History has never been more fun than it is in this fact-filled compendium of historical fiascoes and embarrassingly bad ideas. Throughout history, the rich and powerful, and even just the dim-witted, have made horrifically bad decisions that have had resounding effects on our world. From kings to corporate leaders, from captains to presidents, no one is immune to bad decisions and their lasting legacy. The fiascoes that litter our history are innumerable . . . and fascinating in their foolishness. This witty collection of historical mayhem chronicles unwise decisions from ancient Greece to modern-day Hollywood and everything in between. Learn such lessons as: <ul>
<li>Never trust Greeks bearing gifts of large wooden horses.</li> <li>Avoid building elementary schools on toxic waste dumps, even those with sweet monikers like Love Canal.</li> <li>Rabbits multiply like rabbits Down Under.</li> <li>Even if you use brightly colored paint on the boats, it's quite easy to misplace an entire country's navy.</li> </ul>
With more than forty-five chapters of mind-boggling flubs and follies, fans of history, trivia, and those who just want a good laugh will adore this intriguing and fun read.

You Did What?: Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters

Fawcett, Bill

Reference

William Morrow Paperbacks

A remarkable compendium of the worst military decisions and the men who made them
The annals of history are littered with horribly bad military leaders. These combat incompetents found amazing ways to ensure their army's defeat. Whether it was a lack of proper planning, miscalculation, ego, bad luck, or just plain stupidity, certain wartime stratagems should never have left the drawing board. Written with wit, intelligence, and eminent readability, How to Lose a Battle pays dubious homage to these momentous and bloody blunders, including:
<ul>
<li>Cannae, 216 B.C.: the bumbling Romans lose 80,000 troops to Hannibal's forces.</li>
<li>The Second Crusade: an entire Christian army is slaughtered when it stops for a drink of water.</li>
<li>The Battle of Britain: Hitler's dreaded Luftwaffe blows it big-time.</li>
<li>Pearl Harbor: more than one warning of the impending attack is there, but nobody listens.</li>
</ul>
How to Lose a Battle includes more than thirty-five chapters worth of astonishing (and avoidable) disasters, both infamous and obscure -- a treasure trove of trivia, history, and jaw-dropping facts about the most costly military missteps ever taken.

How to Lose a Battle: Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders (How to Lose Series)

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

A fascinating, fun, and fact-filled compendium of the greatest lies, deceptions, propaganda, and frauds ever perpetrated
Throughout history—from the dawn of man to the War on Terror—governments, corporations, historians, and high-level braggarts of every stripe have freely engaged in the time-honored pastime of lying for fun and profit. You Said What? is an endlessly entertaining and outrageously edifying look at some of the biggest whoppers of all time, chock-full of deceptions, trickery, and incredible untruths both infamous and obscure.
<ul>
<li>The press conspiracies that protected FDR's legs, as well as JFK's sex addiction and failing health</li>
<li>Lies that caused the Knights Templar fall, the Salem witch trials, and the Black Death</li>
<li>Big lies that changed history: Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin, the Cuban missile crisis, the “Polish” raid that kicked off WWII . . . and remember the Maine?</li>
<li>The self-made, self-serving myths we still believe today of Davy Crockett, Lawrence of Arabia, and Napoleon</li>
<li>Plus our own personal pick for History's #1 Biggest Liar . . . and much more!</li>
</ul>
The lies will out! You Said What? is an indispensable treasure trove of true falsehoods, and an irreverent introduction to the world's greatest lies and the liars who told them.

You Said What?: Lies and Propaganda Throughout History

Americas

Every four years Americans go to the polls to elect a leader—a personage of unimpeachable sobriety and moral standing who will serve as a paragon for the rest of us. But truth be told, presidents and their families are people too—with quirks and character flaws like everyone else . . . and plenty of skeletons rattling around in their closets. Oval Office Oddities is a grand compendium of fascinating, sometimes embarrassing presidential facts, gaffes, and oddball behaviors—available in plenty of time for Election Day! White House Whoopee: We've all heard about the dalliances of Clinton and Kennedy—but what were Washington, Jefferson, FDR, and Ike doing behind closed doors? America's Imelda: Mary Todd Lincoln had an endearing little clothing fetish . . . and once purchased 300 pairs of gloves in a single month! Go West, Young Prez: "California Dreamin'" was not a top presidential priority . . . since no Commander in Chief bothered to visit the neglected coast until Rutherford B. Hayes did in 1880. Crazy Jack: Many prominent leaders were absolutely convinced that John Adams was stark raving bonkers!

