The Greatest Stories Never Told

by Rick Beyer

History isn't always made by great armies colliding or by great civilizations rising or falling. Sometimes it's made when a chauffeur takes a wrong turn, a scientist forgets to clean up his lab, or a drunken soldier gets a bit rowdy. That's the kind of history you'll find in The Greatest Stories Never Told. This is history candy -- the good stuff. Here are 100 tales to astonish, bewilder, and stupefy: more than two thousand years of history filled with courage, cowardice, hope, triumph, sex, intrigue, folly, humor, and ambition. It's a historical delight and a visual feast with hundreds of photographs, drawings, and maps that bring each story to life. A new discovery waits on every page: stories that changed the course of history and stories that affected what you had for breakfast this morning.

Consider: The Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer. Some Roman officials were so corrupt that they actually stole time itself. Three cigars changed the course of the Civil War. The Scottish kilt was invented by an Englishman.

Based on the popular Timelab 2000® history minutes hosted by Sam Waterston on The History Channel®, this collection of fascinating historical tidbits will have you shaking your head in wonder and disbelief. But they're all true. And you'll soon find yourself telling them to your friends.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Trivia, Historical, World History, Reference, American History

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Rick Beyer is a best-selling author, an award-winning filmmaker and long-time history enthusiast. His newest book, Rivals Unto Death traces the thirty-year rivalry of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

"In this fascinating dual biography, Beyer brings these two towering figures to vivid life on the page." --New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides.

Beyer is the co-author (with Elizabeth Sayles Sayles) of the New York Times bestseller The Ghost Army of World War II How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks Sound Effects and Other Audacious Fakery. Beyer has spent nearly a decade researching this story. His award-winning documentary film about the unit, The Ghost Army premiered on PBS in 2013. The San Francisco Chronicle called the film “mesmerizing,” while TV Guide referred to it as “entrancing.”

Beyer has also produced documentary films for The History Channel, A&E, National Geographic, the Smithsonian and others. He is the author of The Greatest Stories Never Told series of history books published by Harper Collins, and described by the Chicago Tribune as “an old fashioned sweetshop full of tasty morsels.”

Beyer has shared his unique take on history in interviews on CBS, MSNBC, CNN, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, NPR, Fox News, and audiences around the country. He has also worked as a radio reporter, a TV news producer, an ad agency creative director, and a janitor (not in that order). And here's a few other things he's done.

•Camp for ten days in the mosquito-infested Siberian Wilderness
•Flee New Orleans the day before Katrina
•Interview Jimmy Carter in the White House
•Climb Mt. Washington 5 times
•Get called stupid by David Brinkley
•Be consoled by Mary Tyler Moore
•Marry a beautiful woman during a lightning storm

A graduate of Dartmouth College, Beyer lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with his wife, Marilyn Rea Beyer (see above about the lightning storm!)

Reviews

[Edwina Book Anaconda]

I will be sad to return this one to the library, as it was such a fun and interesting read.
Now, of course, I want to read the book about Balto, the sled dog.

[Suzannah]

Mediocre. More than half the stories were from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, were incredibly American-centric (who gets astonished, bewildered, and stupefied by the origins of baseball???) - and those that remained, like the life of St Patrick or the discovery of penicillin, are things that anyone with a reasonable education already knows.

[Abraham Ray]

Great read about unknown history from around the world!

[Michael Grizer (He-Him)]

A fabulous little introduction to some great stories. It will definitely encourage you to open Wikipedia and read more.

[Carol Blakeman]

This was a fun read. I had heard several of these stories before, but it was really interesting finding out the rest of them.

[Mary Emma Sivils]

Stopped at 20%. Mainly because I ran out of time before I had to return it to the library, but also because I looked up something the book presented as fact, and found that multiple websites said it was only a legend. The book was enjoyable to read, but after that, I just lost a little trust in its information.

[Mitch]

I enjoyed reading this, and would recommend it to others, so why an average rating?

~Not because of the content, that's for sure. This book is full of two-page spreads of amazing things about history we all thought we knew...and now here's what REALLY happened. And that seems somewhat unbelievable but the guy verifies his facts so...

-And not because there isn't enought variety. There is.

-And not because of the visuals and the additional material...those are both enhancing.

It's because with so many short pieces, this reading is snack food. You keep on reading and it's empty mind calories. I really didn't retain anything much at all because the next story wiped out the previous story until I reached the end.

Maybe this review is more about me and my reading habits than about the book. I recommend it, but not for the takeaway.

