First published 1999
Richard Zacks tears apart sanitized history lessons with shocking facts your teachers deliberately omitted. This "autodidact extraordinaire" guides readers through humanity's most scandalous episodes, from ancient nose-blowing customs to Catherine the Great's bedroom secrets. Zacks digs into scatological details and sexual peculiarities that official accounts bury. He examines everything from underwear's development to pre-anesthetic dental procedures, revealing how brutal and bizarre the past really was. The author debunks cherished myths while exposing the gross, cruel, and perverse elements that make real history far more outrageous than any textbook version. Zacks proves that truth beats fiction when it comes to human depravity and absurdity.
Genres: history, reference, non-fiction, academic
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: debunking-myths, shocking-facts
432 pages · Paperback · Anchor
Content warnings: explicit-sexual-content, graphic-violence