Doomed to Repeat PB - Paperback

by Bill Fawcett (Author)

"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." And so we have. Time and again, mankind has faced down problems, but have often failed to take the hard-earned knowledge into the next battle.

Doomed to Repeat is a collection of essays, edited by Bill Fawcett, that illuminates some of the problems we've faced repeatedly throughout history, including Islamic jihad, terrorism, military insurgencies, inflation and the devaluation of currency, financial disasters, ecological collapses, radical political minorities like the Nazis and Bolsheviks, and pandemics and epidemics like the Black Death.

With more than 35 chapters of the Groundhog Days of world history, both infamous and obscure, Doomed to Repeat: The Lessons of History We've Failed to Learn is chock-full of trivia, history, and fascinating looks at the world's repeated mistakes.

Why do societies face the same crises time and again, and what can we learn from the cycles of the past?

• Rise and Fall of Empires: From the slow decline of the Roman middle class to the economic strains that ended the British Empire, discover the common threads that unravel superpowers.
• Economic Crises: Explore the anatomy of financial disasters, from Tulipmania and the South Sea Bubble to modern stock market crashes, and see why we're doomed to repeat them.
• Military Quagmires: Understand why Afghanistan has been a graveyard for empires for millennia, and examine the historical roots of terrorism and insurgency that challenge nations today.
• Pandemics and Plagues: Journey through history's deadliest outbreaks, including the Black Death and the Spanish Flu, to understand the societal changes they caused and the threats we still face.

Back Jacket

An engrossing and fact-filled compendium of timeless lessons we keep forgetting--over and over and over . . .

It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And so we have. Time and again humankind has overcome great turmoil only to ignore hard-earned wisdom at the very worst moment. Borrowing more from Groundhog Day than D-day, Bill Fawcett illuminates some of the predicaments, both infamous and obscure, that have vexed us for centuries--and just may explain many of today's global conflicts. Through fourteen chapters, Doomed to Repeat is chock-full of trivia, historical oddities, and fascinating insights into our most popular mistakes.

Learn about:

• What really stops terrorists
• How inflation and recession helped set the stage for the Nazis to take power
• What really ended the Great Depression and whether it could work today
• What history predicts for the final results of the Arab Spring
• Swine flu, bird flu, and the chances of another worldwide plague