Bill Fawcett

Every four years Americans go to the polls to elect a leader, someone serious, distinguished, respectable, with perfect sobriety and moral standing who will serve as a paragon for the rest of us. But presidents and their families are people too-with quirks and character flaws like everyone else . . . and they have plenty of skeletons rattling around in their closets. Oval Office Oddities is a grand compendium of fascinating, sometimes embarrassing presidential facts, gaffes, and oddball behaviors-available in plenty of time for Election Day Mary Todd Lincoln had an endearing little clothing fetish . . . and once purchased 300 pairs of gloves in a single month No Commander in Chief bothered to visit neglected California until Rutherford B. Hayes did in 1880. Crazy Jack: Many prominent leaders were absolutely convinced that John Adams was stark raving bonkers Oval Office Oddities is jam-packed with amusing anecdotes and offbeat information presented in a way that makes our nation's history accessible, relevant, and entertaining.

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.

The great arched train sheds of Victorian Britain are often seen as the nineteenth-century equivalent of medieval cathedrals: once specific railway buildings became necessary around 1830 British architects seized the opportunity with both hands, designing some of the great buildings of their age. However, these grand buildings are only part of the story – not only was the country peppered with humbler individually styled station buildings, but also with bridges, signal boxes, engine sheds and other structures specific to the railways. In this illustrated introduction, Bill Fawcett tells the story of railway architecture from the age of George Stephenson to modern times, including such influential architects as Sir George Gilbert Scott and Charles Holden.

From the Spanish Armada to the modern age of aircraft carriers, history is littered with horribly bad military ideas on the open seas. Whether a result of lack of planning, miscalculations, a leader's ego, spy infiltration, or just a really stupid idea in the first place, each military defeat is fascinating to dissect. Among the catastrophic missteps: The French defeat of the British at the Battle of the Chesapeake, The rise of the American Navy during the Barbary Wars, The short life and death of Imperial Japan's Navy, The sinking of the Bismarck, Nazi megaship, Remember the Maine! How the Spanish-America War was started by lies, Admiral Nelson's greatest hits: The Nile and Trafalgar, The ANZAK disaster at Gallipoli, Germany's failed WWII campaign in the North Atlantic, Kennedy's quarantine of Cuba. With more than 35 chapters of incredible military disasters, both famous (infamous) and obscure, How to Lose a War at Sea is chock full of trivia, history, and fascinating looks at the world's greatest seafaring military defeats.

Those Who Forget History Are Doomed to Repeat It. And so we have. Time again the mankind has faced down problems, but have failed to take the hard earned knowledge into the next battle of the same nature. This collection of essays will illuminate those problems we've faced over and over and the common threads that have stumped us for centuries. Including: Islamic jihads past and present: The Lesson of the Mahdi and the fact that the Saud family fled after the Wahabist defeat in Sudan will also explain a lot about our rather uncomfortable ally; Terrorists: Anarchists, Wooblies, Luddites, Spain against Napoleon, and the IRA all have lessons on what to do and what to not let them do to our society; Military Insurgencies: the Barbarian hordes, The Mau Mau of Kenya, Italian Freedom fighters in the 19th century, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, and the Confederate forces of the American Civil War; Afghanistan Redux with the British, Russians, and Americans. Inflation and the devaluation of currency throughout history including debasing coins, letting inflation run wild: Roman Emperors creating worthless coins, silly economic policy in the Weimer Republic, and run away inflation Zimbabwe; Financial disasters like the Tulip Bubble and South Pacific Bubble; Ecological collapse like the Mayan agricultural collapse and the devestation cause by the Ice Ages; The Rise of radical political minorities in bad times including the Bolshevik Revolution and the coming of Nazis; and Pandemics and epidemics including the Black Death and other plagues through history. With more than 35 chapters of the Groundhog Days of world history, both infamous and obscure, "Doomed to Repeat" is chock full of trivia, history, and fascinating looks at the world's repeated mistakes.

Hindsight hurts. * The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act, having the American colonies pay for their own defense--which instead starts a revolution. * In 1929, President Herbert Hoover decides to let the economy fix itself...and the Great Depression gets greater. * Nixon tapes everything he says in the Oval Office, believing it will all be of great historical value. He turns out to be right when those same tapes cost him his presidency. * Charles the First cuts a deal with the Irish to fight Parliament that instead loses him public support--and later his head. Along with 100 Mistakes that Changed the World, Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing proves once again that when global leaders drop the ball, the whole world shakes. With a hundred more bombshell blunders--from Pickett's Charge to the Lewinski scandal--this compendium takes a fascinating look at some of history's greatest turns for the worse.

