Calamities & Catastrophes: The Ten Absolutely Worst Years in History

They say that history is written by the winners. Not according to Derek Wilson. In this fascinating, entertaining book, Wilson tells the story from the point of view of the losers—cataloging the wars, disease, turmoil, and political villainy that 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 existence, from the destruction of the Roman Empire in 541 to the first year of post American Civil War reconstruction in 1866, from the siege of Leningrad in 1942 to the Vietnam War of 1968. Condensing 2,000 years of world history, he identifies the traitors, scumbags, and villains, whose lust for power—and sometimes sheer incompetence—brought such terror to their times. He delves into the natural forces beyond our control that have wiped out whole peoples. And, most of all, he shows how history has a horrible habit of repeating itself—one, he would counsel, we should make more of an effort to stop.

Witty and caustic, educational yet diverting, Calamities and Catastrophes is a fast-paced, funny book for history buffs and casual readers alike.

In this fascinating, revelatory book, Wilson tells the story from the point of view of the losers - collating a catalogue of calamities and catastrophes that have shaped our world more than historians tend to let on.

In ten lucid and entertaining chapters, the author identifies the very worst years of human history, from the destruction of the Roman Empire in 541 to the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War in 1865, from 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 - and sometimes, sheer incompetence - 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.