The Other Side of History
- Author
- Robert Garland
- Published
- 2012
- Recommended
- Once
Why it’s on the list: Garland’s Great Courses series on what ordinary life was like in the ancient world — what you ate, what you owned, what killed you — deliberately told from the position of the people who left no records. History from the bottom, for a period that mostly documented its top.
No page_count: this is a lecture course (Great Courses / The Learning Company), not a conventional book. The accompanying guidebook is the only printed form.
Where I saw it: In the reply thread to @typesfast’s question, “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” (June 5, 2025) — a crowd-sourced list Kyle recovered by hand and saved to his Apple Note “Books To Read”; the full set of replies lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet). It was listed there as “The Other Side of History — Robert Garland”.
Connections
- Rome — a large share of the material.
- People Over Politics — the course’s whole premise.
- History
- What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.