وقتی هیتلر کوکائین می‌زد و مغز لنین جا به جا می‌شد: فصل‌های ناگفته تاریخ

History's Unknown Chapters #1

by Giles Milton, پریسا مرتضوی (Translator)

در اولین مجموعه از سری جذاب و خواندنی فصل‌های ناگفته‌ی تاریخ، جایلز میلتون پرده از داستان‌هایی برمی‌دارد که کمتر کسی آن‌ها را شنیده است. روایت‌هایی همچون ساعت پایانی زندگی هیتلر، آشپزی که از تایتانیک زنده بازگشت، مردی که از حمله‌ی اتمی در هیروشیما و ناگازاکی جان سالم به در برد، بالون مرگبار ژاپنی‌ها، امپراطور ایالات متحده و... میلتون در دل تاریخ می‌کاود و به همه جا سرک می‌کشد؛ از ناگته‌های جنگ و برده‌داری گرفته تا قتل و جاسوسی و ماجراجویی. «در همین اثنا، جسد لنین را در دست‌های باکفایت پروفسور واروبیف گذاشتند. حالا وظیفه‌ی سنگین نگه‌داری جسد و حفظ کردنش از فساد بر دوش او بود. متخصص دیگری به نام بوریس زبارسکی هم در این کار با او همکاری می کرد. هر دو مرد می‌دانستند اگر در کارشان شکست بخورند، اعدام خواهند شد!»

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Historical, Humor, Short Stories, World History

262 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 2016

About the author

British writer and journalist Giles Milton was born in Buckinghamshire in 1966. He has contributed articles for most of the British national newspapers as well as many foreign publications, and specializes in the history of travel and exploration. In the course of his researches, he has traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, Japan and the Far East, and the Americas.

Knowledgeable, insatiably curious and entertaining, Milton locates history's most fascinating—and most overlooked—stories and brings them to life in his books.

He lives in London, where he is a member of the Hakluyt Society, which is dedicated to reprinting the works of explorers and adventurers in scholarly editions, some of which he uses in his research. He wrote most of Samurai William in the London Library, where he loves the "huge reading room, large Victorian desks and creaking armchairs". At home and while traveling, he is ever on the lookout for new untold stories. Apparently he began researching the life of Sir John Mandeville for his book The Riddle and the Knight after Mandeville’s book Travels "literally fell off the shelf of a Paris bookstore" in which he was browsing.

Copyright BookBrowse.com 2007

Reviews

[Jelena · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the ultimate airport book. Seriously, for quite a while we kept coming across it in every single airport magazine store, until my boyfriend eventually bought it during some layover. It was the memorable title and a really fitting cover design that first caught out attention. Because we’re both that shallow.

The episodes in “When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain” refer to both the big, official history and small, personal histories. Some of them are very well known and everyone has surely picked up those stories somewhere in textbooks, documentaries and online. I even remember my grandfather telling me some of them when I was little (I wasn’t a big fan of fairy tales and those were an alternative). But they are still interesting. Interesting as in unfathomable, bizarre, perplexing, insane, conceivable, touching… A mixture of pure insanity and genius, crazy chance and bad luck. My reactions went from tears, to angry disbelief (the surviving kamikazes), to disgust over human stupidity (the last fallen soldier in WWI).

Though this is not only an airport book, but also definitely an airport read. A travel read, actually. All of those history bites are well researched and provided with a list of further reading material, in case you would want to turn the sketch into a detailed picture. But they are all really short, three, four pages, probably never more than five. None of them take more than two minutes to read, about a tenth of the time you need for a single comic issues. Those are basically historical finger sandwiches: pick one up between sips of coffee, while waiting for your travel companion to finish in the restroom, while queuing, in order or at random. It’s like reading really cool stuff on Cracked, but indefinitely more pleasant than fumbling around your phone. And I’d just love a complementary piece on science.

[Fatemeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

با توجه به اسم‌کتاب فکر میکردم بیشتر تمرکز کتاب روی این دو شخصیت باشه و برام‌جالب بود که به زبان ساده زندگی این دو نفر رو بخونم اما اصلا اینطوری نبود و به طور کلی داستان های تاریخی بود که هر کدوم از داستان ها ۴ یا ۵‌ صفحه از کتاب رو شامل میشدند .
بعضی داستان ها جالب بود و بعضی هاش تکراری و مسخره اما به طور کلی برای کسی که تاریخ رو به صورت جدی دنبال میکنه این داستان ها خنده‌دار و در حد پیج های اینستاست .
به نظرم بیشتر برای گروه نوجوانان که تازه میخوان با تاریخ آشنا بشن خوبه .

[Leila · Rating 3 out of 5]

موضوع این کتاب حقایق کمتر شنیده شده‌ی تاریخی است.
بسیاری از داستان‌های این مجموعه در مورد افراد عادی‌‌ای است که ناگهان خودشان را وسط ماجراهای بسیار غیرعادی می‌یابند؛ ماجراهایی که گاهی تبدیل به اتفاقات مهم تاریخی می‌شوند. از جمله : فرد خوش شانسی که از انفجار بمب‌ هسته‌ای در هیروشیما و ناگازاکی جان سالم به در برد؛ سربازی که خبر نداشت جنگ جهانی دوم بیست‌و‌نُه سال پیش تمام شده و تا سال ۱۹۷۴ میلادی در جنگل‌های فیلیپین یک تنه مبارزات چریکی راه می‌انداخت؛ شخصی که جانش از درهم شکستن کشتی تایتانیک نجات پیدا کرد؛ ناپدید شدن آگاتا کریستی به مدت یازده روز؛ به نمایش گذاشتن انسان‌های نه چندان عادی در باغ وحش؛ آدم‌خواری و... .

کسی چه می‌داند، شاید ما هم روزی خودمان را وسط ماجرایی بیابیم که تاریخ‌ساز باشد.

۹۹/۷/۲۹

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

بزرگ‌ترین ضدحال کتاب همین بود که برخلاف عنوان و جلو گول‌زننده‌اش، تنها تعداد خیلی کمی از داستان‌های کتاب به این دو‌بزرگوار اختصاص داشتن‌. (البته در کل فکر می‌کردم قراره نویسنده این دو نفرو یه جوری بهم ربط بده که کیلومترها با محتوای کتاب فرق داشت 😅)
تعداد نسبتا کمی از داستان‌ها برام جدید بود ولی با این حال خوندن کتاب ساده و روونه حتی با تکراری بودن بعضا، خسته کننده نبود.


پ.ن: کم کم باید دنبال یه مجموعه کتاب کامل از تاریخ ایران و‌ جهان بگردم، حس می‌کنم دیگه خوندن وقایع جسته و گریخته تاریخی از کتاب‌های متنوع به ذوقم اضافه نمی‌کنه! (خلاصه جهت شروع مطالعه تاریخ به یاری سبزتان نیازمندم)

[Nik Krasno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like centuries ago, maybe when dinos were still around and I was just a kid in a good, old USSR we had a subscription among tons of other news-papers and journals to newspaper "Trud", which last column (the only one I read) contained curios/unusual/humorous events around the globe. This felt like a digest thereof.
In a way, UK's Giles Milton can probably be paralleled with US' Ben Mezrich, as both try to offer an entertaining non-fiction, although latter usually has an economic bend.
Anyhow, the book is 'cute' (may sound diminishing, but the word seems appropriate), a bit uneven - some stories are grandiose, while others very 'local'.
A nice read, especially with big pauses in between sessions - each story is separate and no need to keep track, but not something existentially compulsory for all

[MischaS_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

je to fajn, že se dá číst rozkouskovane. krátké, fajn příběhy. Někdy se člověk i zasmeje, ale vic nic. O některých příbězích/příhodách jsem slysela uz i dřív.

