History's Great Untold Stories: The Larger Than Life Characters and Dramatic Events That Changed the World

I usually avoid books on history published by The National Geographic Society. I have found them to be written in too simple a style and without a great deal of either new or deep intellectual content. I happened to pick up this book at the local library and turn randomly to page 194. It began: "The Taiping Rebellion, a peasant uprising that occurred in mid 19th century China, involved more combatants than any other war in the 19th century, killed more people that any other conflict apart from World War II (estimates range from 20 million to 40 million)...and changed the future of an entire country. Yet very few people outside of China have ever heard of it. Nor do many know of its messianic leader, Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to have had an apocalyptic vision that revealed he was Jesus Christ's younger brother." I had heard of it, but knew little about it - or about many of the other events described in the book. They are all (to those of us who enjoy history) interesting - and most are fascinating. The author has the unexpected and intellectually mature view that not everything done by western Europeans and Americans has been totally angelic. The reviewer who gave the book only 2 stars says "Any reasonably serious student of history will be familiar with all the stories Cummins chooses to tell." All right, let's see if you are a reasonably serious student of history. What do you know about the following: 1. The Cadaver Synod, 2. The Leper King of Jerusalem, 3. Subotai, 4. Rabban Sauma, 5. The Chinese Treasure Fleet of Xuan He, 6. William the 1st of Orange, 7.The Shimabara Uprising, 8.Roger Williams (of Providence Plantation, not the singer), 9. The Battle of Poltava, 10. Vitus Bering, 11. Francisco Dagohoy and the Rebels of Bohol, 12. The British Abolition Movement, 13. David Thompson, North America's Greatest Geographer, 14. George Augustus Robinson, The Great Conciliator of Van Dieman's Land. Those are the first fourteen (of twenty-eight) chapters. How did you do? How do you think the two-star reviewer who made the statement did? The book is well written, in a very accessible style; I would recommend it not only to get a teenager interested in history, but as interesting and unusual fare for the experienced history buff.

I have a very strong interest in history and almost majored in it at university. I love obscure historical facts and stories. I bought this book on a whim. It had an attractive cover and seemed accessible, (there is a stigma against books with pictures or charts as "kids fair" in the history community.) I've always disliked history books with out graphics or pictures. Not because I'm a "typical American". On the contrary, I think that history books without them are doing their subject a large disservice. History involves pictures, graphics, objects and words. Like the saying goes "A picture is worth a thousand words". It is no more true than in today's history books. I found Jospeh Cummmin's book very accessible and told with a unique wit and eye for the historical context of the stories contained in this book. It takes you around the world and thru the ages to discover obscure characters and incidents that had a large impact on the world around them. I recommend it highly for history students and those who are interested in bizarre true stories.

Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, this book contains some amazing and little-known pieces of important history that ANY young man or woman should read. One excellent example is the story of the Shimabara Rebellion in southern Japan in the 17th century. As a born-again Christian, I had no idea, even with a degree in history, that this event had ever taken place, or that it in fact was the cause of Japan's extreme isolationism prior to the late 19th century. Another example is the story of Vitus Bering, the Danish naval hero who led Peter the Great of Russia's expedition across the northern Pacific to find a route to America via Alaska. Yet another is the quest by Nazi's in Tibet to discover the origins of the so-called "Aryan" race. As a paleo conservative, one who is anti-Communist and anti-left-wing, I would not recommend the "revisionist-history" elements of this book such as those mentioned by the reviewer who gave this book 2-stars. That being said, there are many valuable historical puzzle pieces in this book that otherwise might go unnoticed by a public already dummed-down by federal educational systems that have been run for years by both so-called "conservative" and "liberal" presidents and administrations.