The Handy History Answer Book (The Handy Answer Book Series)

A Walk through the Ages

Our country and the world is changing fast, and a knowledge of history helps us understand the hows, whats, and whys of modern civilization. Fully revised and updated, this new edition of The Handy History Answer Book answers over 1,000 how-what-why questions. A concise guide to all things historical, this feast of facts and compelling stories recounts the revolutionary ideas, acts, and inventions that have changed the world from the Stone Age through the 21st century.

The Handy History Answer Book follows the Celts, Vikings, Normans, Huns, and other ancient tribes, surveys early civilizations, including Greek, Chinese, Roman, Mayan, and Egyptian, exhumes the British Empire, tracks the expansion of the United States, and examines the lights, action, cameras and fast-paced swirl of modern life. Politics and war, exploration and settlement, science, religion, arts, technological advances, and more, this book chronicles the big news whenever and wherever it has been made. What was trial by ordeal? When was the flush toilet invented? Who started the Boston Tea Party? What is Gray’s Anatomy? How old is the U.S. income tax? When did mobile phones first come into use?