Profiles in Folly: History's Worst Decisions and Why They Went WrongUnion Square + ORM, 3. apr. 2012 - 372 strani The bestselling author of Profiles in Audacity returns with an “illuminating [and] entertaining” study of historically bad decisions (Publishers Weekly). In an engrossing anecdotal format, historian and bestselling author Alan Axelrod turns to the dark side of audacious decision-making—and explores history’s most tragic errors, the people who made them, and why they happened. While Axelrod looks at the hopelessly dumb and the overtly evil, the main focus is on smart people who had the best of intentions—but whose plans went disastrously wrong. The 35 compelling stories include the sailing of the “unsinkable” Titanic; Edward Bernays’s 1929 campaign to recruit women smokers; Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis; Ken Lay’s deception with Enron; and even the choice to create a “New Coke” and fix what wasn’t broke. These are cautionary tales that any decision-maker can learn from—albeit with exquisite twists ranging from acerbic to horrific. |
Vsebina
NASA and the Space Shuttles 1986 2003 | |
PART | |
Captain Alfred Dreyfus and the Honor of France 18941906 | |
Thomas Edison and the Fight Against Alternating Current 1893 | |
The Wright Brothers and the Wing Warping Lawsuits 191014 | |
Alfred P Sloan and Planned Obsolescence 1920 | |
Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler 1938 | |
The British Empire and Gandhi 1942 | |
PART FIVE | |
Antonio López de Santa Anna and the Alamo 1836 | |
Patriotism and Poison Gas 191418 | |
Edward Bernays and the Campaign to Recruit Women Smokers 1929 | |
Nixon and Watergate 1973 | |
Metropolitan Edison and Three Mile Island 1979 | |
Ken Lay and Enron 2001 | |
Dick Cheney and the Iraq War 2003 | |
PART THREE | |
The War Hawks and the War of 1812 1812 | |
Calhoun and Nullification 1832 | |
Russell Majors and Waddell and the Pony Express 1860 | |
Count Leopold von Berchtold and His Ultimatum 1914 | |
The Decision to Retreat | |
Roberto Goizueta and the New Coke 1985 | |
PART | |
George Gordon Meade and Ulysses S Grant at the Battle of the Crater 1864 | |
Rasputin and the Russian Royals 1916 | |
Ford Motor Company and the Edsel 1957 | |
John F Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs 1961 | |
Tonkin Gulf Persian Gulf 1964 2003 | |
George W Bush and Hurricane Katrina 2005 | |
Further Reading | |
Druge izdaje - Prikaži vse
Profiles in Folly: History's Worst Decisions and why They Went Wrong Alan Axelrod Omejen predogled - 2008 |
Profiles in Folly: History's Worst Decisions and Why They Went Wrong Alan Axelrod Predogled ni na voljo - 2012 |
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