Customer Reviews

What Were They Thinking?, New and Revised: Really Bad Ideas Throughout History (Humor)

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Bruce Felton's WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? was first published in 2003. It offered 274 pages of stories on 'Really Bad Ideas Throughout History.' This 2007 revision, which adds a few new tales and drops others, tops off at 291 pages.

Felton's material is divided into chapters entitled 'Bad Ideas in American Politics and Government,' 'Bad Ideas in War and Peace,' 'Bonehead Plays in the Field of Sports,' etc. The subject of Felton's tales range from serious (Seward's Folly) to oddball (artist Rudy Giacomo's plans to build a 39-mile manicotti around New York City) to trivial (bad ideas for movies). Each chapter has been revised with two-three tales dropped and as many as five new entries added. Entries range from two paragraphs to two pages long in length.

Maybe I've just read too many of this sort of book but I got a sense of 'deja vu all over again' in reading through Felton's. A number of stories - such as Ethiopia's electric chair saga - may ring a bell with you as well.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? sells for $14.95. If you're a serious trivia buff, I suspect you'll want to scoop this up. All things considered however, I don't feel it's a necessary purchase.