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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From the Back Cover
[back cover]
“Those Who Cannot Remember the Past Are Condemned to Repeat it.”
George Santayana
Mankind’s past is strewn with mistakes, colossal blunders driven by virtue as often as by vice. Encyclopedia Idiotica is a historian’s look at such monumental missteps, from Adam and the apple and Hannibal’s avalanche to the destruction of the Himalayan rain forest and the billions of dollars wasted on the Y2K scare.
Author Steven Weir’s eccentric and insightful chronicle introduces us to the people and reveals the motivations behind the most detrimental of dreadful decisions. Consider Churchill’s brash overconfidence in World War I’s Gallipoli campaign, which took the lives of over 100,000 soldiers and gained the Allied forces virtually nothing. Or Enron, once the world’s fastest growing energy company, which is estimated to have defrauded utilities—and by extension, their customers—out of $1.1 billion through an audacious combination of price manipulation and smoke-and-mirrors accounting.
We alternately despise and empathize with the ill-fated figures and organizations while their cautionary tales compel us to reflect on our own choices for better or for worse.Encyclopedia Idiotica is an engrossing and enlightening collection of the most disastrous histories, lest we forget.
“Those Who Cannot Remember the Past Are Condemned to Repeat it.”
George Santayana
Mankind’s past is strewn with mistakes, colossal blunders driven by virtue as often as by vice. Encyclopedia Idiotica is a historian’s look at such monumental missteps, from Adam and the apple and Hannibal’s avalanche to the destruction of the Himalayan rain forest and the billions of dollars wasted on the Y2K scare.
Author Steven Weir’s eccentric and insightful chronicle introduces us to the people and reveals the motivations behind the most detrimental of dreadful decisions. Consider Churchill’s brash overconfidence in World War I’s Gallipoli campaign, which took the lives of over 100,000 soldiers and gained the Allied forces virtually nothing. Or Enron, once the world’s fastest growing energy company, which is estimated to have defrauded utilities—and by extension, their customers—out of $1.1 billion through an audacious combination of price manipulation and smoke-and-mirrors accounting.
We alternately despise and empathize with the ill-fated figures and organizations while their cautionary tales compel us to reflect on our own choices for better or for worse.Encyclopedia Idiotica is an engrossing and enlightening collection of the most disastrous histories, lest we forget.
About the Author
Stephen Weir has worked on three continents as a book publisher and author, and writers he has worked with have included National Book Award winners. Among his past editorial positions was that of director of Northwestern University Press. He lives in New York.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Witty and DISinformative,
By Chukcha the Reviewer (Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Encyclopedia Idiotica: History's Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them (Hardcover)
If only things were that simple, as Stephen Weir suggests.I really liked Weir's style and the format of the book, and the compilation is really well picked. However, much of it fell apart after I researched some of the "facts" presented by Weir. The most egregious example is the origin of AIDS. A freelance journalist in 1990s came up with a "controversial" hypothese that AIDS was created because something went wrong with polio vaccination in 1950s. This theory has been discredited both by tracking the mutation history, which estimates that the first virii appeared between 1910 and 1930s with the accuracy of 95%, and by inspection of one of the original vials, where no signs of AIDS have been found. All this happened 5 years before the book was written, yet Weir dedicates a chapter to this as if it has been proven. These people, Mr. Weir, actually dedicated their lives to saving other people, how about at least double-checking the facts before presenting your misresearched verdict? Another misrepresentation is depicting Churchill as a blood-thirsty and ignorant fool. Weir quotes him saying, "I do not understand the squeamishness in using poison gas on uncivilized tribes", without explaining that it was a tragic mistake on his part. Some chapters are wholly based on urban legends or outdated myths: for example, that Moctezuma mistook Cortés for a deity. There are also small things like announcing that general Nasser **defeated** the invaders in 1955. Earth to Weir: although in this case the big picture was drawn correctly, the military action was nothing but a very swift defeat for Egypt. Of course, Nasser was presented as a winner in the Arab world, but then, they still consider Yom Kippur War a victory, because they were winning for the first couple of days... I have to admit, however, that Weir did a very good job covering the history of USSR, and especially the motives - which can be hard to figure out for a Westerner. A pity he didn't include Russia and, for example, the sale of Alaska. This book's biggest virtue is that it provokes interest to history. The biggest vice is that it is extremely unreliable.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Poorly researched, poorly written, poorly edited,
This review is from: Encyclopedia Idiotica: History's Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them (Hardcover)
I've read this book and found it to have many errors of fact. The basis of the humour depends on trust in the author that the historical accounts he describes are actually correct. Once you lose faith in the historical correctness of the book, as I did, it has nothing to offer, not even humour.The author and publisher should have provided references for all the events described - the credibility of the book depends on it! If this author had made the effort to find and document references for all the facts, it would have been a much more interesting, satisfying -- and funny -- read.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, light read,
By
This review is from: Encyclopedia Idiotica: History's Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them (Paperback)
I love a good history book and I've read a few.I quite enjoyed this one. Not as an introduction to things I didn't know about - I think there were only maybe 1 or 2 incidents in the whole book I didn't already know about, but as a piece of entertainment. What I enjoyed was the author's insight into the events and the tale he spun around them. This is light entertainment reading, not a scholarly discussion. It is meant to to get people interested in history and to ignite our curiosity, not educate us about the whats, where, and whys. Some of the reviewers of this book have criticised it's chocies. I don't think they 'get' this book. Weir's simplistic analysis and opinionated perspective are purposeful and I think they work well. This book is entertainment and if you want a primer for some more serious research. And who wouldn't want something called an Idiotica on their bookshelves? Pick it up, read it on your next holiday. You'll like it.
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