Short, quirky, page-turners about forgotten people or offbeat things that changed the world.

The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World (2002)
Alder, Ken

Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation (2005)
Bernstein, Peter

In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made (2001)
Cantor, Norman F.

The True History of Chocolate (1996)
Coe, Sophie D.

Mercator:The Man Who Mapped the Planet (2003)
Crane, Nicholas

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1998)
Diamond, Jared

Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America’s Greatest Medical Discovery (2001)
Fenster, Julie M.

Mavericks, Miracles and Medicine: The Pioneers Who Risked their Lives to Bring Medicine into the Modern Age (2003)
Fenster, Julie M.

Coal: A Human History (2003)
Freese, Barbara

Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization (2002)
Gately, Iain

Five Equations that Changed the World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics (1995)
Guillen, Michael

Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug (2004)
Jeffreys, Diarmuid

Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World (2004)
Kelly, Jack

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (1997)
Kurlansky, Mark

Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture (2000)
King, Ross

The Children’s Blizzard (2004)
Laskin, David

Measuring America: How an Untamed Wilderness Shaped the United States and Fulfilled the Promise of Democracy (2002)
Linklater, Andro

Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History (1999)
Milton, Giles

Tea: Addiction, Exploitation, and Empire (2003)
Moxham, Roy

The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance (1990)
Petroski, Henry

Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy (2002)
Preston, Diana

Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World’s Most Popular Flavor and Fragrance (2004)
Rain, Patricia

The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America (2004)
Shorto, Russell

Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (1999)
Sobel, Dava

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (1995)
Sobel, Dava

Vermeer’s Camera: Uncovering the Truth Behind the Masterpieces (2001)
Steadman, Philip

Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants (2004)
Sullivan, Robert

The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiousity Changed the World (2002)
Uglow, Jenny

Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (2004)
Webb, James

Coffee: A Dark History (2005)
Wild, Antony

The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology (2001)
Winchester, Simon

Big Cotton: How a Humble Fiber Created Fortunes, Wrecked Civilizations, and Put America on the Map (2005)
Yafa, Stephen

Prepared by the staff of the Nashville Public Library with credit to Saint Paul Public Library.