Depressing, funny, informative. Great book!

This book is as informative as it is funny. I cannot count on my two hands how many times I laughed and got amazed by the facts (and that's not combining the two, that's separate countings).

Jared Diamond meets Dave Barry.

When I picked up this book and read the back cover, I expected a quick and dirty "greatest hits" list of embarrassing mistakes recorded in history. (My immediate thought was the Battle of Karansebes -- a "battle" in 1788 when a bunch of drunk Austrian soldiers thought they were being attacked by Ottomans and ended up shooting each other -- should be in the book, and it is.) Instead what I read was a pretty comprehensive look at the major man made innovations and catastrophes throughout history, with specific chapters set aside on topics like agriculture, war, democracy, science and technology, etc. It even more or less follows the chronological history of the world, with the first chapter after the introduction being about how human brains developed, followed by the rise of agriculture and the domestication of animals, then of states ruled by leaders, then of states ruled "democratically," then of war and so on.

The book is hilarious, surprisingly nuanced and even sometimes optimistic. As I read, I kept an ever increasing list of people I needed to recommend it to, and by the end I could only think of about two people I know that I WOULDN'T recommend it to, and that just because they don't like swearing.

So ... don't read this book if you don't like profanity. Otherwise, go for it.

A long list of events and things humans f***ed up. And usually repeated it again.

An easy light read filled with short stories told in satirical fashion of how humans have screwed up throughout history. Entertaining read, though not overly detailed/in depth.

An enlightening read. The kind of book you want to read out loud whole chapters.

The section on Hitler - are we sure he wasn't also talking about Trump?

Some bits of this are terrifying, regarding just how similarly we are heading to the past, but potentially worse.

That said, read this.

Highly entertaining read on some of humankind's biggest blunders. But to be clear it has no sources or citations. There is a list of suggested reading in the back but that's it. A good place to start, find a story that interests you and then hunt down sources yourself. Happily I feel the author made it clear in the beginning that was how it would be.

Oh, and knowledge of the current political climate is definitely needed to get some of the jokes.

audiobook - I really enjoyed this, it often felt like listening to John Oliver, whom I love. I got a little bored with some of the war history towards the end, but overall this was very entertaining.