{"title":"Books by Tom Standage","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781788168960","title":"Truly Peculiar","description":"\u003cp\u003eOur extraordinary world makes more (and sometimes less) sense when you wonder:What's driving the international turkey-meat boom? How does a cannonball determine a maritime boundary? Where can you wed your mobile phone? Why do septuagenarians have a better chance of summiting Mount Everest than ever?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe ever-keen minds of The Economist Explains solve all these riddles and more in their latest encyclopaedic excursion around the globe. Baffle your friends and colleagues with unconventional headscratchers that shed surprising light on science, culture, world affairs and more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the underground trade in hair to Hollywood's role in the creation of the snow globe, Truly Peculiar takes a walk on the weird side.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205524258994,"sku":"9781788168960","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781788168960_f1372d1d-9b34-4080-a0fa-218a3cf298ba.jpg?v=1786027269"},{"product_id":"9781526608307","title":"A Brief History of Motion","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Speckled with anecdotes, insights and surprises. It is great fun - and utterly timely' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Standage writes with a masterly clarity' \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The product of deep research, great intelligence and burnished prose . . . It is rare that I encounter a non-fiction author whose prose is so elegant that it is worth reading for itself. Standage is a writer of this class' \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeginning around 3,500 BC with the wheel, and moving through the eras of horsepower, trains and bicycles, Tom Standage puts the rise of the car – and the future of urban transport – into a broader historical context.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur society has been shaped by the car in innumerable ways, many of which are so familiar that we no longer notice them. Why does red mean stop and green mean go? Why do some countries drive on the left, and some on the right? How did cars, introduced only a little over a century ago, change the way the world was administered, laid out and policed, along with experiences like eating and shopping? And what might travel in a post-car world look like?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs social transformations from ride-sharing to the global pandemic force us to critically re-examine our relationship with personal transportation, \u003ci\u003eA Brief History of Motion \u003c\/i\u003eis an essential contribution to our understanding of how the modern world came to be.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303227863413,"sku":"9781526608307","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781526608307_06bcdb40-77ed-4c80-ac83-b14bfecee39f.jpg?v=1786022562"},{"product_id":"9781788163323","title":"Uncommon Knowledge","description":"The world can be an amazing place if you know the right questions to ask:How did carrots become orange? What's stopping us from having a four-day week? How can we remove all the broken bits of satellite from orbit? If everything is so terrible, why is the global suicide rate falling?The keen minds of the Economist love to look beyond everyday appearances to find out what really makes things tick. In this latest collection of The Economist Explains, they have gathered together the juiciest fruits of their never-ending quest for answers. For an uncommonly interesting read, take a peek at some Uncommon Knowledge - and pass it on! The world only gets more amazing when discoveries are shared.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305849303413,"sku":"9781788163323","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781788163323_2b1a1cb3-96c7-4737-ad1c-8301ec1c6657.jpg?v=1786027000"},{"product_id":"9781800812093","title":"Oddly Informative","description":"The more we ponder, the odder the world can seem. How do footballers get their shirt numbers? Why does having daughters make couples more likely to divorce? How do you move a horse from one country to another? What counts as a journey into space? The keen minds at The Economist contemplate all these questions and more in their quest for the globe's most extraordinary quandaries and conundrums, with bizarre facts and headscratchers that show the world is even stranger than we might have thought. From plant-based milk and supermoons to the next Dalai Lama and what really happened at the storming of the Bastille, this collection of the oddest and most mindboggling explanations will amaze and delight in equal measure.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56306643698037,"sku":"9781800812093","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781800812093_e7daafb5-a571-4366-a305-56ae4271c44b.jpg?v=1786027173"},{"product_id":"9781805223795","title":"The Economist Quiz Book","description":"Calling all problem-solvers drawn to the smart, quirky and counter-intuitive.Challenge yourself to join the dots, get your facts straight and sort the genuine from the fake in this puzzle book inspired by the sharpest brains at The Economist. Do stocks with catchy names outperform the market? Is Bohemian Rhapsody really longer than Hey Jude? And can geopolitics affect the popularity of dog breeds? Packed with hidden connections and mind-bending facts, The Economist Quiz Book is guaranteed to stretch your mind to its very limits.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307231228277,"sku":"9781805223795","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781805223795_35b7003f-2750-431b-b167-ffb5b4ee65e2.jpg?v=1786028109"},{"product_id":"9781788161367","title":"Seriously Curious","description":"Some questions you never think to ask. Others, you didn't know you didn't know. And some facts are so surprising they cry out for answers.  What can a president actually do? Why do cities sink into the ground? Why is Australia seemingly invulnerable to recessions? Why do people in couples do more housework than singletons?The brilliant minds of the Economist collect these questions. Individually, they might seem bite-sized and inconsequential, but taken together they can reveal a whole new world.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312893440373,"sku":"9781788161367","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781788161367_889a98ff-250e-4759-b17f-024b25ec7801.jpg?v=1786026926"},{"product_id":"the-victorian-internet","title":"The Victorian Internet","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe history of the telegraph - the men and women who made it - and its relevance to the current Internet debate\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeginning with the Abbe Nollet's famous experiment of 1746, when he successfully demonstrated that electricity could pass from one end to the other of a chain of two hundred monks, Tom Standage tells the story of the spread of the telegraph and its transformation of the Victorian world. The telegraph was greeted by all the same concerns, hype, social panic and excitement that now surround the Internet, and Standage provides both a fascinating insight into the past and a context in which to think rather differently of today's concerns.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStandage has a wonderful prose style and an excellent eye for the telling and engaging story. Popular history at its best.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481574482293,"sku":"9780753807033","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780753807033.jpg?v=1786089848"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-tom-standage.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}