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.
Libraries with copies of improbable voices
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Arizona State University
Baltimore County Public (MD)
Bates College
Boston University
College of Marin
Dayton Public (OH)
Georgetown University
Hamilton College
Harvard University
Hennepin Public (MN)
Horace Mann School
Lafayette College
Larkspur Public
Marin Academy
Ocean State Public (RI)
Rice University
Sausalito Public
Stanford University
Thacher School
Tufts University
Washington U-St. Louis
University of California-Berkeley
University of California-Davis
University of Michigan
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
University of New Mexico
University of Wyoming
Vassar College
Westminster Schools
William Penn University
Author's Photograph of the Week
Last week, my students were learning a bit about Gothic architecture in Europe, and I told them about the story of the Wells Cathedral: a jealous archbishop ordered the construction of tower on his cathedral that would rival the great one at nearby Salisbury; but as construction continued, the church's apse began to sink; stonemasons had to quickly come up wth a solution to save the entire cathedral from collapse. There solution was to build great "scissor arches" on three sides of the Crossing. This helped to restore the church's balance and saved the cathedral from ruin. Derek Anderson photograph, July 2009.
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 more than 30 reviews on Amazon, click here.
For a review of the book in Arabic, click here.
The book was nominated as one of Bates College's summer reading selections for 2021. See this article.
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