Napoleon's Hemorrhoids…And Other Small Events That Changed History

By: Phil Mason

Narrated by: LJ Ganser

Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Hilarious, fascinating, and a roller coaster of dizzying, historical what-ifs, Napoleon's Hemorrhoids is a potpourri for serious historians and casual history buffs. In one of Phil Mason's many revelations, you'll learn that Communist jets were two minutes away from opening fire on American planes during the Cuban missile crisis, when they had to turn back as they were running out of fuel. You'll discover that before the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's painful hemorrhoids prevented him from mounting his horse to survey the battlefield. You'll learn that an irate blacksmith threw his hammer at a fox and missed, hitting a rock and revealing the largest vein of silver ever discovered, thus changing the finances of Canada forever. Interestingly, Charlton Heston was cast as Moses in The Ten Commandments because his broken nose made him look like Michelangelo's famous sculpture of Moses. Finally, no one knows Einstein's last words. They were in German, a language his nurse did not speak.

©2010 Phil Mason (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Narrated well and edited tight

In a style perhaps reminiscent of The People's Almanac (Wallechinsky, Wallace, 1975) this book is a series of well written and interesting historic vignettes. Despite comments from other reviewers, the Narrator does a fine job... although each segment was edited together without much time between. To me it would have moved too slow if a longer gap was employed. Just hit rewind.

Very Interesting Facts

This is a collection of interesting facts concerning how influential events happen. Some stories are infirmative, while others are also funny. The material is will organized and then examples ate plentiful. The narrator moves at a fast pace. I could not finish this book in one session. I would suggest that the listener go to another book fir awhile intermittently and then return to this book. The reason is that a some of the stories are so similar, it gets monotonous.

Fun facts

Entertaining and enlightening book . I was very surprised by so many near misses and how our common humanity can shape events.

Like obscure trivia and quirky facts? BINGO! You found some

This is loaded with interesting, strange, coincidental facts. Some about very familiar topics, some more obscure. A fun listen with a charismatic narrator (Ganser is good).

Lots of interesting tidbits

Jumps around a little bit and doesn’t give a natural pause between stories.
But overall, worth a listen.

Verrry interesting

… but best taken in small doses. The concentrated factoids can be overwhelming if taken as a whole.
Trivia fans will love it!’

Really fun listen, but lots of details to remember

After the first chapter I just gave up remembering all the exact dates and names of people, and went along with the narrating. I googled a couple of events, and I'm sure I will remember some details about all these stories, but I don't think I could recall even 20% of this book. You might as well grab a pen and notepad to write everything down, but I'd rather listen to another book right now 😁

Great Book, HORRIBLE Editing

This was a really great book, with a lot of very fun and interesting tidbits, the only problem is I had to repeatedly go back because I could not tell where one tale stopped and another one started. There are absolutely no pauses between them. It's like a computer with the voice of a really good narrator read this thing... without any punctuation. The narrators voice was great... I have a feeling this was all an issue with post production editing. Give us at least 2 full seconds between the different facts!

Interesting factoids

Interesting facts throughout, some more so than others. Even though I listened to this one, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I would have had a physical copy and had taken my time picking it up here and there.

Starts better than it ends

The book starts with some really interesting what if and near misses of history. It’s pretty amazing how many things almost happened or almost didn’t happen. However, as the book goes on it gets less interesting. In the second half it devolves more into minor anecdotes that just don’t seem to hold a lot of wait.

Also if you’re not from the UK you might be a little lost in some of the sports stories and business ideas