From Nostalgia to History

Other periods of profound technological and political change have been accompanied by a mania for the past. The Victorians, as their society was transformed by the industrial revolution, became obsessed with dinosaurs, ancient Egypt and classical civilization. Amid the social revolutions of the era after World War II, Hollywood’s biggest... See more

Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson is one of Substack’s most successful authors, with 1.8 million subscribers — and social media. TikTok’s year-long interest in the Roman Empire, and how often men claim to think about it, has been the subject of more than 85 million videos.

In 2023, people in the UK and Ireland spent more on history books than at any point since Nielsen BookData’s records began in 1998. Ancient history sales rose 67% from 2013 to 2023, while books focusing on “specific subjects” — individual stories of lives, events or movements — climbed 70% over the same period. In the US, where the overall book... See more