THE NEXT BIG THING is the new way of documenting history. What new inventions made a splash and changed life? The book takes us through 3000 years of culture to find what was hyped up throughout time and the impact it has today.

Each chapter starts off with a quote, time of origin, place of origin, hype factor and impact factor. Scattered throughout the book are illustrations, sidebars and trivia. Author Richard Faulk writes intelligently and at times with self-deprecating humor, effectively helping his readers look at the world from the lens of the next big thing. His choice of hyped moments range from tangible inventions to mindsets that shaped the modern world. It's fascinating, to say the least, to find out what people were obsessed with in their time and whether or not it was worth the hype.

"Much of what [author Faulk] talks about has a direct impact on my generation, such as the emergence of teenage culture, the birth of rock and roll, the great masculine renunciation and obviously, the iPhone."

From the idea of "irony" to the birth control pill, Faulk's lens of what shaped history is drastically different than what you would find in a textbook. Much of what he talks about has a direct impact on my generation, such as the emergence of teenage culture, the birth of rock and roll, the great masculine renunciation and obviously, the iPhone. It’s very much a “The More You Know” book where readers can easily skip around to different chapters that interest them and share tidbits of delicious facts with their friends.

Faulk’s THE NEXT BIG THING is revolutionary in the examination of history, putting it in terms teenagers can easily understand. It’s all about the buzz and the newest fads that we obsess over, but it also shows that some ripples are smaller than others. This fascinating read will no doubt provide historical context for what is happening in the modern world today.