How to Survive History
£8.90£10.40 (-14%)
A humorous and informative guide to surviving history’s most challenging threats, from outrunning dinosaurs to making it off the Titanic alive.
History is the most dangerous place on earth. From dinosaurs the size of locomotives to meteors big enough to sterilize the planet, from famines to pandemics, from tornadoes to the Chicxulub asteroid, the odds of human survival are slim but not zero ― at least, not if you know where to go and what to do.
In each chapter of How to Survive History, Cody Cassidy explores how to survive one of history’s greatest threats: getting eaten by dinosaurs, being destroyed by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, succumbing to the lava flows of Pompeii, being devoured by the Donner Party, drowning on board the Titanic, falling prey to the Black Death, and more. Using hindsight and modern science to estimate everything from how fast you’d need to run to outpace a T. rex to the advantages of different body types in surviving the Donner Party tragedy, Cassidy gives you a detailed battle plan for survival, helping you learn about the era at the same time.
History may be the most dangerous place on earth, but that doesn’t mean you can’t visit. You can, and you should. And with a copy of How to Survive History in your back pocket, you just might make it out alive.
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | Bedford Square Publishers (2 Nov. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 224 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1835010377 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1835010372 |
by Alec
How to Survive History was a short but very fun book, all about different events and disasters from history, and according to both history and science, the best ways we could survive these events if we managed to go back in time. I loved reading about the different events and feeling as though I was there, and how I would safely manage to get by if stuck in the past. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history, and any fans of shows such as Horrible Histories, as I found the author’s style very light and engaging, and I feel like most ages would have a lot of fun reading this book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.
by Nicola Wilton
I think I knew even from the title of this book that I was going to love it. And as the introduction was anything to go by, it set itself up to be a thoroughly enjoyable and instant hit with me!
The author takes you through history, on a whistle stop tour through some of the most dangerous events in history. And we’re talking dangerous! But don’t worry, we get an action plan, and nifty little hints and tips to help us circumnavigate these tricky situations. Want to know if you can survive in the dinosaur age? Could you live through the titanic? What about tsunamis, earthquakes and even being aboard blackbeards ship? Wonder no more, this book delivers.
I love how it was written, a perfectly balanced mix between history and retelling of events but also bringing it to the reader and how you might experience it. There’s also a great mix of historical events, starting from further back in time to the nearer current.
It was so entertaining and I not only learnt a few snippets from throughout history but also really enjoyed reading it in a way I didn’t feel like it was too much of a heavy nonfiction. It was great, light and I finished it easily within a few days. It was brill!
by Amazon Customer
Presented in short chapters, this is a good book for dipping into. Each topic is clearly well researched and concisely written. With the benefit of hindsight the historic events are told with engaging insight of what you would need to do if you were to relive that event and survive. For example which ship to be on of the 5 that set sail with Magellan on 8 August 1519, on his voyage to circumnavigate the world, to be one of just 18 survivors out of the 260 sailors who started the voyage. The odds on survival were low with many perils such as sea battles, shipwrecks, starvation, dehydration, disease, scurvy, sabotage, treachery, murder and mutiny.
The historic events range from the dinosaurs through, ancient civilisations, the dark and Middle Ages to more recent history such as the sinking of the Titanic and the worst tornado even in American history.
The elements of this book that I found most fascinating were those that give a sense of the social and cultural context. I found the earlier chapters on the dinosaur age and the Chicxulub asteroid a little less engaging as the were more theoretical and hypothetical.
by brightraccoonreads
This was so fascinating! I actually learned things I didn’t know. Particular strength chapters were the fall of Constantinople, the Black Death and the titanic chapters. History presented in small essays that entertained rather than bored, I particularly liked the diagrams that were included, only thing I would have liked in addition are photographs or paintings to bring history even more to life, a good light read.