To be honest, this reads like something from The Onion. I knew nothing about it; there's so much grand "history" to study that simple mundane things aren't disc

To be honest, this reads like something from The Onion. I knew nothing about it; there's so much grand "history" to study that simple mundane things aren't discussed. It's astonishing to me just how much progress mankind has made in a (relatively speaking) blink of an eye. E.g. less than 100 years ago Gandhi battled against "the British salt monopoly". And not much more than 100 years ago even soap was a luxury good. We've gone from that to jumbo jets and iPhones.