A Short History of the World in 50 Failures

By: Ben Gazur

Published by Michael O'Mara Books, Limited, 2025-09-30

<b>Explore the failures, mistakes, and missed opportunities that shaped history.</b> <p>From the botched attempt to create a life-extending elixir that produced gunpowder to the unsuccessful stint in medical school that led to a career in naturalism for Charles Darwin, to the missile detection system malfunction that almost sparked a nuclear war, the course of human history has often been shaped by failures of all magnitudes. <p>In fifty bite-sized chapters spanning thousands of years, <i>A Short History of the World in 50 Failures</i> details how the world as we know it has been defined by plans gone awry, opportunities not seized, and schemes that were always fated to end in catastrophe. <p>Whether it's the pharaoh Akhenaten's misplaced attempt to found a new religion or Napoleon's doomed invasion of Russia, discover a fascinating collection of outsized tales and historical snafus that created the world as we know it today.