Good intentions don't always lead to success. Great Misadventures chronicles 100 failed adventures that ended in disaster because of human error. With chronological coverage extending from early civilization to the present, this new 4-vol. set tells the tale of exciting adventures gone wrong.
Explores over 100 historical, political, military, and social events where human error has led to disaster.
A book with a specially fortified binding and durable hardcover designed to withstand repeated use. Often used for children's titles and usually more expensive than standard hardcover editions.
Good intentions don't always lead to success. Great Misadventures chronicles 100 failed adventures that ended in disaster because of human error. With chronological coverage extending from early civilization to the present, this new 4-vol. set tells the tale of exciting adventures gone wrong.
Explores over 100 historical, political, military, and social events where human error has led to disaster.
Each volume in this set covers a specific subject: Exploration and Adventure; Science and Technology; Military; and Society. Cross-references direct readers to related articles, and each volume has a cumulative index. Boxes highlight biographical profiles and related facts. More than two hundred relevant and well-reproduced photographs, illustrations, and maps help make the articles easier to read and assimilate. Great Misadventures is not without flaws, however. Lists of sources that append each article can be meager at best, often containing only one or two citations. Also, the author occasionally makes sweeping statements that are either misleading or flat-out wrong. In the article on Pickett's Charge, for example, the author states that Robert E. Lee "was no good at giving orders." This is misleading and inaccurate-a man with such a problem could not have decisively beaten a numerically superior Union Army at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Lee's problem was that he sometimes failed to realize which of his general officers (like Richard Ewell) needed direct, highly detailed orders, and which generals (like Stonewall Jackson) could be relied upon to successfully execute less detailed directives. It is also extremely misleading and inaccurate when the author continues: "it often did not matter if Lee issued a strict order because his troops would do whatever they wanted." Rebel soldiers executed for desertion or cowardice would certainly dispute that claim. It would be more accurate to point out that most of the insubordination problem in Lee's army was embodied by general officers who willfully, or due to ineptitude, failed to perform as directed by General Lee. In terms of factual errors, this same article states that General Grant was in charge of the Union Army in June 1863, and that Chancellorsville was General Lee's first attempt to invade the North. Grant was not given command of the Union Army until March 1864, and Chancellorsville (which is in Virginia, and took place in May 1863) was both not an attempt to invade the North and not Lee's first attempt to do so. The Battle of Antietam, Maryland (September 17, 1862), was Lee's first attempt to invade the North (Maryland was a border state, loyal to the Union). Other articles in this set cover such topics as the Children's Crusade, the Donner Party tragedy, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the sinking of the Titanic, Thalidomide birth defects, Agent Orange spraying, Three Mile Island, the Challenger explosion, the assault on Battery Wagner, the Battle of Verdun, witchcraft hysteria, John Brown's raid, the Rosenberg case, and eighty-six others. Many of these articles were found to be mainly free of error and misleading statements. Therefore this attractively priced, thought-provoking set is recommended-simply check any questionable items against other sources, as you would with any other reference volume. Four volumes. Index. Illus. Photos. Maps. Further Reading. Chronology.
School Library Journal
Gr 6-9--This drably produced but topically arresting browsers' confection gathers together "100 stories of human error, greed, and poor judgment," from the obliteration of the Athenian fleet in 413 B.C.E. to the mid-1997 death of chemist Karen Wetterhahn as a result of mercury poisoning. Saari chronicles many higher-profile debacles as well: Waterloo, Three Mile Island, the Children's Crusade, the Black Sox scandal, and so on. Arranged in subject volumes (Exploration and Adventure, Military, etc.), each entry includes a summation, a general narrative, a boxed section providing biographical or other details, one or more pallid black-and-white photographs, and a brief list of sources for further study. Though accuracy is sometimes sacrificed to sensationalism, the real flaws here have more to do with design than content: each volume contains the same 73 pages of front and back matter and the pages have a utilitarian look that's hopelessly at odds with the subject matter. Still, for well-endowed collections, this edges past The Associated Press Library of Disasters (Grolier, 1997) both for its historical and its topical scope.--John Peters, New York Public Library
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Overview
Explores over 100 historical, political, military, and social events where human error has led to disaster.