EDITOR'S CHOICE
Historical tidbits that will
whet your appetite
Elizabeth Taylor, literary editor
Published March 30, 2003
The Greatest Stories Never Told:
100 Tales From History to Astonish, Bewilder and Stupefy
By Rick Beyer
HarperResource, 214 pages, $17.95
This little book is like an old-fashioned sweet shop, full of tasty
morsels, including the fact that the Scottish kilt was invented by
an Englishman, how the Dutch swapped nutmeg for Manhattan and the
role of "beere" in the Mayflower's landing at Plymouth Rock. A delightful
book to arm one for the next dull cocktail party.
Copyright
© 2003, Chicago Tribune
What you didn't learn in history class
March 21, 2003
You already know the story of Paul Revere.
But have you ever heard of Israel Bissell? He rode 350 miles, from
Massachusetts to Philadelphia, to warn colonists that the British
had come. By contrast, Revere rode only 20 miles.
Likewise, you've probably heard of the vicious Attila the Hun,
who stopped at nothing in his bid to conquer the world. But did
you know that the great warrior died, not of terrible war wounds,
but of a bloody nose?
Let's face it, some of the best stories never make the history
books. And as Rick Beyer proves with his new book, The Greatest
Stories Never Told (HarperResource, $17.95), we've all been missing
out.
Beyer, executive producer of a company that is involved in numerous
projects for The History Channel, has compiled 100 stories you haven't
heard but will delight in knowing. The book offers the lively, offbeat
and surprising in quick-hit snippets.
Did you know, for example:
• That the Mayflower stopped at Plymouth Rock because
the pilgrims couldn't wait to find a better location; they were
out of beer?
• That George Washington wasn't the first president
of the United States? The honor goes to John Hanson, who served
one year in 1781, when the last of the 13 colonies ratified the
Articles of Confederation but before the Constitution was in place.
• That the stethoscope was invented by a modest French
doctor, who didn't want to put his ear to the bosom of a female
patient?
It may not be the stuff of heavyweight history. But then, the past
wasn't as ponderous as textbook writers might suggest.
As Beyer writes in his introduction: "History isn't always made
by great armies colliding or great civilizations falling. Sometimes
it is made when a chauffeur takes a wrong turn, a scientist forgets
to clean up his lab or a drunken soldier gets a bit rowdy."
Patti Thorn, books editor
History like you've never read it before
By ALAN BOSTICK Staff Writer 3/15/03
Are you really so sure that baseball is an American invention? Did
you know that the first Pilgrims made port in this country in part
because they ran out of beer?
And would it surprise you to read that the famous Scopes trial in
Dayton, Tenn., actually was a fraud?
If any of this keeps you reading, then you'll want to pick up Rick
Beyer's The Greatest Stories Never Told (HarperCollins, $17.95), his
amusing new collection of 100 tales gleaned from history, as the jacket
says, "to astonish, bewilder and stupefy."
Beyer, 46, a longtime history buff and successful documentary producer
who lives in Massachusetts, said he wanted each entry to do two things:
produce an "ah-hah!" response and exhibit a true relevance to modern-day
readers.
"If you just have something that's interesting
because it happened, but didn't connect or have some impact on history,
then it's not as interesting," Beyer said. "You want to find something
we all can relate to in some way."
Speaking from Utah, where he's currently filming a TV documentary
on early aviation for The History Channel, Beyer explained how his
book developed from a recent series he produced for that channel known
as Timelab 2000. Actor Sam Waterston of NBC's long-running Law and
Order, was host of the series, which consisted of more than 200 short
spots carefully chosen from the annals of time.
Beyer wrote several of these "minutes" and edited the rest, so the
script's transition to book form - and his own transformation into
author - was a smooth one.
"I've always loved stories like
this. I love the idea of turning people's expectations upside down.
Even when I started working on Timelab, I thought it would make a
great book. As it was winding down, I met a literary agent."
The agent encouraged him to expand a selection of stories from the
TV series, adding photographs and illustrations, and then create a
few brand-new stories.
It was less out of some "great and noble instinct" than from a simple
interest in history that Beyer, who comes across as a friendly, reflective
man, conceived of this idea.
Proceeding chronologically from 46 B.C. to 1990, this little book,
which includes a list of sources to demonstrate its reliance on facts,
spends two pages each on subjects ranging from the cab drivers who
"saved" Paris in 1914 to a Kansas farmhand who helped map the solar
system in 1930. There's also the slave trader who wrote Amazing Grace
in the mid-18th century and the story of how three cigars may have
helped the Union side win the Civil War.
Beyer's research, as he describes it, was as simple as it was direct:
He read many history books, including some he'd read long before and
wanted to revisit. He looked at books of lists and facts similar to
the one he was writing "but moved away from them rather quickly."
He also made use of the Internet, did some newspaper archive research
and at times found himself debunking great stories that simply weren't
true.
One such story, he said, was the myth that Apollo 8 astronauts took
Silly Putty with them into space "to alleviate boredom and stick their
tools to the wall of the spacecraft." Not true, Beyer's research revealed.
As for the rather extravagant title, Beyer acknowledged that there
are some stories here that perhaps have been told before, such as
the motorcade's wrong turn in Sarajevo that led to the assassination
of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, or the reasonably
well-known fact that Shakespeare's works were not published by him
while alive but after his death by two former colleagues.
"I took a little artistic license on the title," Beyer said.
"What I'm getting at is that these are not stories known by most
people. My hope is that you can open this book to any page and find
an interesting story. And that you discover that history isn't just
about a lot of dead people - boring kings signing documents and that
sort of thing - but interesting lives of people who didn't set out
that day to make history but may have changed the world."
Alan Bostick writes on books and the fine arts for The Tennessean.
He can be reached at 259-8038 or abostick@tennessean.com.
MORE BOOK BRIEFS
by Larry Bleiberg, Mike Maza
As seen on TV: This collection of 100 semi- (and sometimes truly)
surprising historical nuggets is stamped with The History Channel
logo. That's because they are text-and-illustration variations on
the "history minutes" that Mr. Beyer produced for the cable channel
to mark the millennium. You can almost hear annnouncer's dramatic
inflection as you read.
Some of the greats: The death of Attila the Hun - on his wedding
night, from a nosebleed while drunk. The Mayflower landing - in
chilly Massachusetts rather than the more hospitable South because
the Pilgrims were out of beer. The Eiffel Tower - considered a "barbarous
mass" by many Parisians, saved by its utility as a radio tower.
Yes, it's history lite: And the import of these oddities sometimes
seems exaggerated. But the essentials of fascinating stories are
here. If you want to dig deeper, turn to the source list, which
includes at least one reference for every moment.
Sunday, October 26, 2003
by Sharon Wootton
"The Greatest Stories Never Told" ($17.95, Harper Collins).
This one-two punch of history and humor is delivered by Rick Beyer
with 100 shorts on history that keep the book's promise to "astonish,
bewilder and stupefy."
Learn how landlord Charles Boycott's name turned into an activist
tactic; how drunken Redcoats led to the national anthem; and how
a magician thwarted a rebellion.
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The
Greatest Stories Never Told