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

By: Phil Mason

Narrated by: LJ Ganser

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.

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

Haha, very entertaining

Who says history is boring? What a fun and entertaining look at events in history. A very good "who knew" book. Fun from start to end! enjoy!

Very interesting

If you love, random bits of wacky information, this is definitely the book for you!

Excellent

Astounding look. I loved it. All 3 times that I listened to. I recommend it strongly.

Well written, and well read by the reader.

Revealed many surprising twists and turns that shaped our History yet are not widely known. Very informative and entertaining.

Great book! So many weird facts!

Who knew Napoleon had hemorrhoids and someone’s job was to apply leeches to them! So many odd facts!

A list would have saved me time, annoyance and a dose of unnecessary homophobia.

Perhaps other reviews can address the later 2/3 of this hurried and poorly connected manner in which these facts are revealed. There is little structure to theme and the author adds in armchair commentary that is perhaps intended to add humor but falls flat.

After some reading, I eventually decided to quit as I felt the author added unnecessary commentary and wordage to suggest certain orientations or consensual actions as objectively reprehensible rather than something seen as frowned upon at the time.

Not a fan of the narration technique on this one

The book has a weird, disorganized structure to begin with, but better narration would have helped. In particular I wish he would have paused or at least taken a breath between the brief “stories.” There were a lot of interesting, fun facts, but they could have been easier to listen to and follow.

fantastic

ill be listening to this again. fantastic source of information that can make you the star at any party

This book will make you irritating

This is one of those books that fills your head with so many interesting facts and stories that you will drive your friends crazy repeating them all.. The book contains hundreds of tales about little unknown instances that helped shape history for better and for worse. There are many unsung heroes in this book from the German soldier who saved Paris to the British spies who tricked FDR into going to war with a counterfeit map.