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What our customer's say!

"Interesting read", I love the zany information in this book. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is that occassionally I found the author to be a bit annoying (trying to throw unnecessary humor in where it wasn't really needed)...other than that...very interesting facts!!

"A book based on fables", I just skimmed through the book, and found three errors. They were based on books that were written decades ago but have been "debunked" themselves. The author found lots of trivia and printed it as fact, without checking his sources. Some of the book might be true, but my random skimming convinced me to find a book better researched. Anyone could do what this author has done.

"Great information, but terrible layout", I am in the 2nd section of this book (Business), and thoroughly enjoyed the first (Arts and Literature). Great 'useless' information and trivia, which will come in handy at a cocktail reception. The problem is that in the 2nd section, for about 20 pages, every other page is shuffled with the one behind it (making it essential that you flip back and forth a couple pages to read each chapter - all around pages 60-70, and beyond). This is incredibly annoying, and I've never seen it in 30+ Years of Reading. From Random House, no less, how did this happen?
I can't tell if I don't enjoy the Business section because of content or layout, so I'll give the book 4 Stars, and deduct 2 for a terrible layout (giving me a headache, it is).

"An Underground Education", An Underground Education


Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Sigh, just another 98 times and then I have to go home and start my history homework. I guess my teacher didn't like some of my more creative answers to the exam. What does she know? She is totally oblivious to Area 51, Tesla's death ray, or that Hitler's Brain is hooked up to a supercomputer and is the president of Brazil. I love reading, but she makes history soooo boring. She just teaches us what we are supposed to know. Nothing I'm not supposed to know, nothing quirky or surprising, or interesting. I mean, why did Napoleon really lose the battle of Waterloo? * Textbooks can be so plodding, far too logical and way too orderly. History is messy and it can be amusing and not so serious, and even a little bizarre...

I want to know the good stuff and that's why I turned to An Underground Education: The Unauthorized And Outrageous Supplement To Everything You Thought You Knew About Art, Sex, Business, Crime, Science, Medicine, And Other Fields Of Human Knowledge by Richard Zacks. Forget what you learned in school, and the teacher's angry red marker. Zacks debunks many popular cultural myths and gives new life to old history. Zacks has divided the book into ten different sections: Arts & Literature, Business, Crime & Punishment, Everyday Life, Medicine, Religion, Science, Sex, World History, and American History.

Zacks covers a wide variety of topics, but he keeps the writing simple and attention grabbing. His emphasis, however, is definitely on the strange and often perverse. So, if you are easily offended, and a bit conservative you should probably skip this book. I mean the title does have business and sex in the title, so that should tell you it's not for the thin-skinned. For example, you might read today's headlines and get the impression that Iraqi War profiteering is something new, but the unfortunate soldiers of the Civil War often wore shoes with no soles, slept in disintegrating tents, and fired weapons that blew up in their hands, all due to the greed of America's great capitalists.

Surely you would have paid more attention in English class if you knew the Bard was so bawdy or that Chaucer made sly jokes about sex. Sure, you knew Edison was credited for inventing the incandescent light bulb, but did you know he secretly helped develop the electric chair in a devious scheme to have the death-dealing device named after his archrival, George Westinghouse? There are lots of interesting facts and tidbits, though it's far from complete. For example, he joyfully explores the evolution of the codpiece, but skips over the symbolism of the long-toed shoes, or poulaines. European folk beliefs equated foot-size with penis-size (think also of noses...) and the tips of the poulaines were thus phallic symbols. The tops of poulaines were also often painted with images of male genitals. You just can't make this stuff up!

Yes, history is way more interesting, and vastly more complicated, than the dried-out sentences in high school history books that leave me feeling deeply unsatisfied. Perhaps great men and women should be pushed off their pedestals. They do not stand on the shoulders of giants (not an admission of humility by Sir Isaac Newton, but rather a bitter insult to a hunchbacked dwarf he was feuding with); they are human, like you and me. Made of flesh and blood and sometimes just a little strange-the famous Mari Hari was no master spy, Cleopatra was ugly as sin, and Pope Innocent III authorized a holy quest for Jesus' foreskin. I guess history can be entertaining, warped and worth remembering. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...

*Theories abound, but the brilliant strategist had a raging case of hemorrhoids, which prevented him from riding out and surveying the troops. Ahh, but for a nail...

History, condemned repeating it, or seeing if we can escape it? Email me at frommyshelf@epix.net. Miss a column? Our archives are available at www.frommyshelf.blogspot.com read the history of Hobo in "Hobo Finds A Home" A charming story about a barn cat who wants more out of life. Don't miss the in depth documentary about Hobo the cat, soon to be aired on the History Channel


"An Underground Education", An Underground Education


Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Sigh, just another 98 times and then I have to go home and start my history homework. I guess my teacher didn't like some of my more creative answers to the exam. What does she know? She is totally oblivious to Area 51, Tesla's death ray, or that Hitler's Brain is hooked up to a supercomputer and is the president of Brazil. I love reading, but she makes history soooo boring. She just teaches us what we are supposed to know. Nothing I'm not supposed to know, nothing quirky or surprising, or interesting. I mean, why did Napoleon really lose the battle of Waterloo? * Textbooks can be so plodding, far too logical and way too orderly. History is messy and it can be amusing and not so serious, and even a little bizarre...

