The Pessimist's Guide to History 3e: An Irresistible Compendium of Catastrophes, Barbarities, Massacres, and Mayhem—from 14 Billion Years Ago to 2007

by Doris Flexner, Stuart Berg Flexner

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 brings to light the darkest events in history and the most abysmal calamities to strike the planet . . . so far. 88 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!

512 pages, Paperback

Published May 27, 2008

Reviews

[Amber Terry · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's over. It's FINALLY over. It felt like it took me 15 years to finish this. It was like rapidly aging as you wade through a giant pool of quicksand, getting nowhere. It was boring and extremely repetitive. Why do we need 500 entries about earthquakes or volcanic eruptions? It's literally the same thing over and over and over again, just in different time periods. The whole book felt like that with very few exceptions. And then we've got the assinine, stupid little jokey quips at the end of nearly every entry. I cannot express how much I HATED this. I get gallows humor, but this s**t was in such poor taste. Example: "The play bombed." in response to an entry about a theater fire that was possibly caused by a bomb or the one about roasted lamb in response to Australian wildfires. Those are just a few I can remember, but they were all equally stupid and obnoxious. I'm glad this is over...I forced myself to finish it and completely regret it.

[Paul Doughty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, and providing perspective on how actually decent the normal day is. Extreme example, a day in 2005 when a 7.6 magnitude struck northern Pakistan, killing 25,000 people. Then the rain, hail, and landslides came. Truly one of Mother Nature’s best efforts from below and above.