A Complete History of Exactly One Thing

So, a little while back, my fiancee and I started noticing a publishing trendlet in history books. Some authors were taking single, narrow subjects, and using them to tell whole histories. The high-concept certainly isn't new (Daniel Yergin wrote The Prize -- an excellent history of oil -- back in 1993). And some titles sounded intriguing. (Opium, anyone?) But suddenly, the center table at Barnes & Noble seemed filled with titles like Salt, Cod, and Brick.

Turns out, we weren't the only ones to notice.


Garth Ennis, ladies and gentlemen. Not exactly a surgical strike, but you know when he's hit you.