Oops. Reeling from the Black Death, Europe's peasants decide it is cats that are carrying the plague, and start killing them off...leading the rat population, which is really spreading the disease, to explode. A better society is Prohibition's goal - but the result is robbery and homicide, plus the use of cocaine, marijuana, and opium as substitutes for alcohol. Mexico invites Americans to Texas. And the Americans never leave. Nixon has a twenty-point lead in the polls. Apparently that's not a comfortable enough margin for those who decide to ensure his success...by breaking into the Watergate. From the Maginot Line to the Bay of Pigs invasion, history is filled with bad moves and not-so-bright ideas that snowballed into disasters and unintended consequences. This engrossing book looks at one hundred such tipping points. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. Rome farms out its fighting to barbarians. The Aztecs greet the conquistadors with open arms. And the rest is history...

There had never before been a war on the scale of World War II. The sheer size of the conflict and the immense scope of a single battlefield, multiplied the effects of both brilliant and bad decisions. When millions of men are attacking in a Russian offensive or thousands of aircraft are dueling in the skies over Europe, every key decision had dramatic, and often disastrous, results. The author of "How to Lose a Battle" and "How to Lose a War" introduces the catastrophic missteps, including: Poland's lack of preparation for the Nazi invasion; Germany's failure to take Britain out of the war at Dunkirk; Russia playing Goliath to Finland's David; allied forces getting trapped for four months on the beaches of Anzio; and, Germany wasting its costly development of jet power.

Epic battles?as seen through the eyes of the men who fought them. From Gettysburg to D-Day, history's most momentous battles have been recounted to the world on a grand scale. This book, for the first time ever, looks at man's most epic battles from the point of view of the soldiers on the front lines; providing new insight into the great wars of history. Stories told by the Roman Legionaire, the British Doughboy, and the American Doggie, delve into these battles and battlefronts: Roman Legion Third Crusade under Richard Lionheart Waterloo, French under Napoleon American Civil War: Gettysburg WWI: Americans at Ardennes WWII: Japanese Island Defense WWII: D-Day, Americans at Normandy Marines at Chosin.

Gathered in this book is a collection of flawed plans, half baked ideas, and downright ridiculous machines that, with the best and most optimistic intentions, men have constructed throughout history. Included are such military, scientific, commercial, and infrastructure disasters as: The Lead water pipes of Rome; Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse; Edison's electrical folly; Betamax; Concorde crash; Hubble - A $2 billion telescope that didn't work; the Mars probe failures due to simple math mistakes; Cold Fusion; and, Ford Pinto. Some failed spectacularly, others fizzled after great expense, and one crashed on Mars. While this is a book about ideas and things men make that have failed, it is not a technical manual. Rather it is a fun collection that shows how an otherwise brilliant designer, scientist, architect, or doctor can often spend years or millions creating something that a few small bits of common sense would have prevented.

The U. S. Navy SEALs have long been considered among the finest, most courageous, and professional soldiers in American military history--an elite fighting force trained as parachutists, frogmen, demolition experts, and guerrilla warriors ready for sea, air, and land combat. Born out of a proud naval tradition dating back to World War II, the first SEAL teams were commissioned in the early 1960s. Vietnam was their proving ground. In this remarkable volume, fifteen former SEALs--most of them original founding team members, or "plankowners"--share their vivid first-person remembrances of action in Vietnam. Here are honest, brutal, and relentlessly thrilling stories of covert missions, ferocious firefights, and red-hot chopper insertions and extractions, revealing astonishing little-known truths that will only add strength to the enduring SEAL legend.

The editor of It Seemed Like a Good Idea . . . offers an information-packed compilation of real-life military disasters, ill-advised campaigns, and costly military decisions made throughout history, from the ancient world and the medieval Crusades to World War II and beyond. Original.

Authors Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood reveal in this fascinating, thought-provoking book, based on the government's own research and internal files, what they have learned about: UFO's as a threat to national security. UFO sightings at military bases in the United States, North Africa, and the Middle East. The cover-up role of the FBI and the CIA. The presidents, legislators, astronauts, military leaders, and international scientific authorities who are on record as in favor of renewed investigation of UFO's.