One of the pens behind the press
Alden Rooke
History · Narrative world history · A century told from the street
Alden writes history at pavement level: what a decade cost at the market, who queued for what, which rumour travelled faster than the news. Treaties do turn up in his chapters, usually a few pages after the price of bread. He believes a century is best understood through the people who had to live in it without knowing how it ended. Keeps a long list of footnotes he cannot use and will not throw away.
5 books in print · 6 journal pieces
Books by Alden Rooke
America VS Enemies
A History of War, Strategy, and Shifting Alliances
Midterm America
How Congressional Elections Work, Who Won, and the Races That Changed History
Seven Enemy Ships
The Real World Behind Homer's Heroes, 1250 to 1150 BC
Scratched on the Walls
Pompeii's Last Century, Told from the Street
Who Paid for the War
The Second World War Nation by Nation
Alden Rooke in the journal
- When dinner was the meal in the middle of the day
- The queue is younger than you think, and other notes from the back of the line
- The rumour always arrived first, and usually got it wrong
- Six prices worth more than a treaty
- History happened to people who did not know how it ended
- Interest rates went up last week, as they have gone up before