Oval Office Oddities: An Irreverent Collection of Presidential Facts, Follies, and Foibles

From the Crusades to the modern age of chemical warfare and smart bombs, history is littered with truly disastrous military campaigns. How to Lose a War chronicles some of the most remarkable strategic catastrophes and doomed military adventures of overreaching invaders and clueless defenders—whether the failure was a result of poor planning, miscalculations, monumental ego, or failed intelligence . . . or just a really stupid idea to begin with. <ul>
<li>Alexander invades India—and ends up in deep vindaloo.</li> <li>Sacre bleu! The French are humiliated by Prussia in 1870.</li> <li>spain's "invincible navy" breaks up off the coast of britain while attempting an invasion.</li> <li>the mau mau rebellion against the british in kenya shows us how not to run an insurgency.</li> <li>Chiang Kai-Shek's pathetic army fails to keep Mao's Communists from grabbing China.</li> </ul>

How to Lose a War: More Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders (How to Lose Series)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

The U.S. Navy SEALs have long been considered among the finest, most courageous, and professional soldiers in American military history—an elite fighting force trained as parachutists, frogmen, demolition experts, and guerrilla warriors ready for sea, air, and land combat. Born out of a proud naval tradition dating back to World War II, the first SEAL teams were commissioned in the early 1960s. Vietnam was their proving ground. In this remarkable volume, fifteen former SEALs—most of them original founding team members, or "plankowners"—share their vivid first-person remembrances of action in Vietnam. Here are honest, brutal, and relentlessly thrilling stories of covert missions, ferocious firefights, and red-hot chopper insertions and extractions, revealing astonishing little-known truths that will only add strength to the enduring SEAL legend.

Hunters & Shooters: An Oral History of the U.S. Navy SEALs in Vietnam

“Fawcett rivals Jim Dunnigan as a general-audience military analyst.” —Publishers Weekly
An expert on historical military incompetence, Bill Fawcett now offers an engrossing, fact-filled collection that sheds light on the biggest, dumbest screw ups of the America’s bloodiest conflict. How to Lose the Civil War is a fascinating compendium of battlefield blunders and strategic mistakes on both sides of the line. History and military buffs, trivia lovers, and students of the War Between the States will all be mesmerized by this amazing collection of gaffes and bungles perpetrated by idiot officers and short-sighted politicians, Union and Confederate alike— published on the 150th anniversary of the brutal conflict that changed America forever.

How to Lose the Civil War: Military Mistakes of the War Between the States (How to Lose Series)

How to Lose WWII is an engrossing, fact-filled collection from Bill Fawcett that sheds light on the biggest, and dumbest, screw-ups of the Great War. In the vein of his other phenomenal compendiums of amazing battlefield blunders, How to Lose a Battle and How to Lose a War, Fawcett focuses on some amazing catastrophic missteps of Axis and Allies alike.

How to Lose WWII: Bad Mistakes of the Good War (How to Lose Series)

“Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” And so we have. Time and again, mankind has faced down problems, but have often failed to take the hard-earned knowledge into the next battle.
Doomed to Repeat is a collection of essays, edited by Bill Fawcett, that illuminates some of the problems we've faced repeatedly throughout history, including Islamic jihad, terrorism, military insurgencies, inflation and the devaluation of currency, financial disasters, ecological collapses, radical political minorities like the Nazis and Bolsheviks, and pandemics and epidemics like the Black Death.
With more than 35 chapters of the Groundhog Days of world history, both infamous and obscure, Doomed to Repeat: The Lessons of History We've Failed to Learn is chock-full of trivia, history, and fascinating looks at the world’s repeated mistakes.

Doomed to Repeat: The Lessons of History We've Failed to Learn

An engrossing compendium of high-seas military disasters
From the days of the Spanish Armada to the modern age of aircraft carriers, battles have been bungled just as badly on water as they have been on land. Some blunders were the result of insufficient planning, overinflated egos, espionage, or miscalculations; others were caused by ideas that didn't hold water in the first place. In glorious detail, here are thirty-three of history's worst maritime mishaps, including:
<ul>
<li> The British Royal Navy's misguided attempts to play it safe during the American Revolution</li> <li> The short life and death of the Imperial Japanese Navy</li> <li> The scuttling of the Graf Spee by a far inferior force</li> <li> The sinking of the Nazi megaship Bismarck</li> <li> "Remember the Maine!"—the lies that started the Spanish-American War</li> <li> Admiral Nelson losing track of Napoleon but redeeming himself at the Nile</li> <li> The ANZAC disaster at Gallipoli</li> <li> Germany's failed WWII campaign in the North Atlantic</li> <li> Kennedy's quarantine of Cuba</li>
</ul>
Chock-full of amazing facts and hilarious trivia, How to Lose a War at Sea is the most complete volume of nautical failures ever assembled.

How to Lose a War at Sea: Foolish Plans and Great Naval Blunders (How to Lose Series)

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