Pretty funny. I laughed out loud many times while reading this. Not much substance, but amusing. ( )

I bought this book, then read the entire thing in the parking lot. Awkward for many people who happened by, as I laughed and nodded and said "seriously!" in an empty vehicle. I would recommend this to any student of history primarily, but also for anyone who likes a good jab in the ribs. ( )

It's got some pretty good quotes and some pretty mediocre ones. Some people I had thought merited respect spat out some pretty baseless ad hominem attacks. John Adams called a lot of people names for no good reason and even Thomas Jefferson said some pretty nasty and unqualified things. Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine got a lot of hate I thought was unjustified.

The problem is that none of the quotes are explained. No context is given, just the speaker and the subject of their venom. It leaves you completely unable to figure out when and to what degree the slurs were justified.

Some Quotes:

Baseless or confusing
"A private meeting with Hoover is like sitting in a bath of ink."
Henry Stimson

"A chameleon on plaid."
~Herbert Hoover on FDR

"The country does not deserve a visitation of that potbellied, mutton-headed cucumber."
~Horace Greeley on Lewis Cass

"If you vote for Al Smith, you're voting against Christ, and you'll all be damned."
~Mordecai Ham (Baptist Minister)

"Never trust a man who combs his hair straight from his left armpit."
~Alice Roosevelt Longworth on Douglas MacArthur

Humorous
"The only man, woman or child who ever wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors."
~ E. E. Cumming on Warren G. Harding

"I am not fit for this office and never should have been here."
~Warren G. Harding

"Distinguishable from the furniture only when he moved."
~George Creel on Wilson Administration Official

"His argument is as thin as the...soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death."
~Abraham Lincoln on Stephen A. Douglas

"One could not even dignify him with the name of stuffed shirt. He was simply a hole in the air."
~George Orwell on Stanley Baldwin

"Belgium is just a country invented by the British to annoy the French."
~Charles de Gaulle

"The English are not an inventive people; they don't eat enough pie."
~Thomas Edison ( )

This was a nifty little book with some stuff I'd never read about before, so I did learn something from it (always a plus with a non-fiction book, IMO). My main complaint is that it is simply far too short and went too fast. It's a nice little read, though. I'd advise against buying it till it goes into the super bargain bin, or just check it out from a library, though. Save your book budget for something a bit more substantial and satisfying. 3+, mostly because of the size rather than the content. ( )