You Did What? : Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but at least one glaring mistake
Review: On page 219, Thomsen writes that Ronald Reagan divorced Jane Wyman, "everyone's favorite mother from 'Father Knows Best'."

Maybe he meant Jane Wyatt, who WAS the mother on 'Father Knows Best' or maybe he misplaced Jane Wyman, who was certainly no one's favorite mother on 'Falcon Crest'. The similarity of these actresses ends with the similarity of their names. Their appearance and acting would not be confused by even a casual inspection. This is an error which could easily have been avoided with only the slightest effort at research, which was evidently not done.

I found the book quite entertaining and enlightening until I got to that page. A simple, avoidable error like that one makes me question the credibility of the rest of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Very good light reading for the amateur historian
Review: Personally, I enjoyed the book. There was much I learned from this book. I knew very little of the Galveston Hurricane. I did not realize that "New Coke" is still made in certain parts of the country. I never realized that Napoleon's big mistake at Waterloo was in having the wrong adjutant in charge. Or how the Kaiser's hatred for his mother helped in causing World War 1. This and many more interesting tidbits are top be found in this book. The only problem with this book is that most of the entries are fairly modern.

Rating:
Summary: By turns maddening and fascinating
Review: Reading this terribly uneven book was the most irritating experience I've had in a long time. Its title seemed to indicate a tongue-in-cheek approach to history's gaffes and goofs, in the vein of "The Darwin Awards". Instead, the reader was often treated to rather ordinary recititations of history. The tale of Watergate was told in a straightforward style without entertainment value. The barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire were a dull, unfunny and undetailed summary (in only 7 pages !) of 400 years of Roman history. Other stories held my interest better, not due to the writing but because of the unfamiliar subject matter. The story of Ferdinand de Lesseps' first attempt to build the Panama Canal was an example. But even this tale, which tried to poke fun at de Lesseps' folly, just wasn't funny.

The book, subtitled "Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters," is less about the folly of human beings than about the unexpected (but not mad) turns that human activities take. Who knew ahead of time that aspirin would have value while heroin would become a social scourge?

I'll say this for the book: as annoying as it was, I kept coming back to it until I finished it. That's worth 3 stars.

Rating:
Summary: About MacLean Stevenson
Review: The book makes a mistake about Mr. Stevenson (Blake on MASH). The book says MS left MASH and in no time was on hello Larry. Excuse me! Hello Larry began about four years after MS left MASH.