Customer Reviews

Pessimist's Guide to History: An Irrestistible Guide to Compendium of Catastrophies, Babarities, Massacres and Mayhe

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I enjoyed reading this book a lot, but when I finished it, I realized there were some things I would have liked it to discuss. This book focuses mostly on the disasters of the modern centuries. That's fine, for some people, I guess, but I tend to be more interested in stuff that took place before the middle ages. This book also made a good attempt to be eurocentric, and it did cover some interesting events from other parts of the world, but I got bored hearing about every time Mount Vesuvius erupted.

REALLY, if they come knocking and telling you how the world is going to end this second (or maybe next week) and their proof is how bad times are and how many things are going wrong... well you can whip this little book out and show them just how horrible life has been all along! A little perspective! But wait... you started a dialogue with them .. and they'll be back.. again, and again, and again... oh no!

The book was well written and somewhat humorous. The short write-ups of each disaster makes it an easy book to pick-up and put-down on a frequent basis. The events are in chronological order which makes it easy to find your favorite clamity.

In all seriousness, it is interesting how the world and history has forgotten so many disasters (both natural and man-made) that have occured throughout history... Spurs the mind to look up more about some of the events that are touched on in the book...

The book was easy reading because it gave short, concise, interesting synopses of world history. The book included both man-made and natural disasters from the big bamg to 3-mile island. A must for all history teachers and anyone who likes to read about history. The book is easy reading and you can get through it in a day.

"The Pessimist's Guide" to History by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner is a non-fiction collection of different points in history reviewed from a pessimist's point of view. The events go by year date and describe small or major catastrophes in history and normally have an entertaining comment at the end of each description. For example the author suggests the Russians eat cake during the starvation of 1921 in Russia. I enjoyed this book because you never get bored of the same old story line like some non-fiction books because it only goes by date. It will swap from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown in Russia to a killer gas cloud in the African nation of Cameroon. The comical comments also play a part in my enjoyment as the authors enjoy making fun of the Soviets and less than phenomenal cover-ups. I would recommend this book to people who want to try another kind of book and just want something simple to read without having to get into a large storyline of a novel. And just a little heads up, you don't have do be a pessimist to read this book.