[Ali Niazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب جالب و جذابی است و شامل داستان های متفاوت از شخصیت های تاریخی ولی داستان هایی که کمتر عنوان شده است

[Dov Zeller]

Giles Milton goes through archives looking for interesting material that's been lost in the shuffle of history, and he does a fine job of unearthing some fascinating and horrifying dramas. The book is made up of two sections, twenty-five short pieces each, ranging from two to five pages. Content ranges from Hitler's GI issues (and by GI I mean gastrointestinal), health complaints and addictions, to the fate of Lenin's corpse; from adventurers and murderers and rough travel experiences to freak weather situations and war stories. From the devastation of a volcano eruption with a few freak survivors, to exploited people billed as 'freaks' and put on show in museums and fairs. Some of the stuff in here I'd read about before, or heard about on Radio Lab and such, but more than not the content was news to me.

Sometimes Milton gets a little too silly and gimmicky with his titles for my taste, but all in all I found this to be a compelling read.

Here are a few quotes to give you an idea of the content and tone (which varies greatly, but he does look for opportunities to bring out the humor and absurdity in these stories):

The Blonde finally arrived in England in April 1826 with Ann and five others. Although deeply shaken by her ordeal, Ann was relieved to have survived a voyage that had killed fifteen of her traveling companions. And she remained surprisingly philosophical about having eaten her fiancé. ‘I think that I witnessed more of the heavy judgements and afflictions of this world than any other of its female inhabitants,’ she said. (161)

It was the crowning achievement of his career. Gustav Eiffel was feted as a French national hero at the 1889 inauguration of his famous tower. Among the few who did not appreciate his Paris skyscraper was a fervent English patriot by the name of Edward Watkin. He resented the Eiffel Tower for one simple reason: it stood more than five times higher than Britain’s most celebrated monument, Nelson’s Column. And that, he felt, was a deep insult to national pride.

Yet Watkin was not a man to nurse his grievances…(165)

He reigned for more than two decades, an autocratic monarch with absolute powers over one of the most powerful countries on the earth. Emperor Joshua Norton 1 declared himself supreme ruler of the United States in 1859: his avowed intention was to restore stability and integrity to a country he felt was falling into ruin.

Emperor Norton might easily have been dismissed as a harmless eccentric, were it not for the fact that he had a large number of supporters. Promoted by the newspapers of Fan Francisco, his decrees and proclamations soon became known across the entire nation.

His reign began on 17 September 1859, when he issued a proclamation to the California papers: ‘I declare and proclaim myself emperor of these United States.’ He immediately called for a public meeting of representatives of all the different states in America, signing his declaration: Norton 1, Emperor of the United States. (He soon added Protector of Mexico to his title.) (168)

[Sandra Deaconu · Rating 3 out of 5]

De la pigmeul care era ținut în cușcă la grădina zoologică și negresa care era folosită ca atracție a spectacolelor pentru mărimea fundului și organelor ei genitale până la femeia care nu știa nimic despre sălbăticie, dar a supraviețuit izolată în munți 2 ani, și soldatul care a fost refuzat de multe ori la înrolare, dar a ajuns cel mai mare erou al războiului. Sunt momente istorice pe care autorul le abordează, îndemnându-ne să ne gândim dacă omenirea a evoluat atât de mult în ultimul secol. E o lectură rapidă, utilă și, uneori, adică doar rareori, amuzantă. Dacă nu vă place prea tare să citiți cărți despre istorie, dar ați vrea totuși să pară că o faceți, atunci cartea asta e perfectă! Comprimă multe informații și le redă succint și cu lejeritate. Dacă sunteți pasionați de istorie, atunci sunt șanse măricele să vă dezamăgească, dar e potrivită de luat la drum.

Recenzia aici. https://sandradeaconu.blogspot.com/20...

