History's Worst Decisions: And the People who Made ThemAllen & Unwin, 2005 - 256 páginas The 64 A.D. burning of Rome during the reign of Nero ... Winston Churchill's ill-conceived and disastrous World War I plan to invade Turkey at Gallipoli ... the Maginot Line, built in France in 1929-34 in a foolhardy effort to prevent the feared German invasion ... the 1950s thalidomide pharmaceutical disaster that resulted in at least 20,000 babies born with deformities ... the 1989-91 misappropriation of company funds by publishing executive Robert Maxwell, and the collapse of his financial empire ... the Enron scandal of 2000 that brought down a yet larger business empire. Chronicled in these pages are stories of corporate chicanery, poor military decisions, engineering disasters, diplomatic blunders, and other appalling, large-scale mistakes that resulted in ruin and misery for countless innocent bystanders. Here are baleful tales motivated by false hope, anger, greed, pride, lust, and many other instances of erratic human behavior. A selection of approximately 50 disastrous decisions are presented, each grim account summarized in a report of roughly a half-dozen pages and enhanced with sidebars and thumbnail-sized cartoon-style illustrations. Each account opens with its cast of characters, then sets the story's background before reporting the grim details and concluding with the unhappy moral. Here is a page-turner of a book that recounts some of history's most dramatic-but also catastrophic-moments. |
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Página 15
... trade . But there is plenty of evidence that the Greeks didn't even know where it was , they were just following Helen's trail . And they certainly didn't gain much by hanging about for ten years and burning the place to the ground ...
... trade . But there is plenty of evidence that the Greeks didn't even know where it was , they were just following Helen's trail . And they certainly didn't gain much by hanging about for ten years and burning the place to the ground ...
Página 16
... trade , the sheer bravery of the combatants had a resonance for the ages that far outweighs more tawdry conflicts . It is indeed clear that the young nobleman Paris took Helen , the beau- tiful wife of Menelaus , away with him . His ...
... trade , the sheer bravery of the combatants had a resonance for the ages that far outweighs more tawdry conflicts . It is indeed clear that the young nobleman Paris took Helen , the beau- tiful wife of Menelaus , away with him . His ...
Página 21
... trading and seafaring nation , the Romans had figured out how to take on the Carthaginians at sea and had thrown them out of their island provinces of Sicily , Corsica , and Sardinia . At age 10 , with this first Punic War not four ...
... trading and seafaring nation , the Romans had figured out how to take on the Carthaginians at sea and had thrown them out of their island provinces of Sicily , Corsica , and Sardinia . At age 10 , with this first Punic War not four ...
Índice
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10 | |
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27 | |
32 | |
The First Real Estate Scam | 37 |
Pope Sylvester and the End of the World | 41 |
Disease in the Crimea | 73 |
Mutiny and Beef Fat | 78 |
Thomas Austins Rabbits | 83 |
General Custer and Little Big Horn | 88 |
King Leopold and the Scramble for Africa | 94 |
Nicholas Alexandra and the Mad Monk | 100 |
Ismays Lifeboats | 105 |
The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand | 110 |
Pope Alexander and the Search for Prester John | 45 |
George Podiebrad the Last Bohemian and World Peace | 49 |
Moctezuma and the Returning God | 55 |
The Worst Deal Ever Made | 60 |
Lord North and King George Ills Tea Party | 64 |
Napoleon the March to Russiaand Frankenstein | 68 |
Winston Churchill and the Disaster at Gallipoli | 116 |
Trench Warfare General Haig and the Battle of the Somme | 120 |
Maginots Line | 126 |
The Map of Iraq | 131 |
Stalin and the Great Purge | 136 |
Outras edições - Ver tudo
History's Worst Decisions and the People who Made Them Stephen Weir Pré-visualização indisponível - 2008 |
History's Worst Decisions and the People who Made Them Stephen Weir Pré-visualização indisponível - 2009 |
Palavras e frases frequentes
Afghanistan Africa Agent Orange American anger charity envy appear army Australian battle became British caused century charity envy faith Churchill Cleopatra colonial Custer Damage death DECISIONS died disaster drug Dutch East emperor Enron envy faith gluttony Erik the Red Europe faith gluttony greed famine fight forces Franz Ferdinand French George George Podiebrad Gerald Ratner German gluttony greed hope greed hope lust Haig Hannibal Hannibal's hope lust pride idiocy India Iran island Japanese killed king Lakota land later lifeboats lust pride sloth Maginot Line Maxwell Menelaus million Moctezuma Mossadegh MOTIVATION anger charity Napoleon nations Nauru Nero nuclear Ottoman Empire percent perhaps Podiebrad political pope population Prester John pride sloth Main rabbit Rasputin Ratner region Robert Maxwell Roman Rome Russian Shenton Thomas ship Singapore sloth Main Culprit Soviet Suhrawardy thalidomide took troops tsunami Vitebsk