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- The Hobo Philosopher
- An oldie but a goodie
- Must read for any history or humour buff
- The Decline and Fall of Practicaly Everybody by Will Cuppy
- A Fond Memory Returned
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The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody: Great Figures of History Hilariously Humbled
Will Cuppy
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble
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Book Description
Ever wonder what Nero did before he began fiddling about in Rome, or wanted the bare facts about Lady Godiva? Maybe you've found the story of Lucrezia Borgia a bitter pill to swallow, or wanted the straight skinny on corpulent King Henry the Eighth, but you haven't the stomach for stuffy history books. Now these and twenty-two more of history's most famous personages are brought brilliantly to life, in this collection of unfailingly accurate yet undeniably hilarious biographies. You'll laugh while you learn about the very real people behind the legendary names, including why Montezuma was so vengeful, and why Catherine was so Great. You'll even finally lay to rest the rumor that Charlemagne was called "Chuck" by his friends.
Customer Reviews:
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-14
This book is historically accurate, funny, satirical, informative, entertaining - in a single word "wonderful". It has been an inspiration to me. When I found out that there was no more Willy Cuppy I was so disappointed that I started my own series on Famous Folks. I have temporarily entitled my book Hobo Notes on Famous Folks.
Obviously I loved the idea and the style of Willy Cuppy. Of course Will is much smarter than I am, but hopefully I can make up for my inadequacy in other ways.
Willy inspires me to sit down and start writing as does Robert Service and Mark Twain.
You can't miss with anything by Willy Cuppy - this is probably his most well known publication.
An oldie but a goodie.......2007-04-03
I have an original copy of the 1963 printing of Will Cuppy's The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. Cuppy was a hilliarious writer. To do good comedy one has to take it seriously and Cuppy takes his history seriously, but I can't read his history without chuckling. His footnotes add to the humorous text. In this book he lampoons the various characters we learned about in highschool including Hannibal, Cleopatra, Columbus and Montezuma just to name a few. Will Cuppy makes one interested in what used to be just dull dates and factoids. Go for this one, you won't be disappointed.
Must read for any history or humour buff.......2007-03-06
I have read this work so many times I have worn out three copies, no exaggeration. It is delightful humour, of a sort rarely found nowadays. And it's not too bad as a history either. No "1066 and all that" drollery here. This is genuinely amusing, and it has held readers captive for decades. This book inspired me to seek the history behind the humour which has led to three decades of being a contented arm chair historian.
You will not be disappointed in this book, which I feel is Cuppy's best.
The Decline and Fall of Practicaly Everybody by Will Cuppy.......2007-01-15
One of my all-time favorites. My decades-old copy was literally falling apart, so I was glad to find a hard-cover edition available at a reasonable price.
A Fond Memory Returned.......2006-04-07
My high school history teacher (who was no fool and knew his stuff better than some professors I met in college) gave me this book. His copy was the original thing-- almost falling apart from being loved by so many students. It managed to spark an interest in history in me, because quite frankly I have no patience for the "golden sheen" that so many people try to put on historical figures. Who on earth cares about someone who's so perfect you could never talk to them, anyway? Let's face it, the so-called "greats" were people with flaws and quirks just like we are! Bravo to Will Cuppy for having the guts and the skill to portray them in a way that makes us laugh and makes us question a little beyond the almost impenetrable veil of History.
Average customer rating:
- "It's easy to see the faults in people, I know, and it's harder to see the good. Especially when the good isn't there."
- A Decent Read Based on Some Historic Oddities
- great read
- the funniest history book ever written
- man, will cuppy...
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Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (Nonpareil Book)
Will Cuppy
Manufacturer: David R Godine
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Product Description
So you think you know most of what there is to kow aboyt people like Nero and Cleopatra, Allexander the Great and Attila the Hun, Lady Godica and Miles Standish? You say there's nothing more to be written about Lucrezia Borgia? How wrong you are, for in these pages you'll find Will Cuppy footloose in the footnotes of history. He transforms these luminaries into human beings, not as we knew them from history books, but as we would have known them Cuppy-wise: foolish, fallible, and very much our common ancestors.
