Ask the Past Pertinent & Impertinent Advice from Yesteryear

Chock-full of advice that's stood the test of time, Ask the Past is the tongue-in-cheek compilation of hilarious and true answers to life's questions, drawn from actual antique sourcebooks by a historian and bibliophile.

Based on the popular blog, Ask the Past offers absolutely serious, yet now uproariously funny, advice culled by Yale University-trained historian Archibald from the rare books she's uncovered in her research. Whether it's 18th century tips for ridding your abode of bedbugs (sprinkle bed with gunpowder and let smolder) or a 16th-century guide on how to score (do not pass gas), Ask the Past is a wildly entertaining take on classic advice books, a post-millennial Miss Manners for the over-educated, over-read, and overly ironic.

Illustrated throughout, Ask the Past is the perfect gift full of tips, tricks, and curiosities that no one can resist.

Want to know how to garden with lobsters? How to sober up? Grow a beard? Or simply how to make a perfect omelet? Look no further. Rather, look backward.

Based on the popular blog, Ask the Past is full of the wisdom of the ages--as well as the fad diets, zany pickup lines, and bacon Band-Aids of the ages. Drawn from centuries of antique texts by historian and bibliophile Elizabeth P. Archibald, Ask the Past offers a delightful array of advice both wise and weird.

Whether it's eighteenth-century bedbug advice (sprinkle bed with gunpowder and let smolder), budget fashion tips of the Middle Ages (save on the clothes, splurge on the purse) or a sixteenth-century primer on seduction (hint: do no pass gas), Ask the Past is a wildly entertaining guide to life from the people who lived it first.

Yale-educated historian Elizabeth P. Archibald is an instructor at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins. Her research focuses on the history of education from antiquity to the Renaissance, as well as the history of books. She launched the blog Ask the Past in 2013.