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Cargando... Calamities & Catastrophes: The Ten Absolutely Worst Years in Historypor Derek Wilson
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They say that history is written by the winners. Not according to Derek Wilson. In this fascinating, revelatory book, Wilson tells the story from the point of view of the losers - collating a catalogue of calamities and catastrophes that have shaped our world more than historians tend to let on. In ten lucid and entertaining chapters, the author identifies the very worst years of human history, from the destruction of the Roman Empire in 541 to the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War in 1865, from the march on Leningrad in 1942 to the Vietnam War of 1968. Condensing two thousand years of war, plague, misrule and political villainy, he identifies the traitors, scumbags and villains, whose lust for power - and sometimes, sheer incompetence - brought such terror to their times. He delves into the natural forces beyond human control that have wiped out whole peoples. And, most of all, he shows how history has a horrible habit of repeating itself. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)909History and Geography History World historyClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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Some new information, but mostly old information. Each chapter deals (rather briefly) with a different catastrophe or calamity in history, which the author as arbitrarily decided is the "worst year in history". One chapter gives a brief overview of the Justinian Plague, another one mentions the effect of the weather on wars and population movement, but most of the chapters deals with humans butchering each other. I would have liked to read more about the non-human factors (disease, weather, volcanoes etc) that cause havoc on human populations, rather than the all too common wars. I found each chapter rather bland and too brief.
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