When it was first published in 1950, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody spent four months on The New York Times best-seller list, and Edward R. Murrow devoted more than two-thirds of one of his nightly CBS programs to a reading from Cuppy's historical sketches, calling it "the history book of the year." The book eventually went through eighteen hardcover printings and ten foreign editions, proof of its impeccable accuracy and deadly, imperishable humor.
Customer Reviews:
"It's easy to see the faults in people, I know, and it's harder to see the good. Especially when the good isn't there.".......2007-09-13
A collection of humorist Cuppy's sketches of historical figures is absolutely silly, absurdist delight. Though the book is quite dated (1940s), rather than being a weakness of the book, it turns into a strength for the humorous prose. A wonderful, very uniquely funny look at figures in history. Great if you know the references, hilarious even if you don't. Grade: A-
A Decent Read Based on Some Historic Oddities.......2007-09-12
Not the most well-written work but an interesting read for the novice historian. This book is organized into miniature stories of the demise of individuals commonly found in history textbooks and popluar lore. At times, Cuppy expands on the story we already know with some interesting anecdotes but he also exposes some real shockers and wonderful stories you cannot easily find elsewhere. It would have been nice to see all of the references as this book could have been a great research tool, but it ends up serving as a neat, quick read that is honestly more entertainment than scholarly. This is not necessarily to say I didn't like the book (I did), but it is obvious it was made for a specific niche market. For the average reader it may be less than engaging but for a history buff "Decline" is worth checking out.
great read.......2005-12-24
I wish Will Cuppy had written 100 books. His view on Humanity is hilarious. What he wrote years ago is still true today and he said it in fewer words!
Give this and all his books to everyone you know.
the funniest history book ever written.......2003-10-23
I must have read this book twenty times at least, and I never get tired of it. Every time it seems just as funny, as Will Cuppy tells us about the lives of historical characters, from Cheops ( or khufu) through to Catherine the Great, taking in such diverse characters as Cleopatra, Attila the hun, Lady Godiva, henry the eight, John Smith, and miles Standish. His wonderful dry comments are hilarious, as on Charlemagne who was born in the dark ages when people were not very bright. They have been getting brighter and brighter ever since, until finally the are like they are now'Or on the American revolution , started because the colonists had to pay takes to which their consent had not been asked ' today we pay taxes but our consent has been asked, and we have told the government to go ahead and tax us all they want to. We like it'This is a sublime book, the one I'd take with me to a desert island if i had to choose only one.
man, will cuppy..........2003-09-11
is amazing.
please do yourselves a favor and run out and read this book. right now. I'm serious. it's for your own good.
and when you've finished it and love it as much as I do, you can send me flowers and thank you cards, because I did you the great favor of recommending that you read it.
you better be buying it already. right now.
stop reading this and hurry up.
you're welcome.
d
<3
Book Description
In this inventive book, Peter Fritzsche explores how Europeans and Americans saw themselves in the drama of history, how they took possession of a past thought to be slipping away, and how they generated countless stories about the sorrowful, eventful paths they chose to follow.
In the aftermath of the French Revolution, contemporaries saw themselves as occupants of an utterly new period. Increasingly disconnected from an irretrievable past, worried about an unknown and dangerous future, they described themselves as indisputably modern. To be cast in the new time of the nineteenth century was to recognize the weird shapes of historical change, to see landscapes scattered with ruins, and to mourn the remains of a bygone era.
Tracing the scars of history, writers and painters, revolutionaries and exiles, soldiers and widows, and ordinary home dwellers took a passionate, even flamboyant, interest in the past. They argued politics, wrote diaries, devoured memoirs, and collected antiques, all the time charting their private paths against the tremors of public life. These nostalgic histories take place on battlefields trampled by Napoleon, along bucolic English hedges, against the fairytale silhouettes of the Grimms' beloved Germany, and in the newly constructed parlors of America's western territories.
