The Pessimist's Guide to History
by Doris Flexner (Joint Author.)
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Description
The classic irreverent look at the past--now updated with even more appalling facts! Fourteen billion or so years ago, the Big Bang exploded--and it's been downhill from there. For every spectacular discovery throughout history, there have been hundreds of devastating epidemics; for every benevolent despot, a thousand like Vlad the Impaler; for every cup half-full, a larger cup half-empty. This enthralling, enlightening, and devilishly entertaining chronicle of disasters and dastardly deeds show more brings to light the darkest events in history and the most abysmal calamities to strike the planet . . . so far. 88 BC: Mithridates VI Eupator provides an early example of genocide by massacring 100,000 Romans. 1347: Saint Vitus' Dance Epidemic shimmies across Europe like a deadly disco fever, leaving its victims twitching, uncontrollably leaping, and foaming at the mouth. 1888: Jack the Ripper stalks through the dark alleys of Whitechapel, England, turning the world's oldest profession into the world's most dangerous one. 1939: A Swiss chemist wins a Nobel Prize for developing DDT--and the environment gets another nail in the coffin. 2005: Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast. In a classic double whammy, the government response also devastates the Gulf Coast. And much, much more! show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Great bathroom book! I wish some of the entries had more detail... but they're a good starting point for looking stuff up online.
Brief sections on historical disasters. Depressing to read straight through for any length of time. I ended up skimming through and picking sections of interest to me to read.
Short, descriptive guide to various calamities from prehistoric times to the present. Light and amusing, but more of a reference for a serious student of the topic, hampered by a lack of bibliography
Sucked! Many facts were simply made up. Since when are bible stories counted as actual history? I had to put it down before I ran into some Grimm's Fairy-tales and threw it across the room.
Review to follow.
Review to follow.
Review to follow.
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Author Information
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Pessimist's Guide to History
- Original publication date
- 1992
- Blurbers
- Davis, Kenneth C.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 464
- Popularity
- 65,388
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (3.42)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 1
