A New APPROACH to world history

A New APPROACH to world historyA New APPROACH to world historyA New APPROACH to world history

A New APPROACH to world history

A New APPROACH to world historyA New APPROACH to world historyA New APPROACH to world history
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    • Fernández
    • Go-Mizunoo
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Improbable Voices

Improbable VoicesImprobable VoicesImprobable Voices

A History of the World  Since 1450 Seen From 26 Unusual Perspectives

Improbable Voices

Improbable VoicesImprobable VoicesImprobable Voices

A History of the World  Since 1450 Seen From 26 Unusual Perspectives

The book's purpose dovetails with national efforts to give voice to those who have been overlooked for too long.

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.

Purchase the book

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.

Interviews with Derek

NEWS

  1. There is a new review of the book; it's from The History Teacher and can be found here.
  2. Elizabeth Rynecki  (writer, film director, blog writer) recently profiled Derek here.
  3. Individual chapters are now being published to assist those looking for content in specific eras.  For more information, click the tab below:

Find out more

Contact Derek

Get in Touch!

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Author's Photograph of the Week

cultural revolution struggle session

This figurine comes from a  2023 exhibition at the Wende Museum in Culver City, California.  For more information, see this blog entry

A sample chapter

albuquerque sample chapter (docx)

Download

albuquerque sample chapter (pdf)

Download

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!

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Future Events

TBA ... Please check back!

Past Events

Book Discussion: January 15, 2022

The book club associated with the blog Inquiry From An Anti-Library invited Derek to join them in a discussion about Improbable Voices and all things history.  About 15 people attended the rich and rewarding discussion. Thanks to Eugene K for the invitation!

Washington DC History and Culture Talk 2, May 23, 2021

Washington DC History and Culture asked Derek to give a second presentation about Improbable Voices.  This time, Derek spoke about three important women in the book in a talk entitled, "Three Female Regents and their Improbable Rise to Power."  A recording of the event is available here.

Washington DC History and Culture Talk 1, April 17, 2021

Robert Kelleman, director and founder of WDCHC, invited Derek to give a book talk.  350 people heard Derek speak about how he found uncertainty and ambivalence in three of the book's figures to be useful windows for understanding the the complexity of the past.  A recording of the event is available here.

Larkspur Library Talk , February 26, 2021

Franklin Escobedo, the Director of the Larkspur Library in Larkspur, California, interviewed Derek as part of the library's local authors series.  You can watch the interview  here.

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:

Inquiry


The book was nominated as one of Bates College's summer reading selections for 2021.  See this article.

About this site

This site exists for educational purposes.  Visitors are welcome to use the material posted here for personal, nonprofit, educational purposes only.  Please credit this site and the author.  Visitors are not permitted to use the material commercially.    Many of the images on this site are the author's own and are identified as being by the author.  Other images are widely available on the web, or have allowed access under Creative Commons, or have an uncertain copyright status.  If the holder any copyrighted image objects to its being posted on this educational site, please contact me and I will remove it.

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