A Short History of the World in 50 Failures

A fascinating and entertaining alternative history of the world told through fifty of the greatest failures, catastrophes and missed opportunities ever to occur.

<p><b>Explore the failures, mistakes and missed opportunities that shaped history in this new entry in the bestselling series.</b><br><br>From the botched attempt to create a life-extending elixir that produced gunpowder, to the unsuccessful stint in medical school which led to a career in naturalism for Charles Darwin, to the missile detection system malfunction that almost sparked a nuclear war, the course of human history has so often been shaped by failures of all magnitudes.<br><br>In<b> fifty bite-sized chapters</b> spanning <b>thousands of years</b>, <i>A Short History of the World in 50 Failures</i> details how the world as we know it has been defined by plans gone awry, opportunities not seized upon and schemes that were always fated to end in catastrophe.<br><br>Whether it’s the pharaoh Akhenaten’s misplaced attempt to found a new religion or Napoleon’s doomed invasion of Russia, discover<b> a fascinating collection of outsized tales and historical snafus </b>that created the world as we know it today.<br><br><b>Also available:</b><br><i>A Short History of the World in 50 Places</i> (9781789291971)<br><i>A Short History of the World in 50 Animals</i> (9781789292954)<br><i>A Short History of the World in 50 Books</i> (9781789294088)<br><i>A Short History of the World in 50 Lies</i> (9781789294606)</p>