Here are fifty concise, entertaining histories on a broad, eclectic range of ideas (borders, feminism), global issues (migration, world trade), commodities (bananas, jeans), regions (Africa, Ireland), and institutions (corporations, the World Bank). Lucid and irreverent, _Brief Histories of Almost Anything_ challenges common perceptions associated with the subjects by going behind the facts. Each history has been selected from the _New Internationalist_ magazine, a leading authority on alternative history and “Best International Coverage” winner in the _Utne Reader_ Independent Press Awards. Edited by CHRIS BRAZIER, author of the best-selling _No-Nonsense Guide to World History_.