Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia Idiotica: History's Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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Some chapters are wholly based on urban legends or outdated myths: for example, that Moctezuma mistook Cortés for a deity.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.

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.

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.

On page 110 the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 25, 1914. On page 113 he was assassinated on June 18, 1914. All other history books give the date as June 28, 1914 and cite this as the beginning of World War I.

The entertaining style makes it worth 2 stars as long as you take it with a hefty dose of salt.

This book is an amusing rendition of various acts of idiocy through history. Stephen Weir begins with Adam and Eve, who he regards as the original idiots, and finishes with the Boxing Day tsunami and the complete absence of warning of the impending catastrophe. In between, the reader is given a synopsis of, amongst other events, the burning of Rome, the Boston tea party, Gallipoli, the Great Leap Forward and Jonestown. This is truly an eclectic list!

It should be stressed that at no time does this book dig deep. All the various events covered are glossed over in a few pages. It is history at its most brief. Perhaps this is fine for the internet generation. I found it somewhat annoying. Analysis is disregarded in favour of the minimum of basic details. Yet, when covering such a great swathe of events, it is probably inevitable.

As a holiday type read, the book is fine. As anything deeper, it fails.

This book provides a concise and entertaining look at some of the most idiotic decisions throughout (mostly Western) history. Whether you agree with the author's choices or not, he has written an easy to read book that is both funny and informative. He had tried to put each of the decision into their historical context with a brief background to the decisions made; finding that in many cases it 'seemed like a good idea at the time'.

The only downside to it is that there are a number of historical inaccuracies in the detail. This is unfortunate, as better editing would have picked these anomolies up, even by a layman.

Overall though, well worth the read.

Avoid buying this book if you are looking for factual information. I'm very familar with one of the events in one of the chapers (Ch 46, p232) and there are fundamental flaws. The author mixes several failures together and presents them as a single error. The acronym for the satellite mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, and its purpose is wrong. It even stated that NASA lost contact with the Mars rovers, "Spirit" and "Opporunity" which is not correct as NASA still collect data to this day.

Basic internet research would have confirmed the basic facts.

The author presents a wide ranging array of "idiots" from Menelaus to Churchill to others less well known. Each "idiot" or idiotic incident is giving a few pages, and cleverly categorized by which sin or virtue is appropriate. Even though I read many history works on European history, I still learned a few things. It's a bit breezy for a serious approach, but that's not the author's intent. It might work well as a supplemental work in a lower level course, especially in adding one's own idiot's, debating his choices and coverage of it.

Overall, a fun book! Historically accurate as far as I could tell, but I did disagree with some of his choices, and would have added others (Nixon just begs for this) - but it simply shows his perspective, and he obviously wanted to cover at least a few lesser known lessons from history, and to his credit, doesn't catalog the common golems of the left or right.

A wonderful bedtime reading book!

The best aspect of this book is its dry wit, and entertaining and informative perspective on history. The 50 vignettes in this book each describe one of history's most dangerously boneheaded moments.

Teachers of history, debate coaches, and many others should take note: you could well assign these as topics. Whether or not you agree with Mr. Weir, these morsels should kick-start some truly entertaining and thought-provoking discussions. And what an encouragement to further reading and research!

Big mistakes of the past come to life under author Stephen Weir's close inspection in the scholarly yet lively ENCYCLOPEDIA IDIOTICA: HISTORY'S WORST DECISIONS AND THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THEM. Here are exposes of mad monks, desperate Indian encounters of the faulty kind, Maginot's famous line, the Bhopal chemical disaster when cost-cutting led to death, and more; from original idiots Adam and Eve right into modern times. Expect a lively tone which lends to easy reading, and a fine survey of arguments on historical fact and effect which often are charted right into modern times.