100 of the Worst Ideas in History: Humanity's Thundering Brainstorms Turned Blundering Brain Farts

100 of the Worst Ideas in History: Humanity's Thundering Brainstorms Turned Blundering Brain Farts

by Michael Smith, Eric Kasum
100 of the Worst Ideas in History: Humanity's Thundering Brainstorms Turned Blundering Brain Farts

100 of the Worst Ideas in History: Humanity's Thundering Brainstorms Turned Blundering Brain Farts

by Michael Smith, Eric Kasum

eBook

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Overview

A humorous illustrated gift book with history's biggest fails hailing from politics, pop culture, international relations, business, sports, and more.

From skinny-dipping Presidents to toxic tooth fillings to singing pop stars who can't carry a tune, 100 of the Worst Ideas in History is a celebration of humanity's historical—and often hysterical—missteps that have started wars, sunk countries, wrecked companies, scuttled careers, lost millions of dollars, and even endangered the Earth.

Interesting stories from history include:

  • How a confused chauffeur helped start World War I
  • Who turned down the greatest product placement opportunity in Hollywood history
  • How a Chicago White Sox game helped hasten the demise of disco
  • The toad that nearly ate Australia
  • The most dangerous children's game ever invented

Spanning politics, pop culture, fashion, sports, technology, and more, this irreverent and witty book is packed with fun photos and sidebars, tracing how these thundering brainstorms turned into blundering brain farts—and the astonishing impacts our faux pas and foibles still have on us today.

Great for gifting!

  • Funny Father's Day gift
  • White elephant gag gift
  • Unique gift for the history major
  • Fun teacher gift

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781402293924
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication date: 06/03/2014
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 1,015,959
File size: 26 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

MICHAEL SMITH, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with a doctorate in Transpersonal Psychology and certifications in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing as well as Somatic Psychology. Michael has practiced multiple forms of meditation since the late 1960s, including Dzogchen Tibetan Buddhism, and teaches mindfulness-based meditation and psychotherapy. Learn more at www.drmichaelsmith.org.


Eric Kasum wrote speeches for former President George H.W. Bush, as well as President Ronald Reagan’s White House Chief of Staff and former Attorney General, Edwin Meese. As a journalist, he wrote for The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times magazine group, and CBS News. Eric also wrote for a respected think tank in Washington, D.C. He is founder and CEO of the Imagine Institute, a think tank for Peace, and host of the Imagine Peace Conference at UC Berkeley. His work has appeared in The Huffington Post as well as more than 100 newspapers and magazines around the world. He lives in California.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

They are priceless, multifaceted jewels of misjudgment. Masterworks of the moronic. Steroid-juiced stupidity wearing a size 9XX dunce cap embroidered with one simple word: "Duh."

They are the colossally, cringingly, often laughably bad notions that have leapt from the short-circuiting synapses of some of the world's brightest (and dimmest) brains, now faithfully chronicled here as 100 of the Worst Ideas in History.

Hailing from the worlds of politics, popular culture, international relations, finance, business, sports, entertainment, and news—from the near and distant past—these shoddy concepts have started wars, sunk countries, wrecked companies, scuttled careers, lost millions, endangered Earth, and left the bad idea's mommy or daddy as red faced as, well, your mom or dad will be when they learn that you like to dress your pit bull as one of the Backstreet Boys.

On this rollicking romp through the bungles and stumbles of humanity, we'll:

• Meet the U.S. president who starts each day skinny-dipping in the Potomac.

• Sample the "dental hygiene product" that could rot your teeth.

• Get an earful of the hit singing group that can't really sing.

• Munch on the tasty new snack food that might just give you diarrhea.

• Drop by the restaurant chain named after a derogatory term for African Americans.

• Encounter the famed archaeologist whose discovery of the "missing link" is revealed to be a monkey jaw glued to a human skull.

• Stick an angry ferret down our pants for fun and prizes.

• Plus so much more (of so much less).

Peppered with scores of info-taining photos, "Hey-I-Didn't-Know-That" factoids, and perspective-gaining "Afterthoughts," this collection of our species' most stupendously stinky thinking spotlights how the ideas of yesterday—from funny flubs to the stunningly strange to classic mind-bogglers—continue to resonate in each of our lives today.

Without further ado and in no particular order, here are 100 of history's thundering brainstorms that turned out to be blundering brain farts.

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