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book - probably more than I had expected to.
To describe the book - it is a collection of very short stories taken from the archive searches - all with a weird, unexpected, or unusual element to them, which are arranged in loose chapters of similar content - for example - there might be 3 or 4 stories located in polar regions, or 3 or 4 stories about Hitler, or 3 or 4 stories set in Japan, etc etc

They are very short - most 7-10 pages, some up to about 15 pages. This makes it ideal as a short burst, pick up / put down read. The stories are varied and interesting, there are twists, turns and surprises. There are some which are relatively well known (and this has been a criticism from other reviewers) - you hear them on those pop history game shows - like Stephen Fry's QI, or other fact based quiz shows - but most are new to me, and while there is certainly some sensationalism around the title, it is harmless promotion.

Overall very good, and I will seek out the second book in Milton's series.
4 stars

[Shakiba Bahrami · Rating 5 out of 5]

برای کسی که حوصله‌ی مباحث سنگین تاریخی رو نداره خیلی کتاب خوبیه.
برای کسی هم که میخواد حوصله‌اش رو پیدا کنه، پیشنهاد میشه:)

[M.H Ansari · Rating 5 out of 5]

یک سری داستان های فرعی و کم تر شنیده شده در تاریخ معاصر جهان😃

عالی بود😌

[Nilo0 · Rating 5 out of 5]

فوق العاده زیبا و مبهوت کننده بود. پر از ماجراهای عجیب تاریخی که باورکردنشون سخت بود اما اینقدر جذاب بود که هر کدوم رو در اینترنت سرچ کردم و اطلاعات بیشتری از اون خوندم
جمع آوری 50 موضوع تاریخی عجیب و باور نکردنی، اونم در یک کتاب، ارزش کتاب رو خیلی بالا می بره
موضوعات عجیب شامل آدم خواری انسان ها، اتفاقات عجیب جنگ جهانی از جمله فرشته نجات نوزادان، فردی که تا 27 سال پس از جنگ جهانی دوم به مقاومت و جنگ ادامه داد، افرادی که از اتفاقات هولناک جان سالم به در بردند و...
خوندنش برای هر کسی می تونه جذاب و پر از اطلاعات باشه

[Sina Shahbaba · Rating 4 out of 5]

خیلی‌ها در عین حال که به تاریخ و‌ وقایع تاریخی علاقه دارند، حوصله‌ی مطالعه‌ی سنگین در زمینه‌ی‌ تاریخ را ندارند. در این‌صورت، این کتاب کتاب آن‌هاست. پر از داستان‌های تاریخی جنگی، اجتماعی، جنایی و ... . اینکه نویسنده توانسته داستان‌های پر جزئیات تاریخی را در۳ صفحه تعریف کند واقعاً هنر می‌خواهد که جایلز میلتون داشته است. بسیاری از داستان‌ها با عدم قطعیت و نقطه‌ی شک در ذهن فعالیت ایجاد می‌کنند.

[I.Shayan · Rating 4 out of 5]

بهترین توصیف واسه این کتاب:
دانستنی های جالب تاریخی
که واقعا هم بعضیاشون جالب بودن و البته بعضیا هم نه
یک سری شونم نمیدونم چقدر قابل اعتماد بودن

[Mehdi Akbarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

با توجه به اینکه این کتاب اولین جلد مجموعه فصل های ناگفته تاریخ هست، بنظرم رسالتش رو انجام داده؛ به هرحال می‌شد تعدادی از داستان‌ های کم اهمیت تر رو حذف کرد تا کمی روند روایت وقایع هیجان انگیز تر بشه.

[Parmyc Grimm-pitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

یکی نوشته بود این کتاب بدرد وقتی میخوره که تو فرودگاه منتظر نشستی تا ساعت پروازت برسه.
کاملاً موافقم.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I call this a filler-book, one of those infotainment readings to use when my brain feels exhausted from... life, people and everything.
It's interesting and funny. In previous review someone called it an "airport book" and I agree.

