Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    It Seemed Like a Good Idea...: A Compendium Of Great Historical Fiascoe
    Unavailable
    It Seemed Like a Good Idea...: A Compendium Of Great Historical Fiascoe
    Unavailable
    It Seemed Like a Good Idea...: A Compendium Of Great Historical Fiascoe
    Ebook294 pages4 hours

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

    By William R. Forstchen and Bill Fawcett

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 17, 2009
    ISBN9780061745300
    Unavailable
    It Seemed Like a Good Idea...: A Compendium Of Great Historical Fiascoe
    Author

    William R. Forstchen

    William R. Forstchen, author of several dozen books in the fields of science fiction, history, and historical fiction, resides in western North Carolina. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Purdue University and is a professor of history at Montreat College. His works include the coauthored, New York Times bestselling series Gettysburg, written with Newt Gingrich, the Lost Regiment series, and the award-winning We Look Like Men of War, a novel based on his doctoral dissertation about an African American regiment in the Civil War. He spends most summers in Mongolia, doing archaeological and historical research, and his current hobby is the restoration and flying of a replica P-51 Mustang fighter plane.

    Read more from William R. Forstchen

    Related to It Seemed Like a Good Idea...

    Related ebooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Prince Philip: In Youth And Age, The Right Man For The Times

      Apr 11, 2021

      The first mention of Prince Philip in this newspaper came with the announcement of his engagement to the future queen on 13 July, 1947. It is a measure of the privacy that the royals then enjoyed that no gossip or rumour of their years of courtship h

      7 min read

    • Article

      Prince Philip 1921 – 2021

      Apr 18, 2021

      It wouldn’t be a stretch to call the Duke of Edinburgh a proto-feminist. Despite being the embodiment of that Kipling-esque idyll, a man’s man, he married a woman to whom he would always be subordinate in the eyes of the world. Yet he could never be

      7 min read

    • Article

      Prince Philip Had A Walk-on Part In The Royal Drama, But He Played It To Perfection | Simon Jenkins

      Apr 9, 2021

      It is not disparaging of Prince Philip, who has died aged 99, to say he was always a walk-on part in the pantomime of monarchy. It was a part in which he was a star. Plucked from the ranks of lesser European royalty as the “suitable” husband for a qu

      4 min read

    • Article

      Renaissance Prince

      Apr 29, 2021

      PHYSICIST, PHYSICIAN, LINGUIST, ENGINEER, and — besides much else — life insurance actuary, Thomas Young (1773-1829) has been called “the last man who knew everything”. At the bicentenary of his birth, the Science Museum suggested Young “probably had

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Fairytale Beginning

      Apr 18, 2021

      A Fairytale Beginning
      2 min read

    • Article

      What We’re Reading

      Dec 28, 2016

      What We’re Reading
      2 min read

    • Article

      Renaissance Man

      Apr 14, 2021

      Renaissance Man
      7 min read

    • Article

      Fairies And Fake News

      Mar 14, 2024

      Fairies And Fake News
      6 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      May 14, 2020

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      8 min read

    • Article

      An Enlightenment King Vindicated

      Nov 25, 2021

      THIS OUTSTANDING NEW BIOGRAPHY of George III is timely. The first of the Hanoverians to identify as British was mocked, slandered and vilified during his lifetime and is still regularly cited in the American media as the epitome of tyranny. Over the

      5 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      Mar 16, 2023

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      6 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      Sep 3, 2020

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      9 min read

    • Article

      Napoleon’s Russian Namesis

      Jun 9, 2022

      Napoleon’s Russian Namesis
      11 min read

    • Article

      An Adventurer’s Idol

      Oct 24, 2023

      An Adventurer’s Idol
      6 min read

    • Article

      Britain’s Black Trailblazers

      Oct 1, 2020

      Britain’s Black Trailblazers
      14 min read

    • Article

      Raw And Immersive Tale Of The Civil War

      May 26, 2022

      LATE IN THE SUMMER OF 1641, with Charles I deep in dispute with his Parliament, alarming reports reached Westminster of Catholics amassing arms at Basing House in Hampshire. At this point in time, few expected civil war, but plenty feared an imminent

      5 min read

    • Article

      Frederick II

      Feb 28, 2020

      Frederick II
      7 min read

    • Article

      Making Of A Modern Monarchy

      Apr 29, 2021

      Making Of A Modern Monarchy
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 1, 2022

      Thomas More, in a c1527 portrait. His book Utopia has sound advice for politicians, says reader Jeremy Rhodes After reading Lauren Johnson’s article on Henry V and Henry VI (September), I will have to agree to disagree with the claim that Henry VI’s

      3 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      Jul 6, 2023

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      9 min read

    • Article

      James VI And The Witches

      Jan 31, 2024

      The fearful abounding at this time in this country. of these detestable slaves of the Devil, the Witches or enchanters. hath moved me (beloved reader) to dispatch in post, this following treatise of mine, not in any way (as I protest) to serve for a

      9 min read

    • Article

      Chaeronea 338 Bce

      Nov 23, 2023

      Chaeronea 338 Bce
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Real Royal Crisis

      Apr 4, 2021

      The Real Royal Crisis
      6 min read

    Reviews for It Seemed Like a Good Idea...

    3/5

    16 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      A good romp through history.