[Carolyn Page]

This is in essence a trivia book, but the title doesn't lie -- good stories that I've mostly never heard. Good material for movies in here!

[Lunara Alder]

While some of the facts were interesting, I was rather disappointed in this book. There was far too much focus on the World Wars and the Civil War, which I don't particular find enjoyable to read about. There was also a horrible lack of stories specifically about women and POC - only 5 stories about women, 10 stories about POC, and 1 story about a POC woman (the marvelous Chinese pirate Ching Shih). Maybe 5-10 stories weren't about people specifically, so that leaves 75-80 stories about white men. I know this book doesn't claim to be diverse, but it really should have included more. I was also disappointed about how many stories were American-centric, though other countries were explored. And finally, I had expected more information from earlier centuries, but 1/3 of the book was about the 1900s, 1/3 of the book was from the 1800s, and the last 1/3 of the book ranged from 46 BC -1585 AD. I wanted more stories from that last range, and even further past the single story from BC.

[Yukio Nagato]

It was a fun read. If you've ever had teachers who used to go off on tangents during lessons this will remind you a lot of that. I knew a few of these already but there were a bunch of interesting tidbits of information that I hadn't known about. History buffs in particular will like this.

[Dean Alis]

In our extraordinarily modernized and increasingly industrialized world in which our once fantasized Arts, The Mathematics; The Philosophy; and The Sciences, are now simply to be viewed as that of a task, a given and forced upon assignment, rather than that of the seemly once beautiful beauty in which truly used to rule and influence that of the and our world. There are truly not many credible and delightful resources in which may assist the human in reclaiming that of our lost and essential love for the now crudely acclaimed "Academic Arts." However, this extraordinarily engaging, informing, and Intellectually Stimulating menagerie of compiled historical stories in which are bound to make all such individuals and beings both engaged under the delights of that of history and education. In Truth, Rick Beyer's, The Greatest Stories Never Told, has truly been, under my inevitably human and prejudice opinion and belief, truly believe that this extraordinary book, is one of the greatest and most beautifully diverse book or vast collection of historical stories in which I have ever laid my mortal eyes upon. Mr. Rick Beyer's book is truly and often set upon a seeking, and perhaps, a human need to distinguish the beauty of the truth and unknown, yet, extinguish the indefinitely false and the inaccurately believed upon, solely in order to grant a betterment of both the truth and freedom from the false, simply and only for that of us to flourish and unite as a single and cohesive Humanity.

In and Under the seeking of the Truth, and Only the Truth,
Dean Alis

[Amanda]

This was a fun, interesting, quick little historical jaunt! As with all non-fiction it took me an embarrassingly long time to get through, but having each page be a new story helped me with that. The writing wasn't anything spectacular, but that isn't really the point in a book like this. I do wish there had been just a bit more detail in the stories, but considering their nature, maybe there wasn't all that much more to flush out in many cases. I also wish that they had been spread more throughout history or place. I guess it's natural that most of the stories happened in more recent history (it's likely much easier to find documentation for unexpected historical happenings), but I really enjoyed some of the ancient stories and wanted there to be more of them. And I do feel like the focus on mostly American influences in the later stories probably means there are many more world-focused tales that would have balanced out the later pages more effectively.

[Siobhan Ward]

This was a cute and quick read - lots of fun historical stories, some that I knew and others that I didn't. Definitely very American though, since there's an assumption that you already know about certain historical events (I know that the Watergate scandal was discovered because someone taped the latch of a door, but I still don't really know what the scandal was and no book with the tape story ever explains the scandal).

It's gotten a bit old now - everything is from before 2000, but it's still a fun little read. Definitely a good intro to some bite-sized historical events if you're looking for a quick history book.

[Clare]

Interesting little tidbits of information, each only two pages, give glimpses into some not well-known facts. How did the siege of a city give birth to the croissant? Who was the model for Uncle Sam? What did finding three cigars have to do with a decisive turn in the United States Civil war? When the Eiffel Tower was supposed to be taken down, what saved it from that fate? What roll did cabdrivers play in a World War II battle? Who was the most successful pirate of all time? These are just a few of the historical events mentioned in this book.

[Virginia Pommerening]

This book is a lot of fun for mostly unheard history. that being said I felt that a lot of the entries were sparse. I feel like this book was intended to introduce you to a topic and then hope that you would pursue it outside of what this book offers. The additional tidbits if information were fun and I wish more of that had been incorporated into the main fact line of each piece of information. This is also being written fairly late at night so I might not be as clear as intended

[RA]

Filled with unbelievable short vignettes about people who influenced history in some large or significant manner. Great easy informative read. By the way, do you know: What
George Washington said when he got in the boat to cross the Potomac? About the curious relationship between Annie Oakley and Kaiser Wilhelm? When and why the Star Spangled Banner (not yet the National Anthem) was first played before a ball game?

