Read this over the Thanksgiving break

I've just posted, on the list of links to the right, a pdf of the first chapter ("How the Fork Got Its Tines") from a book called The Evolution of Useful Things. The chapter is about how forks came to be designed the way they are, and about the cultural influences on and ramifications of their design. You can consider this a model for the kind of historical description and analysis I expect you to do in your papers. Please read it this weekend and we'll discuss it next Monday.