The subjects range from 15th century France to 20th century America. There could be a better gender balance-a few more chapters about female rapscallions. They prove that the rapscallions who plague us today are nothing new. But all are curious case histories reflective of their times. Some are not so well known: Anthony Comstock, Gilles de Rais, Hetty Green. Some are well known: Napoleon, Hitler, U. They are a representative sampling from Western civilization: presidents and generals, jacks and queens, misers, serial killers, bloodsuckers, warmongers, weirdos, wackos, all-around bad guys, etc. It takes mere names out of history books and makes them into real people. This is a book about people who made history, their quirks and human sides. The humor does not always work, but some of it could make a cow laugh! The author did his homework and the reader might even learn something. This book has three things to offer a reader: history, biography, and humor. Just what the doctor ordered for those of us who don't trust authority figures who are famous and established as heroes. Ask your doctor if "Mostly Rapscallions" is right for you.Įxciting and bitingly satirical. Not recommended to grumps and grouches who have no sense of humor.
Recommended to readers who think history is boring. Released in an updated third edition in April 2012.
But hardly any! You probably won’t even notice them. Guaranteed free of those annoying split infinitives and dangling participles. With footnotes that are admittedly unnecessary, but how could we do without them? Passed by the grammar police. As Edgar Johnson said, "Satire is enjoyable compensation for being forced to think." This book is ideal for multitaskers who would like to laugh and learn at the same time. Lots of history here, between the laughs. These personages took part in real historical events: the Renaissance, the French Revolution, the Petticoat War, the Dreadful Decade, the porkless Thursdays of World War I. Is there a more entertaining way to learn history? This is nonfiction, fact-based satire. To understand them is to understand the world they created. Because historical personages were real people, as nutty as the rest of us. Sure it can be boring in the abstract, when seen in terms of political or economic isms, of territorial boundaries or dates or battles but on the human level, the up-close and personal level, it becomes a cavalcade of psychological case histories. This book proves that history can be fun, when viewed through the lives of the jokers who made it.
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