
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
Syracuse University
Thacher School
Tufts University
Washington University-St. Louis
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Davis
University of Colorado-Boulder
University of Evansville
University of Michigan
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
University of New Mexico
University of San Francisco
University of Wyoming
Vassar College
Washington State University
Westminster Schools
William Penn University
Many libraries already own the book. Let's add your favorite academic, public or school library now!
For the Classroom or the Book Group
How might Improbable Voices be used in a class or book group? For each chapter, please see various ways Improbable Voices might be used as a primary or supplemental text for a modern world history class or as a selection for a regular book group. There are discussion questions, writing prompts, project ideas, links to recent scholarship and more.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
Reviews of the book
For the review in the profession journal The History Teacher, click here.
For more than 40 reviews on Amazon, click here.
For a review of the book in Arabic, click here.
There book as also been reviewed by bloggers, including:
The book was nominated as one of Bates College's summer reading selections for 2021. See this article.
Learn more about Derek's new book!
Buenos Aires and Cairo, London and Tokyo are known for being the epicenters of their nations, but what about Enugu, Jolo, Quetzaltenango, or Xinjing? Why did these once vibrant cultural, economic, and political centers fade from prominence? What does their experience tell us about ourselves, our past, and our world today?
In a fascinating book written to promote reflection and conversation, Derek Dwight Anderson charts the lessons of history as he investigates nine cities that most people don’t know. By shedding light on places that were of vital importance at some point in the past 250 years, Forgotten Capitals reveals surprising commonalities in the human experience. Nations may rise and fall, but humanity endures, thereby revealing important historical lessons for all of us to consider.
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