[Aleksandar]

While this book resembles a trivia book, and is somewhat American-centric, it was still very intriguing to read.The one fault was not that the book was too war-centric or that it contained little of ancient history, but that only 1/8 of the stories center on a person of color, and only 1/16 are about women. I'll consider reading the others in the series hoping those issues won't be found there as well. And now I need to go through my books on Balto again.

[Betty Strohecker]

This is a very interesting compilation of little known facts ranging from 46 B.C. to 1990. As the subtitle says, some will definitely astonish, bewilder, and stupefy. Each story is presented on a two page spread with pictures and graphics that enhance the information. History buffs would certainly enjoy adding this book to their collections.

[Sharon Archer]

I enjoyed each story but the one about a misinterpretation of a word in a message from the Japanese premier during WWII was heartbreaking. He used the word mokusatsu, which could mean “withhold comment for a moment” or “ignore”. Radio Tokyo interpretation was ignore and President Roosevelt felt compelled to drop the atom bomb...tragic.

[Olga]

I really enjoyed this book. Coffee and the Pope was among one of my favorites. Will never look at coffee the same. To think I never liked history in school. Lol. I could eat up more of these types of stories. =)
Gave it a four because I wish it included more stories from other countries, like South America, as well. Awesome book though

[Nilendu Misra]

Which Vice President’s name is ineluctably, and very electably, linked with an electoral word? What is the link between hangover (“groggy”) and Mt Vernon? Why telegraph (“far talk”) was first thought to be named “fast talk - and 200+ more such - almost all - fascinating stories, each a page or two with beautiful illustrations. Perfect book to dip in between reading :-)

[Michael Huang]

Not very illuminating but entertaining enough as a casual read. You’ll learn about some interesting factoids (and a lot boring ones). For instance, Washington wasn’t really the first president. 6 presidents were voted by the congress before Washington. The assassin of Lincoln had a brother. The brother saved the life of Lincoln’s son at a train station months earlier.

[Beth]

A modern day "The Rest of the Story" book. Just guessing, but I bet several of these stories were used by Paul Harvey back in the day. I'm sure I have heard/read about a lot of the stories previously, but nice to have them all in one place. Many fascinating tales and lots of new (to me) information.

[Tori BookWorm22]

This reminds me so much of little history stories I used to read in elementary school. Bite size and intriguing and from a wide variety of topics, I now have a list of things to do more research on, and a fun set of new facts in my brain.
Also. This came out the year I was born and for some reason, that feels very strange.

[Michelle]

A quick read that brought out lots of interesting moments in history. I had a hard time remembering what I'd read without longer narrative or connecting themes, but I would browse through the other books in this series and probably enjoy them as well.

[Tina Hayes]

As a history buff, I LOVED reading these short true tales from the past. It is so much fun learning interesting facts about how things happened that changed the world in the most unexpected ways. I would recommend this quick read to anyone who loves history and trivia.

[Suwitcha Chandhorn]

เกร็ดประวัติศาสตร์สั้น ๆ สนุก ๆ ที่บางเรื่องก็เพิ่งรู้ บางเรื่องก็คิดว่าเขียนเอามันส์ อนุมานเอาเองมากไปหน่อย ดีตรงที่มีแหล่งที่มาอ้างอิงได้ ซึ่่งบางอันก็อ้างมาจากบทความซึ่งไม่รู้ว่าแหล่งที่มาเป็นยังไงอยู่ดี โดยรวมก็อ่านสนุกยามว่างได้ครับ

[Quinesia Johnson]

My only requirement for history reading is that it be personably written. Lots of interesting, slightly elaborated on lesser known/ remembered facts. I made bookmarks; let's see if I can put them to memory. Great book.

[Kenzie Buchan]

I read this book in a couple hours cause it’s so darn cool. I love things like this funny little coincidences that you’ve never heard about stories that you know a lot about. It’s just crazy. Definitely would recommend and it would make a great coffee book an conversation starter!

[Anup Sinha]

I enjoy this whole series of Rick Buyer’s and love to learn all the odd little tidbits he teaches. Some of the stories lead me to take longer investigations. Recommended for the like-curious! Quick read, every story is short.