History's Worst Decisions: And the People who Made ThemAllen & Unwin, 2005 - 256 pàgines 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. |
Des de l'interior del llibre
Resultats 1 - 5 de 6.
Pàgina 15
... perhaps a little dull . It would have been scarcely more of a stretch to accept that Helen was the daughter of Zeus disguised as a swan than it is for us to accept Brad Pitt as Achilles . The saga of the abduction of Helen and the ...
... perhaps a little dull . It would have been scarcely more of a stretch to accept that Helen was the daughter of Zeus disguised as a swan than it is for us to accept Brad Pitt as Achilles . The saga of the abduction of Helen and the ...
Pàgina 16
... Perhaps because the war was fought for an idiotic reason and not out of the desire for conquest or trade , the sheer bravery of the combatants had a resonance for the ages that far outweighs more tawdry conflicts . It is indeed clear ...
... Perhaps because the war was fought for an idiotic reason and not out of the desire for conquest or trade , the sheer bravery of the combatants had a resonance for the ages that far outweighs more tawdry conflicts . It is indeed clear ...
Pàgina 17
... Perhaps they'd poi- soned the water too because it is rather hard to see anyone falling for the trick , but the Greeks inside the Horse certainly brought the war to a merciful end , torched the city , rescued Helen , and tried to get ...
... Perhaps they'd poi- soned the water too because it is rather hard to see anyone falling for the trick , but the Greeks inside the Horse certainly brought the war to a merciful end , torched the city , rescued Helen , and tried to get ...
Pàgina 24
... to fight his way out of Spain . He then proceeded to follow Hannibal's route , elephants and all , across the Alps . But perhaps because of his more cautious approach to life , he not only managed to get 24 HISTORY'S WORST.
... to fight his way out of Spain . He then proceeded to follow Hannibal's route , elephants and all , across the Alps . But perhaps because of his more cautious approach to life , he not only managed to get 24 HISTORY'S WORST.
Pàgina 29
... perhaps to persuade Caesar to change his mind , but the strategy was now fully worked out in Cleopatra's mind , and she wouldn't let the next one go so easily . She genuinely appears to have respected and cared for Caesar . The problem ...
... perhaps to persuade Caesar to change his mind , but the strategy was now fully worked out in Cleopatra's mind , and she wouldn't let the next one go so easily . She genuinely appears to have respected and cared for Caesar . The problem ...
Continguts
9 | |
10 | |
14 | |
20 | |
27 | |
32 | |
The First Real Estate Scam | 37 |
Pope Sylvester and the End of the World | 41 |
Disease in the Crimea | 73 |
Mutiny and Beef Fat | 78 |
Thomas Austins Rabbits | 83 |
General Custer and Little Big Horn | 88 |
King Leopold and the Scramble for Africa | 94 |
Nicholas Alexandra and the Mad Monk | 100 |
Ismays Lifeboats | 105 |
The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand | 110 |
Pope Alexander and the Search for Prester John | 45 |
George Podiebrad the Last Bohemian and World Peace | 49 |
Moctezuma and the Returning God | 55 |
The Worst Deal Ever Made | 60 |
Lord North and King George Ills Tea Party | 64 |
Napoleon the March to Russiaand Frankenstein | 68 |
Winston Churchill and the Disaster at Gallipoli | 116 |
Trench Warfare General Haig and the Battle of the Somme | 120 |
Maginots Line | 126 |
The Map of Iraq | 131 |
Stalin and the Great Purge | 136 |
Altres edicions - Mostra-ho tot
History's Worst Decisions and the People who Made Them Stephen Weir Previsualització no disponible - 2008 |
History's Worst Decisions and the People who Made Them Stephen Weir Previsualització no disponible - 2009 |
Frases i termes més freqüents
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