Tom Phillips - Humans - A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up

modesty, 43

Mongol Empire, 213–20

Mongols, 208

moons, full, 37–38

Moreira, Gregorio, 157

mosquitoes, 90

Muhammad II (Shah of Khwarezmian Empire), 212–18, 219

Murad IV (Sultan of Ottoman Empire), 112–13

Mustafa I (Sultan of Ottoman Empire), 110–12

mythologization, 174

Napoleon, 126, 148–49

NASA, 227, 228–29

National Review, 268

Native Americans, treaties with, 173–74

Nature, 25–26, 238–39

Navarre, Henri, 154–55

Neanderthals, 32–33

“negative externality,” 45

New Edinburgh, Caledonia, 189, 190

New Scientist, 251

New York Times, 89, 129–30, 245, 265

New Zealand, cats in, 90

Nile perch, 80–82, 81

Nixon, Richard, 156

Niyazov, Saparmurat, 106–8, 107

Nobel, Alfred, 264

Nohmul, 70

Northern snakehead, 90

N-rays, 235–38

nuclear weapons, 266, 267

offspring water, 230

Olsen, Ken, 267

Oppenheimer, Robert, 266

Orton, William, 264

Osman II (Sultan of Ottoman Empire), 111

Ottoman Empire sultans, 108–9

Ahmed I, 109–10

Ibrahim, 113–15

Mehmed III, 109

Murad IV, 112–13

Mustafa I, 110–12

Osman II, 111

Panama and Paterson, 179–81

parachute suits, 253

Paraguay, 222

The Parthenon, 69

Paterson, William

Bank of England, 181

Darien scheme and, 179–81, 182, 183, 187–94

financial mania and Company of Scotland, 186

union of Scotland with England, 195

Patsayev, Viktor, 267

Paullus, Lucius Aemilius, 124–25

peer pressure, 46

penis theft manias, 46, 47

People’s Daily , 85, 128

Peter III (Tsar of Russia), 117

phlogiston, 233–34

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 70

Picoaza, Ecuador, 128–29

planning ahead, 44

plants, importation of, 82

poll tax, 135

polywater, 231–33

Popular Science, 231, 233

predictions, difficulty making, 44

prejudice, 45

The Price of Scotland (Watt), 185

Prohibition, 135

propaganda, 44

Pulvapies, 128–29

Qara Khitai Empire, 213

Qin Shi Huang, 98–99

Quarterly Review , 263

rabbits, importation to Australia of, 77–80, 79

radiation, 235–38

radio, 264–65

Rapa Nui (Easter Island), 66–69

Red Scare, 46, 47

refrigeration, 249–51

Reichelt, Franz, 253

risk assessment, 44

Rome, 124–25, 207

Rose, Hugh, 189, 190

Rousseau, Denis, 232

Rubens, Heinrich, 237

Ruhnama (Niyazov), 107

Russia

Bolsheviks, 208–9, 210

invasions of, 148–51

in Syria, 211

San Jose Mercury News , 128

Santa Anna, Antonio López de, 127

Sargon of Akkad, 97

Scheele, Carl Wilhelm, 253

Schieffelin, Eugene, 87–89

Schlesinger, Arthur, 157

Schloss Neuschwanstein, 101, 102 , 103

science

accuracy of deduction, 26

ideal process versus actual process, 234

popular science books, 260–61, 261

predictions gone awry, 263–68, 266 , 267

profit motive and, 243, 244–45, 249

Science , 231

science mishaps

CFCs, 250–51, 252

eugenics, 239–40

examples, 253–54

leaded gasoline, 243–49

luminiferous ether, 234

Lysenko’s agricultural, 240–41

Mars Climate Orbiter, 227, 228–29

N-rays, 235–38

phlogiston, 233–34

polywater, 230–33

scientific revolution, 228

Scotland

Company of Scotland, 183–86, 187–88, 189–90, 193, 194

unification with England and Ireland, 182, 195

selfishness, 44–45

Selfridge, Thomas, 265

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, 69

Siege of Petersburg (Virginia, 1864), 146–47

Sigurd the Mighty, 22

Skraelings, 169

Slims River, Canada, 70

Smith, Sir Henry, 174

Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930), 135

snap judgments, 40

“social traps,” 44–45

society, as product of human brain, 33–34

Solano López, Francisco, 222

South China Morning Post , 65

Soviet Union, 58–60

space exploration, 227, 267, 280–81

Spain

Atahualpa and, 222

Columbus and, 165–68, 170, 174, 204

Cortés and Moctezuma and, 204–6

Darien and, 191–92, 193

wars, 147–48, 159–60

Spanish–American War of 1898, 147–48

sparrows and Four Pests campaign, 84–86

starlings, 88–89

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 196–97

Sugar Cube (concubine), 115

Sumer, 96

Sunol, California, 128

superstitions, 44

Sweden, 240

Sydney Morning Herald , 78

Syr Darya water diversion, 58–59

Syria, 211

Taíno people, 170–71, 174, 204

Taliban, 70

Taylor, Ellison, 233

TEL (tetraethyl lead), 243, 245, 246

telephone, 264

Temple of Artemis, 69

Ténéré Tree (in Sahara Desert), 70

Tenochtitlan, 205–6

Thatcher, Margaret, 135

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman), 39

Thuerk, Gary, 267–68

Thule people, 169

Time , 62, 106

“tragedy of the commons,” 44–45, 68

trains, 264–65

trash, 65, 65–66

Treaty of Waitangi, 174

Tso-hsin Cheng, 84–85

Turkmenistan, 106–8, 107

U-1206 (German U-boat), 153–54

United Kingdom

established, 195

Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution on lead, 247

See also Britain

United States

enemy’s enemy delusion and, 210–11

eugenics in, 240

polywater race, 231–33

Red Scare, 47

toxic lead levels in children, 247

“Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments” (Dunning and Kruger), 43

Uruguay, 222

Vallandigham, Clement, 254

Varro, Gaius Terentius, 124–25

Varus, Publius Quinctilius, 207

Venice, Republic of, 125–26

Vikings, 168–69

Vinland, 168–69

Volkov, Vladislav, 267

von Papen, Franz, 131–32

Vortigern, 222

Wall Street Journal , 232

war

agriculture and, 54

biological weapons, 80

enemy’s enemy delusion, 208–11, 210

geography and, 142

inventions to end, 264, 265, 266

between Khwarezmian and Mongol Empires, 214, 216–20

between Ming dynasty and Mongols, 208

oldest evidence for, 141

Paraguay against Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, 222

rise of rulers and, 96–97, 98–99, 124–26

Rome and, 125–26, 207

Spanish with Aztecs, 206

unification of China, 98

See also decision-making failures; specific battles

Ward, Henry, 262

Ward, Mary, 260–63, 261

War of Jenkins’s Ear, 159–60

War of the Bucket (1325), 159

War of the Golden Stool, 160

Washington Post , 89

waste, 65, 65–66

Watt, Douglas, 185, 186, 190

wealth inequality and agriculture, 54

well poisoning manias, 46, 47

wheel, invention of, 34

Wiedemann, Fritz, 133

Wilhelm II (Kaiser of Germany), 117

Williams, Robert, 268

witch hunts, 46

Wood, Robert, 237–238

World Health Organization, 247

World War I, 208–9, 222

World War II, 148–54, 151

Wright brothers, 265

Xhosa, 174

X-rays, 235, 236

Yang Linxuan, 65

yellow fever, 253

Zanzibar, Sultan of, 159

Zhengde Emperor (born Zhu Houzhao), 99–100

Zheng He, 207–8