by Tom Phillips
Mustafa I, 110–12
Osman II, 111
Panama and Paterson, 179–81
parachute suits, 253
Paraguay, 222
The Parthenon, 69
Paterson, William
Bank of England, 181
Darien scheme and, 179–81, 182, 183, 187–94
financial mania and Company of Scotland, 186
union of Scotland with England, 195
Patsayev, Viktor, 267
Paullus, Lucius Aemilius, 124–25
peer pressure, 46
penis theft manias, 46, 47
People’s Daily, 85, 128
Peter III (Tsar of Russia), 117
phlogiston, 233–34
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 70
Picoaza, Ecuador, 128–29
planning ahead, 44
plants, importation of, 82
poll tax, 135
polywater, 231–33
Popular Science, 231, 233
predictions, difficulty making, 44
prejudice, 45
The Price of Scotland (Watt), 185
Prohibition, 135
propaganda, 44
Pulvapies, 128–29
Qara Khitai Empire, 213
Qin Shi Huang, 98–99
Quarterly Review, 263
rabbits, importation to Australia of, 77–80, 79
radiation, 235–38
radio, 264–65
Rapa Nui (Easter Island), 66–69
Red Scare, 46, 47
refrigeration, 249–51
Reichelt, Franz, 253
risk assessment, 44
Rome, 124–25, 207
Rose, Hugh, 189, 190
Rousseau, Denis, 232
Rubens, Heinrich, 237
Ruhnama (Niyazov), 107
Russia
Bolsheviks, 208–9, 210
invasions of, 148–51
in Syria, 211
San Jose Mercury News, 128
Santa Anna, Antonio López de, 127
Sargon of Akkad, 97
Scheele, Carl Wilhelm, 253
Schieffelin, Eugene, 87–89
Schlesinger, Arthur, 157
Schloss Neuschwanstein, 101, 102, 103
science
accuracy of deduction, 26
ideal process versus actual process, 234
popular science books, 260–61, 261
predictions gone awry, 263–68, 266, 267
profit motive and, 243, 244–45, 249
Science, 231
science mishaps
CFCs, 250–51, 252
eugenics, 239–40
examples, 253–54
leaded gasoline, 243–49
luminiferous ether, 234
Lysenko’s agricultural, 240–41
Mars Climate Orbiter, 227, 228–29
N-rays, 235–38
phlogiston, 233–34
polywater, 230–33
scientific revolution, 228
Scotland
Company of Scotland, 183–86, 187–88, 189–90, 193, 194
unification with England and Ireland, 182, 195
selfishness, 44–45
Selfridge, Thomas, 265
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, 69
Siege of Petersburg (Virginia, 1864), 146–47
Sigurd the Mighty, 22
Skraelings, 169
Slims River, Canada, 70
Smith, Sir Henry, 174
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930), 135
snap judgments, 40
“social traps,” 44–45
society, as product of human brain, 33–34
Solano López, Francisco, 222
South China Morning Post, 65
Soviet Union, 58–60
space exploration, 227, 267, 280–81
Spain
Atahualpa and, 222
Columbus and, 165–68, 170, 174, 204
Cortés and Moctezuma and, 204–6
Darien and, 191–92, 193
wars, 147–48, 159–60
Spanish–American War of 1898, 147–48
sparrows and Four Pests campaign, 84–86
starlings, 88–89
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 196–97
Sugar Cube (concubine), 115
Sumer, 96
Sunol, California, 128
superstitions, 44
Sweden, 240
Sydney Morning Herald, 78
Syr Darya water diversion, 58–59
Syria, 211
Taíno people, 170–71, 174, 204
Taliban, 70
Taylor, Ellison, 233
TEL (tetraethyl lead), 243, 245, 246
telephone, 264
Temple of Artemis, 69
Ténéré Tree (in Sahara Desert), 70
Tenochtitlan, 205–6
Thatcher, Margaret, 135
Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman), 39
Thuerk, Gary, 267–68
Thule people, 169
Time, 62, 106
“tragedy of the commons,” 44–45, 68
trains, 264–65
trash, 65, 65–66
Treaty of Waitangi, 174
Tso-hsin Cheng, 84–85
Turkmenistan, 106–8, 107
U-1206 (German U-boat), 153–54
United Kingdom
established, 195
Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution on lead, 247
See also Britain
United States
enemy’s enemy delusion and, 210–11
eugenics in, 240
polywater race, 231–33
Red Scare, 47
toxic lead levels in children, 247
“Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments” (Dunning and Kruger), 43
Uruguay, 222
Vallandigham, Clement, 254
Varro, Gaius Terentius, 124–25
Varus, Publius Quinctilius, 207
Venice, Republic of, 125–26
Vikings, 168–69
Vinland, 168–69
Volkov, Vladislav, 267
von Papen, Franz, 131–32
Vortigern, 222
Wall Street Journal, 232
war
agriculture and, 54
biological weapons, 80
enemy’s enemy delusion, 208–11, 210
geography and, 142
inventions to end, 264, 265, 266
between Khwarezmian and Mongol Empires, 214, 216–20
between Ming dynasty and Mongols, 208
oldest evidence for, 141
Paraguay against Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, 222
rise of rulers and, 96–97, 98–99, 124–26
Rome and, 125–26, 207
Spanish with Aztecs, 206
unification of China, 98
See also decision-making failures; specific battles
Ward, Henry, 262
Ward, Mary, 260–63, 261
War of Jenkins’s Ear, 159–60
War of the Bucket (1325), 159
War of the Golden Stool, 160
Washington Post, 89
waste, 65, 65–66
Watt, Douglas, 185, 186, 190
wealth inequality and agriculture, 54
well poisoning manias, 46, 47
wheel, invention of, 34
Wiedemann, Fritz, 133
Wilhelm II (Kaiser of Germany), 117
Williams, Ro
bert, 268
witch hunts, 46
Wood, Robert, 237–238
World Health Organization, 247
World War I, 208–9, 222
World War II, 148–54, 151
Wright brothers, 265
Xhosa, 174
X-rays, 235, 236
Yang Linxuan, 65
yellow fever, 253
Zanzibar, Sultan of, 159
Zhengde Emperor (born Zhu Houzhao), 99–100
Zheng He, 207–8
Zimmerman Telegram, 222
ISBN-13: 9781488051135
Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up
Copyright © 2018 by Tom Phillips
Originally published in Great Britain by Wildfire in 2018
This edition published by Hanover Square Press in 2019
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