It Seemed Like a Good Idea...

William R. Forstchen, Bill Fawcett

• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780380807710
• eBook ISBN: 9780061745300
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Throughout the annals of history, the best of intentions— and sometimes the worst— have set in motion events with a vastly different outcome than originally intended. In this entertaining, fact-filled chronicle, William Forstchen and Bill Fawcett explore the watersheds of history that began as the best of ideas and ended as the worst of fiascoes. A Holy War— The Medieval Crusades for religious liberation become centuries of slaughter and destruction. Sibling Rivalry— Leif Erikson spares his sister's life and delays the discovery of the New World for five hundred years. Big Guns— Emperor Constantine XI refuses to buy a new supercannon that would let him dominate his enemies, so its creator sells the cannon to the Turks, who then crush Constantinople. With casual wit and subtle insight, It Seemed Like a Good Idea... tucks tongue in cheek and rides out the fiascoes of history.

Index

A

Adams, Sam,

Alamo,

Alexius,

All-Russian Extraordinary Comission for Combating Counter-revolution and Sabotage,

American Revolution

France's role in,

1776,

1777, campaign of,

Anatolia,

Antioch,

Appomattox,

Aristotle,

Auschwitz,

Austin, Stephen,

B

Barbarian Mongols,

Battle of Chaeronea,

Battle of Manila,

Battle of Tsushima,

BBC,

Bilandic, Michael A.,

Bismarck, Otto von,

Black Death,

Black Hand,

Black Shirt rebellion,

“Blackmailer's Charter,”

Bligh, William,

Boleyn, Anne,

Bolshevik Party,

Bolshevik Revolution,

Bonaparte, Napoleon Russia, invasion of,

steamships,

“Bosie” see Douglas, Lord Alfred

Bounty,

British Broadcasting Corporation,

British Expeditionary Force of 1914,

Bubonic plague,

Buchanan, James,

Buchenwald,

Bush, George,

Bushido politics,

Byrne, Jane,

Byzantine Empire,

Holy War,

Rhomaio,

Siege of Antioch,

1097

C

Caesar, Augustus,

Caesar, Julius,

Caligula,

“Cheka,”

Chicago blizzard of 1978,

Christian, Fletcher,

Churchill, Winston Russia, fear of a strong,

tanks,

Yalta,

Civil War,

Col. James Ripley's role in, 1860,

General George Armstrong Custer,

Constantinople,

burning of,

1453,

Nestorious, the patriarch of,

1072

1097

Continental Congress,

Cook, Captain,

Crusades 1095,

Crystal Palace,

Custer, General George Armstrong,

Last stand,

Czar Nicholas II,

D

Dachau,

Daley, Richard J.,

Donovan, Wild Bill,

Douglas, Lord Alfred,

Dreadnoughts,

Dred Scott decision 1857,

Dreyer, Lieutenant Frederic,

Duke of Medina-Sidonia,

Duke of Parma,

Dzerzhinsky, Felix,

E

1800's

Mexico,

1800

France, steamships and,

1842

Somers Incident,

1857

Dred Scott decision,

1860

Civil War,

1864

Maximilian Affair,

1876

Montana,

1895

Oscar Wilde,

Emperor Constantine XI,

Enfield rifles,

Eric the Red,

Ericson, Leif,

F

Federal Bureau of Investigation,

Ferdinand, Archduke assassination of,

Fisher, John “Bobbie,”

Fort Sumter,

Fourth Century B.C. Macedonia,

1453

Constantinople...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• A Bad Way to Take a Walk
• Divide and Conquer
• Stab at Stability
• Sins of the Sister
• There's Nothing Worse Than an Idealistic War
• Safe and Sorry
• The Burning of Beards
• Dangerous Delusion
• Crackdown Crack Up
• A Plague on All Your Mouses
• Never Look a Gift Cannon in the Mouth
• One Dispensation Too Many
• Wrong Turn
• How to Lose an Empire
• From Paper to Reality, How to Lose a War
• France Gets Even
• Bligh's Guys
• Not Steamed Up
• To Give Away a Country
• Choose the Captain Well
• Great Dred Scott
• Buy American
• The Man Who Would Be Emperor
• For Want of a Horse
• Too Wilde for His Own Good
• Sea Powerless
• The Archduke Goes for a Ride
• Of Clocks, Oysters and Politics
• Courage Over Firepower
• For the Good of the Empire
• The Hindenburg and Ludendorff Follies
• Just to Make Trouble
• Strangle the Monster in the Cradle
• Reilly Busts “the Trust”
• How to Train an Enemy
• Choose Your Allies Carefully
• Build a Fort, But Leave the Back Door Open
• Bushido Politics
• “We Thought It Would Be Singapore”
• Loyal to a Fault
• The Other Maginot Line
• In Exchange for Nothing
• Documented for Posterity
• Keep the Colony, But Start a War
• Stand Back Boys and Give the President
• Philby-Britain's Best and Moscow's Man
• Throwing Out the Baby and Saving the
• Snow Job
• One Hour Too Short
• Index
• About the Editors
• Credits
• Copyright
• About the Publisher