Historical Blunders

by Geoffrey Regan

In Historical Blunders bestselling author Geoffrey Regan turns his attention to the wider historical stage with this lively and entertaining collection of mishaps from the Classical Era to the Cold War period. The stories are as diverse as they are fascinating. Drawn from a impressively wide range of fields of human activity - political, social, economic, technological, medical and many more - they can be shocking as well as amusing. Historical Blunders brings together a wealth of stories of historical oversights, misdeeds, misdemeanours and plain old blunders, not previously collected in one volume. Discover how a vision of Russian soldiers led to the famine that devastated the Xhosa people. Learn which latter day Caligula elevated his pet labrador to the rank of colonel in the Romanian army. Find out how the Dutch prince came to arrange his own assassination and which Reformation clergyman's male chauvinist remarks cost him the chance of becoming one of Elizabeth I's bishops. These tales of historical mistakes and oversights make fascinating and entertaining reading and their broad appeal makes them ideal for the historian and general reader alike.

Genres: History

186 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2002

About the author

Geoffrey Regan is an English military historian, former senior school teacher and broadcaster.

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very easy to read, broken up into short stories of just a page or two, perfect for right before bed. I am not sure the title fits, as the first "blunder" is the corset... and I am not sure the word "blunder" fits something that people chose to wear despite its displacing their vital organs and cutting off oxygen. Nonetheless, these are interesting stories of odd historical fads, happenings, and even pairings of people.