When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain: History's Unknown Chapters

by Giles Milton

Paperback, 2016

Status

Available

Call number

909

Collection

Publication

Picador (2016), 272 pages

Description

"Obscure and addictive true tales from history told by one of our most entertaining historians, Giles Milton. The first installment in Giles Milton's outrageously entertaining series, History's Unknown Chapters: colorful and accessible, intelligent and illuminating, Milton shows his customary historical flair as he delves into the little-known stories from the past.There's the cook aboard the Titanic, who pickled himself with whiskey and survived in the icy seas where most everyone else died. There's the man who survived the atomic bomb in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And there's many, many more. Covering everything from adventure, war, murder and slavery to espionage, including the stories of the female Robinson Crusoe, Hitler's final hours, Japan's deadly balloon bomb and the emperor of the United States, these tales deserve to be told"--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member rlangston
Interesting stories, format and idea. But too little detail on the stories - I had heard this book reviewed on the BBC History podcast and had read the book expecting more detail. Unfortunately there was less!
LibraryThing member katsmiao
Fascinating!

Don't let the title guide you in your decision to read his book. Only the first chapter is about Hitler, and he really did take cocaine. Who knew?

There are lots of other fascinating stories that leave you thinking "huh...imagine that". Short and sweet, very interesting, highly
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recommended.
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LibraryThing member dcoward
Interesting stories that made me want to read more about some of these strange events. A warning, some of these stories are disturbing.
LibraryThing member Big_Bang_Gorilla
This collection of vignettes from history is difficult to categorize, but major themes include surviving (or not) cataclysm, true crime, and military exploits. Despite the sensational title, most of the anecdotes are familiar and well-documented. In tone it reminded me a lot of the early
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practitioners of soft news on radio in the middle of the twentieth century such as Paul Harvey, Bill Stern, and Robert Ripley, who strung together yarns which would be of interest to a wide section of the public and invited speculation as to their truth. As for documentation, the author appends a short section which is not quite endnotes, not quite bibliography, so there are at least a few somebodies out there vouching for the credence of these stories. This was a fun, easy read; empty calories, perhaps, but a not unwelcome break from meatier fare.
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Language

Original language

English

Physical description

272 p.; 8.25 inches

ISBN

1250078776 / 9781250078773

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