Summary of Erik Durschmied's How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History
Summary of Erik Durschmied's How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History

Author: Everest Media,

Publisher: Everest Media LLC

Published: 2022-06-22T22:59:00Z

Total Pages: 57

ISBN-13:

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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The world is still recovering from the attack on America on September 11, 2001. The American president rallied his nation’s support with a Let’s get the bastards! He then ordered the invasion of Afghanistan against an unclear enemy. #2 In the story of Troy, Paris, the prince of Troy, visited by three goddesses who handed him a golden apple, asking him to choose the fairest among them. He chose Helen of Sparta, and brought her to Troy. The Greeks then invaded and laid siege to the city. #3 The Trojan War was a result of the Greeks’ disregard for the warnings by the philosopher Laocoön. The war was a series of raids, and possibly actions fought by sea. The ten-year siege could not have lasted ten continuous years without harvesting seasonal grain, which armies on both sides would have starved without. #4 The Hinge Factor at Troy was victory by stratagem. The Greeks learned from the Trojans, Trojan refugees founded Rome, and the Romans conquered Greece, only to adopt its culture.

How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History
How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History

Author: Erik Durschmied

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-07-19

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 162872644X

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From the Trojan Horse to a photograph snapped in Vietnam, world history has been shaped as much by chance and error as by courage and heroism. Despite impossible odds, invincible armies fall in bitter defeat to weaker opponents. How and why does this happen? What decides the fate of battle? In this fascinating book, Erik Durschmied takes us through the major conflicts of history—from Agincourt to the Civil War, from Crimea to the Gulf War—and reveals how, in war, it is the improbable and the inconceivable that determine events. Writing with the style and flair that made him an award-winning war correspondent, Durschmied explores the fistful of nails that could have won Waterloo for Napoleon; the barrel of schnapps that proved disastrous for an Austrian emperor; and the three cigars that changes the course of Antietam; and many other instances when chance decided history’s path. Conflicts are decided by the caprice of weather, erroneous intelligence, unlikely heroism, strange coincidence, or individual incompetence—in short, by the unpredictable “hinge factor.” Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The Hinge Factor
The Hinge Factor

Author: Erik Durschmied

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Published: 2011-10-01

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 1628721774

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From the wooden horse at Troy to a harrowing photograph snapped in Vietnam, from Robert E. Lee’s lost battle plans to the evacuation of Dunkirk, world history has been shaped as much by chance and error as by courage and heroism. Time and again, invincible armies fall to weaker opponents in the face of impossible odds, when the outcome had seemed a foregone conclusion. How and why does this happen? What is it that decides the fate of battle? Writing with the style and flair that has made him an award-winning war correspondent, Durschmied takes us through the major battles of history, from the battlefields of ancient Greece to the Gulf War. In a series of gripping narratives, he vividly recreates the crucial events in all their mayhem and confusion while pointing out the decisive moments that changed the course of history. We see Agincourt, where rain combined with French arrogance to give Henry V the day; the Crimea, where a badly worded order led to the disastrous charge of the Light Brigade; and colonial Africa, where an attack by African killer bees, described by the London Times as Germany’s secret weapon, repulsed an Allied invasion. And in a chilling epilogue, we are given a disturbing glimpse of the secret attempt by Libya to buy atomic weapons from China for use against Israel. Drawing from a variety of sources, including personal accounts such as soldiers’ diaries and letters home, The Hinge Factor is an instructive, fascinating look at how the unpredictable, the absurd, and the bizarre have shaped the face of history in war.

Dodging the Bullet
Dodging the Bullet

Author: M.J. Trow

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2024-11-30

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1399037641

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Everybody remembers where they were the day John F. Kennedy died. The president’s assassination shocked the world and raised questions that have still not been answered today. Almost as shocking is attempted assassination – the bullet that missed; the bomb that did not go off; the poison that did not work. Dodging the Bullet looks at the most spectacular of these, from attempts on royals like George II and Queen Victoria, where dysfunctional men with unreliable guns lurked in the shrubbery of parks to the astonishing 634 attempts to kill and/or discredit Fidel Castro. Anybody in the public eye is a potential victim for an assassin. Anybody with access to the most easily obtained weapons is a potential killer. The fascination lies in the mix of these two – the random meeting of the famous and the deranged. Dodging the Bullet has professional hitmen working for sinister organizations and governments. It has security services who are nothing of the sort. It has arrogant and complacent rulers of states who believe in their own immortality – ‘Honey, I forgot to duck,’ as President Ronald Reagan said. Why the bullet missed is one of the imponderables. Another is; what difference would it have made if it had not?

The War of the World
The War of the World

Author: Niall Ferguson

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2012-11-06

Total Pages: 880

ISBN-13: 1101615877

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From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower "Even those who have read widely in 20th-century history will find fresh, surprising details." —The Boston Globe "A fascinating read, thanks to Ferguson's gifts as a writer of clear, energetic narrative history." —The Washington Post Astonishing in its scope and erudition, this is the magnum opus that Niall Ferguson's numerous acclaimed works have been leading up to. In it, he grapples with perhaps the most challenging questions of modern history: Why was the twentieth century history's bloodiest by far? Why did unprecedented material progress go hand in hand with total war and genocide? His quest for new answers takes him from the walls of Nanjing to the bloody beaches of Normandy, from the economics of ethnic cleansing to the politics of imperial decline and fall. The result, as brilliantly written as it is vital, is a great historian's masterwork.

The Abyss
The Abyss

Author: Niall Ferguson

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2012-10-23

Total Pages: 882

ISBN-13: 1101616202

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Excerpted from Niall Ferguson’s sprawling bestseller The War of the World, The Abyss now stands on its own as one of the most thrilling short histories of World War I ever written. This is not a conventional military history about battles and generals. Rather, The Abyss examines how World War I saw the birth of total war—fought between societies as much as armies—and must therefore be understood in terms of the financial crises it unleashed, the multinational empires it destroyed, and the hateful ideas it propagated. The most remarkable thing about the war, Ferguson shows us, is how shockingly unexpected it was. At a time when economic integration and technology seemed to be rendering war between great powers impossible, World War I was the moment when that process went into reverse and the lethal forces of ethnic disintegration took over. Now, on the cusp of the 100th anniversary of its outbreak, we can see World War I as much more than just four years of industrialized slaughter. Weaving together the economics of empire and the ideology of race—and featuring an original preface by the author as well a teaser from his new paperback Civilization—The Abyss is world history at its finest.

History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology
History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology

Author: Edwin R. Wallace

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-04-13

Total Pages: 883

ISBN-13: 0387347089

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This book chronicles the conceptual and methodological facets of psychiatry and medical psychology throughout history. There are no recent books covering so wide a time span. Many of the facets covered are pertinent to issues in general medicine, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and the social sciences today. The divergent emphases and interpretations among some of the contributors point to the necessity for further exploration and analysis.