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 enlarge | Authors: Erik Sass, Steve Wiegand, Editors Of Mental Floss
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $15.41
You Save: $8.54 (36%)
New (31) Used (9) from $14.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 7298
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0060784776
Dewey Decimal Number: 909
EAN: 9780060784775
ASIN: 0060784776
Publication Date: November 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Book, ALL days Low Price !
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| Customer Reviews:
 Thoroughly Enjoyable! December 18, 2008
I was pleased to see that this is a dense volume, filled with facts, graphs/charts, and quotes. While the book does not delve particularly deeply into any one subject, the volume's coverage is quite broad. And while I was familiar with a good deal of the information (I was a History major in college), each section had a number kernels of knowledge that were new to me.
It's possible to read this book from cover to cover, but the format lends itself well to reading in installments. The sections are short and can be read in quick bursts. But best of all is the irreverent tone of the book. I never laughed like this when reading my textbooks!
Where was this when I was in school? December 16, 2008
As with all other mental_floss nuggets of wisdom, I love this book! This is a must read and a must share!
Learning History is Fun December 12, 2008
I have not completed the book, but so far, it has been enjoyable with facts normally not seen in history books.
Not Bad for History Lite December 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I recently picked up a copy of Sass & Wiegand's "The Mental Floss History of the World," thinking it would probably be another amusing collection of brief historical trivia. It turns out to be a fairly detailed and witty narrative of events from ancient times to the present, a true world history that tells the story of China, India, Japan, Africa, Polynesia and the New World as well as Classical and Western Cilvization (obviously, at a mere 394 pages, it doesn't do any of this in great detail).
The book also offers a pleasing assortment of "ah-ha" moments, such as the fact that in 1175 BC Pharaoh Rameses III "forced" the Peleset tribe of Sea Peoples to settle in Egyptian-controlled Canaan (probably more an accommodation to facts on the ground than a true Egyptian victory). The Peleset became known in the Bible as "Philistines" and the territory that they occupied came to be called "Palestine." The narrative is spiced with side bars that explore interesting details like this, and each major section of the book concludes with an amusing review of "who's up" and "who's down" during that period of history.
I read a lot of history books (I just finished Susan Wise Bauer's superb "History of the Ancient World"), and "The Mental Floss History of the World" seems pretty accurate. It also offers up some new and interesting facts and perspectives that aren't covered in weightier tomes, plus it's a lot funnier. This is not the boring history that is the bane of high school students everywhere--this is world history revealed as the comedy and the tragedy it so often is.
Makes history interesting! December 2, 2008
I love that the writers of Mental Floss can take something as boring as World History can be (sorry history buffs) and make it interesting and humorous. This book would be great for anyone from history buffs to people looking for a good interesting and humorous read.
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