This eloquent book takes a surprising, completely original look at the modern age: our possessions, our heritage, and our newly considered selves.
Customer Reviews:
The making of modern history?.......2007-01-28
Peter Frizsche, in his book Stranded in the Present, has analyzed many individual social and cultural events that he believes uphold his theory that modern time and the start of modern historiography began with events precipitated by the French Revolution (though he does touch upon the American Revolution in his final chapter). Because of the changes invoked in European society during the revolutionary era, people started thinking of history in a different way - rather than the past dictating the present and the future, present events disconnected people from their history, and time progressed linearly and as a serious of disruptions rather than cyclically (p. 201).
Although I found parts of his arguments to be compelling (such as his concept of "ruining the ruins" (p. 102) marking the start of modernity, overall I did not buy into his theory that time progresses linearly and is disjointed from the past - in part because his arguments sometimes seem to contradict his theories. For example, on p. 20, Fritzsche claims that the scope of revolution (1789-1814) caused all Europeans to start thinking about history in a different sense, yet he promptly acknowledges that some people already felt this way and did not see the period as such a radical departure. The concept was also tough for me to accept because I am a firm believer in the Schlesinger theory of "cycles of history" - history, in some form or another, generally repeats itself in some form. On page 68, Fritzsche cites Goethe in saying that the revolution commenced a new era in history and that the revolution hence demonstrated its durability. I felt that as a counter to this, he offered the forced emigration of the French after the 1598 Edict of Nantes to be a contradiction to the emigration after the revolution, saying that the revolutionary émigrés were "doubly displaced", yet he ignored a historical parallel to the revolutionary émigrés that occurred during World War II when the Jews were obliged to leave their homes and required to resettle outside of their "comfort zone", regardless of whether this meant emigrating to America or relocating to another town fifty miles east of their current home. This event, in my eyes, certainly qualifies as "double displacement", thus minimizing his argument that history does not act in a cyclical fashion.
Overall, this book was tough for me to swallow; it evaluates events in a completely different light than I (as a believer in the political/military schools of historiographical interpretation) have previously considered. Regardless of the obvious difference in his selection of events to evaluate from what I am accustomed to, I did not find his argument to be completely compelling, despite the brief flashes of agreement that I did have with Fritsche.
Rethinking history: thoughtful or fashionable?.......2004-07-07
Peter Fritzche's new book is not so much about the past as about how people viewed it. On the one hand the book is short, on the other hand the argument is somewhat complex and complicated, if not openly pretentious. Basically Fritzsche argues that before the French Revolution many Europeans looked back to the past as a matter of direct relevance to their lives, while the advocates of the Enlightenment viewed the present as merely as the current point of transition in a narrative of inevitable progress. By contrast after the French Revolution people were so shocked by the dramatic changes that a new view of history appeared. Now the present was cut off from the past, so that people looked back to the past in an attempt to retrieve what was now irretrievably lost. Moreover people feared that they were now stranded in the present, hence the title, with no way of moving past to another future. In this world nostalgia took a new and dramatically increased importance. Such subjective formats as autobiographies and diaries increased. Fritzsche starts off by talking about the experience of the French revolutionary émigrés. And so we get a lot of comments from such usual suspects as Chateaubriand, De Stael, Gentz, the Schlegels, and De Tocqueville about the unpleasant sense of vertigo where "the evidence for chastisement without salvation appeared overwhelming." Although at one point Fritzsche says he does not think that such a perspective in history is more valid than any others, he seems to admire it for its melancholy and its implied superior realism over more fatuous, optimistic histories. We also have a chapter on ruins, and how people in the 19th century moved away from the somewhat condescending "progressive" view of them to a richer view of them: "the ruin was transformed from a lifeless artifact of underdevelopment and superannuation into a a haunting relic of historical possibility." Of particular importance is Sulpiz Boisseree and the revival of interest in the ruins of Cologne Cathedral, with its implications for a German national revival. We then look at how people as different as Cobbett, Clare and the Grimm brothers sought to hold on and remember the past in the countryside as it faced urbanization and the growth of capitalism. And finally we look at the "household fairies" as people, particularly in the United States, become interested in the mass production of memories, as New England becomes a tourist trap, Washington Irving tells ghost stories, and attics, letters, antiques, collectibles and quilts take a new prominent place in the psychic memory.