I want to know the good stuff and that's why I turned to An Underground Education: The Unauthorized And Outrageous Supplement To Everything You Thought You Knew About Art, Sex, Business, Crime, Science, Medicine, And Other Fields Of Human Knowledge by Richard Zacks. Forget what you learned in school, and the teacher's angry red marker. Zacks debunks many popular cultural myths and gives new life to old history. Zacks has divided the book into ten different sections: Arts & Literature, Business, Crime & Punishment, Everyday Life, Medicine, Religion, Science, Sex, World History, and American History.

Zacks covers a wide variety of topics, but he keeps the writing simple and attention grabbing. His emphasis, however, is definitely on the strange and often perverse. So, if you are easily offended, and a bit conservative you should probably skip this book. I mean the title does have business and sex in the title, so that should tell you it's not for the thin-skinned. For example, you might read today's headlines and get the impression that Iraqi War profiteering is something new, but the unfortunate soldiers of the Civil War often wore shoes with no soles, slept in disintegrating tents, and fired weapons that blew up in their hands, all due to the greed of America's great capitalists.

Surely you would have paid more attention in English class if you knew the Bard was so bawdy or that Chaucer made sly jokes about sex. Sure, you knew Edison was credited for inventing the incandescent light bulb, but did you know he secretly helped develop the electric chair in a devious scheme to have the death-dealing device named after his archrival, George Westinghouse? There are lots of interesting facts and tidbits, though it's far from complete. For example, he joyfully explores the evolution of the codpiece, but skips over the symbolism of the long-toed shoes, or poulaines. European folk beliefs equated foot-size with penis-size (think also of noses...) and the tips of the poulaines were thus phallic symbols. The tops of poulaines were also often painted with images of male genitals. You just can't make this stuff up!

Yes, history is way more interesting, and vastly more complicated, than the dried-out sentences in high school history books that leave me feeling deeply unsatisfied. Perhaps great men and women should be pushed off their pedestals. They do not stand on the shoulders of giants (not an admission of humility by Sir Isaac Newton, but rather a bitter insult to a hunchbacked dwarf he was feuding with); they are human, like you and me. Made of flesh and blood and sometimes just a little strange-the famous Mari Hari was no master spy, Cleopatra was ugly as sin, and Pope Innocent III authorized a holy quest for Jesus' foreskin. I guess history can be entertaining, warped and worth remembering. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...

*Theories abound, but the brilliant strategist had a raging case of hemorrhoids, which prevented him from riding out and surveying the troops. Ahh, but for a nail...

History, condemned repeating it, or seeing if we can escape it? [...] Miss a column? Our archives are available at [...] read the history of Hobo in "Hobo Finds A Home" A charming story about a barn cat who wants more out of life. Don't miss the in depth documentary about Hobo the cat, soon to be aired on the History Channel!

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Disappointing read", It was my fault; I did not heed the warnings of some of the other evaluations of this book on-line. I thought that An Underground Education would be something akin to An Incomplete Education (4th ed), or at least Reader's Digest's Strange Stories and Amazing Facts (1976). An Incomplete Education is a terrific book full of tid bits of history, science, art, etc. which I thoroughly enjoyed. Strange Stories and Amazing Facts was also full of information ranging from Super Novas to the Loch Ness Monster, and I loved reading this book with my grandfather and still flip through today. Unlike An Incomplete Education or Strange Facts, An Underground Education was neither inciteful nor educational. It was basically a "history" of the sexual preferences and perversions of people throughout history, with some titillating pictures of hermaphrodites.

This is a book I would have enjoyed at age 14, but not as an adult.

"Enthralling Arcana", An absolutely marvelous examination of those historical tid-bits that they never teach you in school, like the indecent forgotten parts of the Bible, the sexual side of slavery, and the evolution of underwear. Ah, but we're here to discuss the morbid side of life, and there's a lot of disturbing darkness scattered throughout the book, especially in the "Crime & Punishment" and "Medicine" chapters. An immensely fascinating and enlightening book - highly, highly recommended!

"Great", The title says it all. This is a delightful mental trip through war profiteering, medical mishaps & deformities, sexuality & murderers.
For those who cannot guess from the title this book isn't for young kids, teens who are immature and/or have a low reading level coupled with prudish parents.
There are a few pictures--paintings and medical photographs of penises of which I find not as eyebrow raising as the violent and murderous history of the Vanderbilts and the Ku Klux Klan shaping America's history more so than an old black and white photo of a man with two penises and three legs.

"Is there any better?", In all the books i've read in my life... this book is by far the best. Filled with wickedly fun and irreverent information that is both useless and needed. Get the book, read it, and try not to spout off all the new useless stuff you've learned, i dare ya!

"Historically Based Information With An Emphasis On The Weird And Wacky", "Underground Education" does not so much offer a radical intellectual perspective, as is perhaps implied by the title. But rather is a collection of funny stories and oddball facts about various people and events from the past. Some of the historical figures are famous, such as George Washington and Cleopatra. While others, like the several female serial killers discussed, are more obscure. The book is divided into 10 chapters, including the arts, religion, science and sex. Actually, this book reminds me somewhat of the "People's Almanac" series written by David Wallechinsky. But here the emphasis is definitely on the strange and often perverse. It's a fun read for those interested in this sort of knowledge. But some entries are overlong and most readers will probably want to read the sections of greatest interest rather than cover to cover. Still it is a worthwhile purchase.