[Evička de Blois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pokud veřejně přiznáte, že vás nazajímá historie, dostanete automaticky otázku: Tak kdy skončila druhá světová válka snad víš. VŽDYCKY, VŽDYCKY, VŽDYCKY.
Já vždy (jako správný barbar) řeknu: "Devatenáctsetčtyřicetněco?" a mám klid. Člověk si utvrdí, že jsem vážně debil, přestože jediná chvíle, kdy potřebujete znát přesné datum konce druhé světové války, je chvíle, kdy řeknete - nezajímá mě historie (nebo ve chvíli, kdy to řekne někdo vedle vás, abyste tuto otázku mohli položit vy), proč bychom pořád měli řešit historii?
V tu chvíli potřebujete znát přesné datum konce druhé světové války.
(mimochodem znám však rok 863, protože 8-2 je 6 a 6/2 je 3. 863! )

V této knize se nepíše, kdy končí druhá světová válka, ale píše se tam spousta zajímavých věcí, které vám sice taky k ničemu nebudou, ale jelikož vás zajímaly, nemusíte už nikdy říkat: "historie je nuda" a už nikdy, NIKDY nebudete potřebovat znát datum konce druhé světové války (které jsem se tedy už naučila, ale stejně vždycky odpovídám devatenáctsetčtyřicetněco, protože tahle odpověď ukončí téma rychleji a druhá osoba má radost, že i když jinak může být úplně debilní, umí říct: 2. září 1945, gratulki).

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusually entertaining bit of pop history. This collects an impressive array of historical tidbits, many of which really do live up to the unknown in the title. I'm always impressed when a book like this has only one or two stories that I've even heard of, and that was the case with this book. And even the couple of stories that I was familiar with were engagingly written and had a couple of bits of information that I hadn't read before. It seemed well-researched to me, and I appreciated the variety in subject matter.

[Aellirenn Czyta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesująca. Dobrze spędzony czas.

[Xiazki · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75*

[Maryam Mhly · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب بخشهایی از تاریخ رو میگه شاید خیلیا ندونن، از کوک زدن هیتلر تا نجات ادمی از دو بمب اتمی ژاپن و ادم خواری و ...

[Zahra · Rating 3 out of 5]

مجموعه ای از داستان های کوتاه واقعی تاریخی کمتر شنیده شده.

[Karolina Konduracka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Czytana na raty, ale bardzo dobra książka! Jedynym minusem dla mnie był dosyć ograniczony zakres czasowy tych historii.

[Matt Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great little book. Some have banged on it because of the length of the stories or that you can find materials on the Internet.
Maybe I'm wrong, but that's kinda the point of the book. Read some stories you haven't heard of, then if particularly interested, do more learning on the subject.
Picking up a 250 page history book that says on the back it has multiple stories and expecting every detail might mean your expectations are over reaching, not that the authors information was under reaching.

[Zuzana Dankic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kratke rychlovky, ktore neurazia. Do autobusu a elektricky na 3-4 zastavky ako stvorene :) Niektore pribehy som poznala, niektore nie, takze som vedela, ze nie su vymyslene, ale su to pozbierane bizardne postavicky tohoto sveta. Keby som sa pozerala takymto zuzenym pohladon na svet, pomyslim si, ze sme skoro vsetci vsetci pomyleni a cudni magori :D Este stastie, ze existuje kopec ludi, ktori ziju svoje normalne zivoty, ale ktovie co robia doma za zavretymi dverami :D
Inac ako tu uz niekto spominal, chybali mi odkazy do literatury, ale ujo google to zvladol.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short snippets of weird stories from history. Good "bathroom reading" as another reviewer put it...easy to read, kind of mindless entertainment. Some stories more interesting than others. Not a bad book to kill time on an airplane (where I found it) or when needing something quick and not necessarily engrossing.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title makes this book sound fun, or at least charmingly quirky, but it's a huge downer. The Great Big Book of Horrible Things (which details the 100 worst man-made atrocities) is an informative and actively enjoyable read. This book is not. I felt ill for a long time after finishing it (and it is compulsively readable). It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

[Zezee · Rating 5 out of 5]

As posted on Zezee with Books.

The second nonfiction book I’ve read this year and it was quite fun. When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain is a history book about facts not commonly discussed. The book is divided into two sections, which are further divided into several parts, and are composed of short essays that are no more than 3- or 4-pages long.