What are we to say about all this? Well it is interesting, but also somewhat subjective. And there are good reasons for feeling a little skeptical. On the one hand this is a study of history which does not discuss any historians (with the exception of De Tocqueville) and does not actually discuss the making of any historical work. Another problem is what we are discussing is not so much history as memory. Looking at the Americans Fritzsche discusses, if we can find the complex melancholic nostalgia we can also find the bland optimism and faith in progress that is present in so much 19th century views of history and religion. Fritzche provides only some, but not enough discussion of the latter. Another matter that arises is the cause of all this. How do we move from the relatively small circles of French revolutionary émigrés to an epic change in the popular understanding of the past? How do we relate it to such different phenomenon as the triumph of agrarian capitalism in Europe and mass migration in the United States, which somehow all provide the same result? And Fritzche fails to note in his discussion of the United States that one reason there was so much meaning provided to material goods was that there were more of them, while another reason there were more diaries and memoirs was because there were more people and more literate people. What people thought about the past before they could write anything down in the 18th century is not so clear. Certainly it is easier to claim that there was a radical change after 1792 if one does not examine the period beforehand. If one is inclined to believe that there was a new "radical nostalgia" in the early 19th century period, one must be skeptical of the intellectual determinism of François Furet that underlies it. At times Fritzche's book appears as an example of postmodern history, with unhelpful prose, poor logical connections and the obligatory quotes from Foucault, Butler and Kristeva. At other times Fritzsche's book has a certain gossamer like quality. We will have to see if it is any less fragile.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Studies in Romanticism, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2006. The length of the article is 1669 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Peter Fritzsche. Stranded in the Present: Modern Time and the Melancholy of History.(Book review)
Author: Emily Rohrbach
Publication:
Studies in Romanticism (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 45
Issue: 3
Page: 486(5)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 534 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Stranded in the Present: Modern Time and the Melancholy of History.(Book review)
Author: John R. Hinde
Publication:
The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 68
Issue: 1
Page: 198(2)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Customer Reviews:
5 stars and I grade hard.......1999-04-02
I read this book for an odd reason: I was looking for anything written by John Barry, whose absolutely brilliant book, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, completely captivated me. He's only the ghost-writer this time, and this book may not be quite as good as his own, but it's still an amazing story of guts and determination. The reader comes away from this book with new respect for the guts and determination to the point of obsessiveness of both medical researchers and patients who participate in test programs. Along the way of a story as suspenseful as any murder mystery, one gets and understanding of immunology, molecular biology, and cancer. Barry's other book may change the way you think. This one won't exactly do thast, but it will open an entire world to you.
A wonderful effort of a scientist, a saint and a philosopher.......1996-11-26
An account of the dedicated, honest and intelligent efforts
to solve one of the most complicated of problems of medical
science today, as described in "The Transformed Cell", makes
one feel confidant that with scientists like Prof. Rosenberg
around us, the solution to such problems is not very far. I'm
only looking for the sequel to this masterpiece with a title
"...And the Solution to it!".
sanjay upreti, NY
Fascinating Look at Cancer and Scientific Research.......1996-05-18
For those interested in understanding more about cancer and
the vagaries of scientific research and FDA approval, this book provides non-fiction
as interesting as fiction. The book chronicles the journey and
work of the author, a brilliant, driven scientist as he
explores a radical new treament methodology for cancer,
immunotherapy. His incision of the topic into understandable
questions to be answered, and the research process to answer
them makes the book a fascinating mystery. The reader
learns to root for the scientist, his hard-working
team, and the immune cells that fight cancer. Along the way,
you learn about cancer, its causes, and alot of the associated terminology.
