A Short History of the World in 50 Failures

“I hope this book makes you look at the failures in your own life a little more kindly,” writes journalist, folklorist, and biochemist Gazur (A Feast of Folklore) in this entertaining overview of monumental mistakes that changed human history. Gazur shows that time and again errors led to major breakthroughs in science. Examples include a mistranslation of a German text that led to a revolutionary advancement in Alexander Graham Bell’s experimentations with the telephone, another mistranslation (regarding measurements of time) that led Columbus to think he could quickly cross the Atlantic, and numerous hygienic lapses that resulted in major milestones such as the development of penicillin (discovered when Alexander Fleming accidentally left a window open, exposing his work to mold). The other major through line of Gazur’s witty survey is war and its attendant happenstances—like the chauffeur who took a wrong turn and accidentally sparked WWI by setting up his passenger, Duke Ferdinand, for assassination. The most haunting of Gazur’s anecdotes is the one mistake that came not to pass—the 1983 incident when a Soviet soldier chose not to inform his commanders that several U.S. nuclear warheads were incoming, because he correctly figured it was a glitch. It’s a heart-stopping exception to a fun and fascinating treasure trove of mess-ups. (Oct.)