The book is a quick read, coming in at 261 pages, which includes lists of suggested readings for the topics covered. Most of the essays are written in a light-hearted tone with jabs thrown at certain figures whose actions seem a bit comical. Other times, a serious tone is affected when the events and figures being discussed are placed in either inhumane or dire situations.

I enjoyed reading this book. I picked it up by chance while visiting the library because the title caught my attention. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was glad to find that it is easy to read because of the short, snappy essays and that it’s quite entertaining as well. I also like that we are given some background details to better understand why an event occurred or why a person did something.

Of the essays, these stood out the most to me:

“When Hitler Took Cocaine,” which talks about Hitler’s cocaine addiction as well as the concoction of drugs his personal physician, Theodor Morell, fed him. The last sentence in this essay is pretty interesting:

“It is ironic that the man charged with restoring Hitler to good health probably did more than anyone else to contribute to his decline.”

“The Long War of Hiroo Onoda,” about a Japanese soldier who kept conducting guerilla raids in the jungles of the Philippines 29 years after World War II had ended. He didn’t stop fighting until his commanding officer, who was luckily still alive, visited him and told him the war is over, Japan lost, and he should stop. I love the opening sentence to this essay:

“His home was a dense area of rainforest and he lived on the wild coconuts that grew in abundance. His principal enemy was the army of mosquitos that arrived with each new shower of rain. But for Hiroo Onoda, there was another enemy, one that remained elusive.”

“Surviving Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” which is about Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both bombings and later became an advocate against the use of nuclear weapons. He died in 2010 at 93-years-old.

“Barking for Victory,” about a dog that served in the U.S. Army during World War I and advanced to the level of sergeant through combat. He was the only dog to do so.

“Who Killed Rasputin?” which is, of course, about Rasputin’s death. It disputes all the myths surrounding it but I prefer the fantastical recollections surrounding his death.

“The Last Eunuch of China,” which was an interesting read about the life of the last eunuch. Personally, I would have been pissed because it seems that soon as Sun Yaoting got his dick chopped off, the emperor abdicated his throne. That really sucks. All he wanted to do was serve his emperor.

“When Lenin Lost His Brain.” It’s kind of gruesome but basically Vladimir Lenin’s body has been on display for almost nine decades somewhere in Russia. The corpse is missing its brain, which was removed to be studied. By the way, here’s an article about it that appeared in The Atlantic.

“Into the Monkey House,” which is about Ota Benga, a pygmy brought from Congo and kept in the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo in New York.

“The American Museum of Natural History retains a life-size cast of Ota Benga’s head and shoulders. To this day it is not marked with his name or any indication that he was a human being. The label has just one word: ‘pygmy’.”

“The Human Freak Show,” about Sarah Baartman, also known as the ‘Hottentot Venus’. She was brought from Cape Town to England to be paraded about to display her body: large buttocks and genitalia. I’ve known about both Baartman and Ota Benga before reading this book, but reading about them again really angered me, especially Baartman’s story. Even in death, she was still displayed. She was dissected and her genitalia were pickled to be displayed, along with her skeleton, in the Musée de l’Homme, France, until 1974. In 2002, Nelson Mandela asked that her remains be returned to South Africa for a proper burial.

“Emperor of the United States,” about the dude who declared himself emperor back in the 1860s. It’s kind of funny.

“The Man Who Bought His Wife,” was a really cool read that would make a great historical-fiction story. The short of it: Florenz Szasz, a Hungarian teen who was abducted and made a slave, was “sold” to Samuel Baker (quite an adventure there because he didn’t have the money to buy her), who became her husband and brought her along on his excursions in Africa.

“Let’s Talk Gibberish,” which is about the use of Navajo language in World War II because codes sent in Navajo were impossible to break.

Overall: ★★★★★

I almost listed all the essays in the book above. I enjoyed reading this book and I learned loads from it. So if you’re fascinated by history, would like to read some quirky stories about real people and occurrences, or would just like to try a quick nonfiction book, I highly suggest that you give this one a try.