Book description
They say that history is written by the winners. Not according to
Derek Wilson. In this fascinating, revelatory book, Derek tells the
story from the point of view of the losers Â- collating a catalogue of
calamities and catastrophes which have shaped our world more than
historians tend to let on. In ten lucid and entertaining chapters,
Wilson identifies the very worst years of human history, from the
destruction of the Roman Empire in 541 through the march on Leningrad
in 1942 to the Vietnam War of 1968. Condensing two thousand years of
war, plague, misrule and political villainy, he identifies the
traitors, scumbags and villains, whose lust for power Â- and
sometimes, sheer incompetence Â- brought such terror to their times.
He delves into the natural forces beyond human control that have wiped
out whole peoples. And, most of all, he shows how history has a
horrible habit of repeating itself.
Derek Wilson is one of Britain's leading popular historians. Since
leaving Cambridge, where he took the Archbishop Cranmer Prize for
post-graduate research, he has written over 50 books including Britain's
Rottenest Years (Short Books), Rothschild: A Story of Wealth and Power
and Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man, as well as making numerous
radio and TV appearances.
