{"id":44737,"date":"2025-08-31T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=44737"},"modified":"2025-08-28T10:51:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T17:51:57","slug":"retro-recomendo-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/retro-recomendo-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Retro Recomendo: History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started nine years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we\u2019re trying out something new \u2014 Retro Recomendo<\/strong>. Once every 6 weeks, we\u2019ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 9 years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chart of world history<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For 50 years this chart has been hanging on my wall. The Histomap of History<\/a> is a 5-foot long diagram that visually displays the relative power of ancient nations over the last 4,000 years in 50-year increments. At one glance, this colorful chart gives you the gist of world history. Since it was made in 1950, some of the historical details may be considered old-fashioned now, but this is the chart I use to get a rough idea of our past. Visitors to my studio will usually remark on its ingenious design. Long out of print, you can get a reproduction of a vintage copy for $48. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musical history of rock<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This fantastic podcast, A History of Rock in 500 Songs<\/a>, does what it says: it traces the history of rock music in 500 songs. Start with the first episode, which looks at 1939\u2019s \u201cFlying Home\u201d by the Benny Goodman Sextet. The most recent episode, numbered 152, is about 1967\u2019s \u201cFor What It\u2019s Worth\u201d by Buffalo Springfield. New episodes come out about once every two weeks. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A timeline of food<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I became fascinated with the history of food after experiencing the Last Supper in Pompeii<\/a> exhibit, where I saw ancient cookware, wine vessels, and preserved foods up close. This food timeline<\/a> is equally fascinating. Created by a Food History Librarian in 1999, it begins with water and ice and includes transcriptions of ancient recipes. She continues to update it today. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oblique history<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Youtube history is my latest obsession. There\u2019s now a ton of very good history YT channels that tackle history in oblique and idiosyncratic ways. One of my favorite streams is ToldInStone<\/a>. They tackle the kind of questions I\u2019ve always had, but couldn\u2019t find in books or other programs. Like: how fast was Rome mail? How did the ancients prove their identity? What were their kitchens and bathrooms like? Much further in the past, North02<\/a> tackles prehistory. What were humans like 1 million years ago, what kind of life in the Sahara when it was tropically green? And so many more! \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World history map<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

TimeMap.org<\/a> presents a world mapwith a slider bar that starts at 4000 BC and ends at the present day. As you slide through time, you watch empires rise and fall. Any interesting civilization or event you spot can be instantly researched \u2014 just click on it and the relevant Wikipedia article appears in a side panel. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explore the Tree of Life<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OneZoom<\/a> is an interactive tree of life that lets you zoom in and out to explore connections among 2.2 million living species. It\u2019s a lot to take in, but also fun to explore. I felt small\u2014and grateful\u2014realizing what a tiny branch of life we humans occupy. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recomendo – issue #477<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2323],"tags":[2324],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44738,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44737\/revisions\/44738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}