Chris Brazier Books

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 .

The Caine Prize for African Writing is Africa's leading literary prize. It has helped launch the careers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Segun Afolabi, Leila Aboulela, Brian Chikwava, Binyavanga Wainaina, and many others. The 2013 collection includes the five shortlisted stories and the stories written at the Caine Prize Writers' Workshop. This year the judging panel is chaired by art historian and broadcaster Dr Gus Casely-Hayford. He is joined by award-winning Nigerian-born artist, Sokari Douglas Camp; author, columnist and Lord Northcliffe Emeritus Professor at UCL, John Sutherland; Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, Professor Nathan Hensley and the winner of the Caine Prize in its inaugural year, Leila Aboulela. This is the first time that a past winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize will take part in the judging.

Twenty-three short stories give a world tour of fiction, from both established and up-and-coming authors.

Who was the first black queen? How much do you know about China’s history? Most people’s knowledge of world history is hazy and incomplete at best. This No-Nonsense Guide to World History gives a full picture, revealing the hidden histories and communities left out of conventional textbooks—from the civilizations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America to the history of women. It includes a final chapter on how climate change, 9/11, the Iraq war, corporate power, and China’s headlong growth fit into the broader patterns of world history.