Non Campus Mentis: World History According to College Students

by Anders Hendriksson and Anders Henriksson

Book Overview

Mangled Moments of Western Civilization from Term Papers & Blue Book Exams Did You Know: Cesar was assassinated on the Yikes of March when he is reported to have said, "Me too, Brutus "Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Truman were known as the "Big Three"Rasputin was a pheasant by birthJudyism had one big God named YahooWestward expansion ended at Custard's Last StandMarie Curie won the Noel Prize for inventing the radiatorThe Civil Rights movement...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761122745
• ISBN13: 9780761122746
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Workman Publishing
• Length: 145 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Horrible history!

A hysterical look at the butchery of history by students across the country. Lists of things like this regularly pop up on the Internet, but those fall far short of the true ineptitude shown by some of our nation's students in the pages of this book. Might bring tears to your eyes--caused by both horror and laughter. The funniest ones might be those that show some inventive qualities--unable to come up with the answer, some students resorted to wild interpretations of what little they knew, with outrageous results. The perfect gift for history buffs, teachers, or professors...well, anyone who enjoys a good laugh. Hands down, this has to be one of the funniest things I've read in a while. As a student of history and a former teacher's assistant, I've seen things like this before...but these are far crazier. If you need a good laugh, here's the ticket.

Hilarious and Pointed

I enjoyed this book on a recent train ride, and I fear I frightened my fellow passengers with my frequent guffaws. While I wonder if this book wasn't a bit unfair to Henriksson's students, his seamless weaving together of history examination errors into a Bizarro-universe world history is original and uproarious.One warning: Some of the jokes will be lost on those unfamiliar with the minutae of history. I am a history buff, and my wife a history teacher, and even we missed some references. At times, I felt as uninformed as those poor dunces Henriksson has exposed.

A Hysterical History by College and Graduate Students!

This is the funniest book I have read in years!!!!!!Knowing that I was a history major, my teenage daughter raced in last night to tell me I had to read this book and review it. Since her tips are usually outstanding, I went off in search of the book and found it hidden on the back shelf of a local book store. I glanced at one page . . . and was hooked! Soon, my loud laughs were drawing puzzled glances from all directions. Even after I finished the book, I kept rereading it. Some of the humor is even richer the second time. Professor Henriksson worked with friends and colleagues at over two dozen colleges and universities to locate these quotes from actual term papers and blue-book examinations. In some cases, he has done a little editing to improve the flow, but he says the actual words and spellings are unchanged. Apparently, these examples reflect what students have written over the last 30 years in U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities. "Every generation has to make sense of the past for itself." This is a book of errors, but ones that show "the ingenious and often comic ways we all attempt to make sense of information we can't understand because we have no context or frame of reference for it." The entire history of humanity as we understand it is covered, from the Garden of Eden to prehistoric times to the world of the 1990s. The errors broadly fall into the following categories:1. Astonishing misstatements ("History . . . started in 1815." "Plato invented reality.").2. Misspellings based on not understanding what the real word is or means ("Fryers were required to take a vow of pottery." "Unoccupied Bishop Bricks could be cause for problems.").3. Geographical misplacements ("The French king moved the Popes to Arizona where he could keep an eye on them." "The Boston Tea Party was held at Pearl Harbor.").4. People substitutions ("Dick Cavett was the first European to visit Newfoundland." "Yorktown was sight of Robert E. Lee's greatest victory.")5. Misidentifications (". . . Spinning Jenny, a young girl forced to work more than 40 hours a week." "During the Middle Ages everyone was middle aged.").6. Sexual Innuendoes ("Vauban was the royal Minister of Flirtation.").At the end of the book are some hilarious maps that show where various countries and empires are "located." To bring back a sense of reality, there's a brief quiz at the end (with no answers) that you can take to see how well you know your world history. I'm afraid that I failed the test. And my answers weren't nearly as funny as these. So the best laugh is on me!I do hope that Professor Henriksson will gift us with another volume of marvelous work on fractured history. For teachers of all subjects, this book points out the importance of getting feedback on what has been heard and understood in order to correct misunderstandings before testing students. That same lesson applies to all of us in overcoming the communications stall that plagues all human

The Panama Canal is in Mexico. Where else would it be?

With apologies to all who contributed to this book I laughed really hard while reading most of it, right up to where I got to the self test. I then said to myself "oh my. I dont know who or what or when either!" In any case I think this book can be a great teaching tool. Not only is it a perfect example of how ineffective our school systems can be but as soon as I finished the book, I went straight to the web and researched every question on that self test. I have hope that other readers will do the same.

A Great Gift for Teachers

If God is indeed merciful, then we will not be condemned to repeat the history presented by these college students. Professor Henriksson has excerpted some stunning examples of "higher" learning from his student's essays, including such gems as:* "The Wholey Roman Empire amazed many when it was found in Germany."* "The Hundred Years War (1320-1600) was fought over English holidays in France."* "World War II became the Cold War, because Benjamin Franklin Roosevelt did not trust Lenin and Stalin. An ironed curtain fell across the haunches of Europe."And my personal favorite:* "Anarchism is a system of government headed by an Anarch. Canada, for example, became an anarchy in 1867."If you enjoy this sort of dry humor, then get a copy of this book for yourself or for the teacher in your life. And for the sake of humanity, MAKE YOUR KIDS DO THEIR HOMEWORK!