Most dog lovers know Fido and Laika, but how about Martha, Paul McCartney’s Old English Sheepdog? Or Peritas, Alexander the Great’s trusted canine companion? As long as there have been humans, those humans have had beloved companions—their dogs. From the ancient Egyptians mummifying their pups, to the Indian legend of the king who refused to enter the afterlife unless his dog was allowed there too, to the modern meme and popularity of terms like the corgi sploot, humans are undeniably obsessed with their dogs.

Told in short, illustrated essays that are interspersed with both historical and canine factoids, The History of the World in Fifty Dogs brings to life some of history’s most memorable moments through the stories of the dogs that saw them happen.

For our first selection of Book Club 2026, we chose a short, happy nonfiction. It’s my seventh time reading it, I think, and it’s still a delight!

My friend was fascinated by the history that was erased in our classes. Not just those from marginalized POVs, but through our furry friends who have been with us forever.

Some had big impacts on human history like Sir Isaac Newton’s big pom, Diamond, who set the theory of gravity aflame, and Freud’s pet chow inspiring the use of therapeutic animals. Some had smaller impacts like Martha, the Beatles’ fifth member, or nonexistent impact like the Nazis attempt to make telepathic dog army (we theorize this was when Hitler was one of his mercury-induced ideas).

Set in her conversational tone, Lee’s style keeps you engaged and my friend especially loved her humorous chapter titles like My Bark Will Go On, We Want Brandy, and Game of Bones among others. Not that it’s all light, the anti-vivisection and animal experiment chapters were cruel and sad.

Yeah, there’s not much you can fault in a fun, informational book like this, setting history’s big events and their furry contexts. Or vice versa. My only quibble is that one or two chapters feel only dog-adjacent rather than dog-centered. Ie, the event could have happened with or without a dog’s presence, but that’s a minor nitpick when you have such underrated historical gems like Napoleon’s pug curse and the Order of the Pug.