Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

The Interesting Bits: The History You Might Have Missed

0/5 ( ratings)

Did you give your school history lessons your undivided attention?

Even if you did, you're probably none the wiser as to how exactly Henry II of France came to have a two-foot splinter in his head, or why Alexandra of Bavaria believed she had swallowed a piano. Or where terms like bunkum, maverick, John Bull and taking the mickey come from; or how the Tsarina of Russia once saved a life with a comma; or why Robert Pate hit Queen Victoria on the head with a walking stick.

For some unknown reason, the most interesting bits of history are kept out of lessons and away from syllabuses. Relegated to history's footnotes, they lie buried beneath the dense text like a few golden nuggets in a mountain of granite.

Now "The Interesting Bits" rights this wrong; it is a veritable treasure trove of those surprising, eccentric, chaotic, baffling asides that don't fit neatly into history's official narrative.

They are history's little-known treasures - the gems that generations of teachers have excised from lessons on the grounds that they might make history too much like - well - fun.

Language: English

Pages: 297

Format: Hardcover

Release: January 01, 2007

ISBN 13: 9780719524202

The Interesting Bits: The History You Might Have Missed

0/5 ( ratings)

Did you give your school history lessons your undivided attention?

Even if you did, you're probably none the wiser as to how exactly Henry II of France came to have a two-foot splinter in his head, or why Alexandra of Bavaria believed she had swallowed a piano. Or where terms like bunkum, maverick, John Bull and taking the mickey come from; or how the Tsarina of Russia once saved a life with a comma; or why Robert Pate hit Queen Victoria on the head with a walking stick.

For some unknown reason, the most interesting bits of history are kept out of lessons and away from syllabuses. Relegated to history's footnotes, they lie buried beneath the dense text like a few golden nuggets in a mountain of granite.

Now "The Interesting Bits" rights this wrong; it is a veritable treasure trove of those surprising, eccentric, chaotic, baffling asides that don't fit neatly into history's official narrative.

They are history's little-known treasures - the gems that generations of teachers have excised from lessons on the grounds that they might make history too much like - well - fun.

Language: English

Pages: 297

Format: Hardcover

Release: January 01, 2007

ISBN 13: 9780719524202

More books from Justin Pollard

The Great Commanders of the Medieval World, 454-1582

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Complete Uncle

4.7/5 ( ratings)

Vikings and the Vikings: Essays on Television's History Channel Series

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern Mind

Alfred the Great: The Man Who Made England.

L-Animals

Seven Ages Of Britain

Alfred the Great

Die Geschichte der Archäologie

Boffinology: The Real Stories Behind Our Greatest Scientific Discoveries

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern Mind

Buses, Bankers & the Beer of Revenge: An Eccentric Engineering Collection

The Story of Archaeology: In 50 Great Discoveries

Charge

The World of Vikings

Rate this book!

Write a review?