It Seemed Like a Good Idea...: A Compendium of Great Historical Fiascoe

by William R. Forstchen

Throughout the annals of history, the best of intentions--and sometimes the worst--have set in motion events with a vastly different outcome than originally intended. In this entertaining, fact-filled chronicle, William Forstchen and Bill Fawcett explore the watersheds of history that began as the best of ideas and ended as the worst of fiascoes.A Holy War--The Medieval Crusades for religious liberation become centuries of slaughter and destruction.Sibling Rivalry--Leif Erikson spares his sister's life and delays the discovery of the New World for five hundred years.Big Guns--Emperor Constantine XI refuses to buy a new supercannon that would let him dominate his enemies, so its creator sells the cannon to the Turks, who then crush Constantinople.With casual wit and subtle insight, "It Seemed Like a Good Idea."..tucks tongue in cheek and rides out the fiascoes of history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Humor, Military History, Military Fiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2000

About the author

William R. Forstchen (born 1950) is an American author who began publishing in 1983 with the novel Ice Prophet. He is a Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreat College, in Montreat, North Carolina. He received his doctorate from Purdue University with specializations in Military History, the American Civil War and the History of Technology.

Forstchen is the author of more than forty books, including the award winning We Look Like Men of War, a young adult novel about an African-American regiment that fought at the Battle of the Crater, which is based upon his doctoral dissertation, The 28th USCTs: Indiana’s African-Americans go to War, 1863-1865 and the "Lost Regiment" series which has been optioned by both Tom Cruise and M. Night Shyamalan.

Forstchen’s writing efforts have, in recent years, shifted towards historical fiction and non fiction. In 2002 he started the “Gettysburg” trilogy with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; the trilogy consists of Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant - The Final Victory. More recently, they have have published two works on the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and immediately after that attack Pearl Harbor, and Days of Infamy.

In March 2009, Forstchen’s latest work, One Second After, (Forge/St. Martin’s books) was released. Based upon several years of intensive research and interviews, it examines what might happen in a “typical” American town in the wake of an attack on the United States with “electro-magnetic pulse” (EMP) weapons. Similar in plotting to books such as On the Beach and Alas Babylon, One Second After, is set in a small college town in western North Carolina and is a cautionary tale of the collapse of social order in the wake of an EMP strike. The book has been optioned by Warner Bros. and currently is in development as a feature film. The book was cited on the floor of Congress and before the House Armed Services Committee by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R.-MD), chair of the House Committee tasked to evaluate EMP weapons, as a realistical portrayal of the potential damage rendered by an EMP attack on the continental United States.

Forstchen resides near Asheville, North Carolina with his daughter Meghan. His other interests include archaeology, and he has participated in several expeditions to Mongolia and Russia. He is a pilot and co owns an original 1943 Aeronca L-3B recon plane used in World War II.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...

Reviews

[Artie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this is great and the execution is generally quite good, but some factual errors prevented it from getting 5 Stars. Highly recommended.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It Seemed Like a Good Idea provides an enjoyable enough read, giving a brief overview of some of the more disastrous events throughout history. However, since each event is covered in so few words, there is a lack of concrete and specific details. More for fun than actual history, It Seemed Like a Good Idea is fine enough for a quick read, but doesn't provide much in substance.

[Viktoriya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took my time reading this book: one chapter every few days, when I felt like it. It was the best way to read this book (in my humble opinion). Book talks about different events in world history where certain decisions were made that seemed like a correct choice at the time, but have proven to be disastrous. Interesting collection.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting little essays and synopses. Some good information and some that might have been sourced more thoroughly. I appreciated some of the dry humor, and actually enjoyed the bite-sized pieces, although I could have used some more elaboration on some of them. I found it harder to engage with some pieces, but some of them were quite good.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read by a well known group of authors looking at what seemed to be good ideas at the time but turned out to be errors.

Another book of warnings that when we look back in hindsight some ideas turn out just to be wrong.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

It may have been a good idea, but…
A good, fun, read to learn just a bit more about things you might have known a smidgen about.
Take a hot minute and pick this book up, you won’t be able to put it down!

[Vinayak Malik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas ! really great ......

[Adam Foster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent enough read, but with some errors in their historical analysis, and some entries didn't seem to be researched at all.

[Murray Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the back cover says, a tongue in cheek look as mishaps and fiasco across history.

[Ness Greenough · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading the essay on the Vikings trying to settle Nova Scotia and being able to stand in Nova Scotia today and see cloud formations caused by Greenland's topography, I lost a lot of faith in everything else in this book. The author was obviously referring to present-day Newfoundland, not Nova Scotia. This is a pretty easy fact to check and is an embarrassing mistake to make. Most Canadian schoolchildren could probably tell you which province the Vikings landed in. Oh, and there is a heritage site there today. If something this simple to verify is wrong, how can I know how much of the other tales are true?

[Kirsti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. Essays about historical blunders. Most are about obvious subjects (Cannae, the Spanish Armada, the Kennedy assassination) and are loaded with typos and grammatical errors. Also, no information is sourced, and there is no bibliography.

I did enjoy Jody Lynn Nye's essay "Snow Job: How Not to Get Elected in Chicago," about government shenanigans around the time of the Blizzard of '78. As for the rest of the book, it seemed like a good idea (har har) but was executed poorly.

[Bjoern · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice mixture of small and major mishaps in the fields of politics, military strategy and others which inevitably turned out not as the one person starting it had intended.

Over all an amusing array of failure, even if not every story does manage to hold up to the same standard. I did even get some new detailss to know about history while enjoying the read... much.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing look at history in terms of failures - mostly military, but not completely. Somewhat America/Euro-centric, but most general interest history books in this country are.

Possibly a good resource in a high school AP History class, but needs bibliography/footnotes.

[Rod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much as the title suggests; when I bought it........
Interesting stories but very short with no footnotes or bibliography to back up their facts and interpretation. Left me questioning the veracity of their conclusions.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was ok--more general essays. A bit dissapointing, the book didn't really fit the title. I didn't get what I was expecting out of the work.