{"product_id":"doris-flexner-the-pessimist-s-guide-to-history-3e-9780061431012","title":"The Pessimist's Guide to History 3e","description":"The classic irreverent look at the past--now updated with even more appalling facts!Fourteen billion or so years ago, the Big Bang exploded--and it's been downhill from there. For every spectacular discovery throughout history, there have been hundreds of devastating epidemics; for every benevolent despot, a thousand like Vlad the Impaler; for every cup half-full, a larger cup half-empty. This enthralling, enlightening, and devilishly entertaining chronicle of disasters and dastardly deeds brings to light the darkest events in history and the most abysmal calamities to strike the planet . . . so far.88 BC: Mithridates VI Eupator provides an early example of genocide by massacring 100,000 Romans.1347: Saint Vitus' Dance Epidemic shimmies across Europe like a deadly disco fever, leaving its victims twitching, uncontrollably leaping, and foaming at the mouth.1888: Jack the Ripper stalks through the dark alleys of Whitechapel, England, turning the world's oldest profession into the world's most dangerous one.1939: A Swiss chemist wins a Nobel Prize for developing DDT--and the environment gets another nail in the coffin.2005: Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast. In a classic double whammy, the government response also devastates the Gulf Coast.And much, much more!","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53908148420950,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.momoxbooks.com\/products\/doris-flexner-the-pessimist-s-guide-to-history-3e-9780061431012","provider":"momoxbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}