Educational and entertaining.
Book Description
In this important book experts in science, economics, and law discuss key resource management issues in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem-among them the management of fire, elk, wolves, and bison-using them as starting points to debate the manner in which humans should interact with the environment of this region. Generously illustrated with special archival photographs of the Yellowstone area, it will be the major source of information on this area and a valuable resource for worldwide wildland preservation for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
Comprehensive edited volume on management problems surrounding Yellowstone.......2007-05-20
Like many others,, this book examines ecosystem management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. (Sidenote: why doesn't anyone seem to study the Greater Yosemite or Smoky Mountain Ecosystems?) The concept of "ecosystem management" has plenty of wrinkles to it - - hence the need for this book - - but the basic idea is to management both processes and outcomes at the level of an entire ecosystem instead of managing individual species.
The book focuses on three controversial issues, fire, elk and wolves. However, many other ecosystem issues appear through the book as well.
This book is explicitly multidisciplinary, with contributions from lawyers, economists, biologists, and land managers. The contributors address the kinds of topics that you'd want them to address, such as the role of top-level carnivores (wolves and bears), the consequences of elk (over)grazing, forest fire, and the like. The chapters fall into three rough groups - - the first, one the history and policy of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) concept, varying approaches to ecosystem management, and then particular processes (especially forest fire). The book is intended for the specialist rather than the layman - - but specialists in one discipline won't have any trouble understanding contributions from other disciplines, and advanced-level undergraduates in many fields would be able to read the book.
Like any edited volume, the contributions vary significantly in quality. Some authors have a clear view of the "big picture," while others are more limited to their own specialty. The biologists tend to have the greatest tunnel vision, but John Craighead's chapter does a great job seeing biological issues in a larger historical and political context.
It's also dated in significant ways, reflecting debates over the northern range of Yellowstone in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the introduction of wolves in 1995, top-down regulation of elk by predators has supplanted the policy of "natural regulation" of elk by food supply that motivated many of these changes.
Nonetheless, if you're interested in ecosystem management, or in the management of Yellowstone National Park, you'll want to read this book. It doesn't really address topics outside of these, so the general reader will probably find it frustratingly specialized.
Not totally for the layman.......2003-11-13
The essays compiled in this book are an excellent resource for someone who is trying to understand the complex issues surrouding the protection of the Greater Yellow Ecosystem. However, a number of the essays, in providing evidence to support the arguments are geared more toward the policy maker or toward the scientist who is gathering background information on the issues.
Not all of the essays are written in such a fashion that they are beyond the comprehension of the average reader. Some essays are written clearly and do provide an effective starting point for someone coming into the field to understand the issues surrounding issues such as fire policy or wolf management. Both of which are still hot topics in the region today.
Finally, many of the essays are better for understanding a historical perspective to the issues. Wolf reintroduction has occurred and now Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho are looking to have wolves delisted. The essays on wolf management are dated enough that they are a starting point to understand the underpinnings of the issues of today, rather than where we are going in the near future.
All in all, if the reader can move past some of the more technical aspects of the book, they will have a better grasp of how and why various management issues are occuring in this wonder of nature.
What do the authors think about the nuclear/hazardous waste?.......1999-08-09
The DOE plans to build a nuclear/hazardous waste incinerator directly upwind of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. What do the authors think about this recent development?
Books:
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- The Fall of Constantinople 1453 (Canto)
- The Federalist Era 1789-1801
- The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations
- The Guns of August
- The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History
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