Historys Great Untold Stories: The
Larger Than Life Characters and
Dramatic Events That Changed the
World by Joseph Cummins
Another Great Purchase.....5 Stars Every Time.
This eye-catching volume combines vivid first-hand accounts of pivotal
events in history with authoritative commentary. Revealing startling links
among events and people separated by centuries and continents, the epic
struggles and bombastic personalities have been carefully chosen for their
power to challenge some of the fiercest debates of our present day.
Readers encounter William the Silent, a Dutch monarch whose
assassination may have triggered the 1588 launch of the Spanish Armada
and led Queen Elizabeth I to create the first known attempt at gun control.

Another chapter introduces Rabban Sauma, a thirteenth-century Christian
monk sent by Kublai Khan to seek a Christian-Mongol alliance against
Muslims. There is also the remarkable story of twelve anti-slavery activists
who fought the prevailing business and political establishment of their day
to outlaw slavery in England, using tactics that have become tools of the
trade for every grassroots movement that has followed.
Filled with fascinating sidebars, narratives, maps, illustrations, and concise
biographies, this new volume gathers up the rich details that Western
history left on the cutting room floor and turns them into stories that shed
light on both vanquished and victor over the ages. With its fresh, design
and accessible format, Historys Great Untold Stories will be welcomed by
the legions of readers who are eager to uncover historys mysteries and
explore lesser known, non-Western views of world events.
Personal Review: Historys Great Untold Stories: The Larger
Than Life Characters and Dramatic Events That Changed the
World by Joseph Cummins
I usually avoid books on history published by The National Geographic
Society. I have found them to be written in too simple a style and without a
great deal of either new or deep intellectual content. I happened to pick up
this book at the local library and turn randomly to page 194. It began:
"The Taiping Rebellion, a peasant uprising that occurred in mid 19th
century China, involved more combatants than any other war in the 19th
century, killed more people that any other conflict apart from World War II
(estimates range from 20 million to 40 million)...and changed the future of
an entire country. Yet very few people outside of China have ever heard of
it. Nor do many know of its messianic leader, Hong Xiuquan, who claimed
to have had an apocalyptic vision that revealed he was Jesus Christ's
younger brother."
I had heard of it, but knew little about it - or about many of the other
events described in the book. They are all (to those of us who enjoy
history) interesting - and most are fascinating. The author has the
unexpected and intellectually mature view that not everything done by
western Europeans and Americans has been totally angelic.
The reviewer who gave the book only 2 stars says "Any reasonably
serious student of history will be familiar with all the stories Cummins
chooses to tell." All right, let's see if you are a reasonably serious student
of history. What do you know about the following:
1. The Cadaver Synod, 2. The Leper King of Jerusalem, 3. Subotai, 4.
Rabban Sauma, 5. The Chinese Treasure Fleet of Xuan He, 6. William the
1st of Orange, 7.The Shimabara Uprising, 8.Roger Williams (of Providence
Plantation, not the singer), 9. The Battle of Poltava, 10. Vitus Bering, 11.
Francisco Dagohoy and the Rebels of Bohol, 12. The British Abolition
Movement, 13. David Thompson, North America's Greatest Geographer,

14. George Augustus Robinson, The Great Conciliator of Van Dieman's
Land.
Those are the first fourteen (of twenty-eight) chapters. How did you do?
How do you think the two-star reviewer who made the statement did? The
book is well written, in a very accessible style; I would recommend it not
only to get a teenager interested in history, but as interesting and unusual
fare for the experienced history buff.
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