There are books that describe how the future is unexpected, but in this book, it is the past that is.
There are books that describe how the future is unexpected, but in this book, it is the past that is.
Modern (general), Revolutionary, Utopias
When History Had Other Plans consists of 12 stand-alone chapters which immediately furnish the reader with attention-grabbing one-liners, as evidenced in its choice of chapter titles - Hitler Ended Racism; More Environmentalism, More CO2; The West Encouraged Putin by Discouraging Him - ensuring that it will pique interest and stir up debate. One line, one story, one chapter. There are no abstractions, no theories, no musings; just verifiable facts.
Click on the circles below to see more reviews
The book is well composed and well written, persuasive and supported with a long list of appropriate citations… It invokes the critical thinking and understanding of our past and contemporary world. ~ Boyka Anachkova, Professor, Ph.D., D.Sc., Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia
The central theme of this remarkable book is that while real engineering is an experimental science that works because it is based on a mass of real-world experiments, social engineering is only based on hope and abstract theory, which is why it regularly fails. A whole wish list of fashionable causes, past and present, are dissected, from making the world safe for democracy, communism, and feminism, to the minimum wage, foreign aid, renewable energy, the cancel culture and immigration, and their fatal weaknesses displayed in brutal and eloquent detail, backed with a massive apparatus of notes. A few hours of easy reading will tell you things you never imagined. ~ C.R. Hallpike, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, McMaster University, Ontario
… a fast-paced, engaging, and well-documented look at how our intertwined world is difficult - if not impossible - to design and control. Their book provides a plethora of 20th (and now 21st) century examples of the old saying: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. ~ Elizabeth Weiss, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology at San José State University, California
An arresting comparison of slavery in the United States with slavery in the Soviet Union. These similarities and contrasts should be better known. ~ Stephen Hicks, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University, Illinois
