A Tabloid History of the World

Rating:
Summary: Halarious fun
Review: A funny fact filled book. A must buy for any history teacher or any one into history.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious for history lovers
Review: OK, the gags and headlines from this book are super-cheesy. But that's the point! If you are a history buff with any sense of humor, you will completely love this book. Along with the groovy headlines, the author cleverly uses stills from classic and not-so classic flicks (Cleopatra, Salome etc.) to illustrate your favorite historical figures. Abraham, Rasputin, Joan of Arc are some celebs described in wonderful mini-articles. These articles' trashiness, yet relatively good knowledge of historical detail, set me into wild fits of giggling. I must agree that the last couple of current history panels are duds, but the rest of the book still warrants a high rating. Great coffee table book if you've got a lot of intellectual friends.

Rating:
Summary: News Flash: This One?s No Headliner
Review: The premise of this "book" (more like an extended magazine-style gag) is funny - what if world history was covered by a New York Post style tabloid? The execution, however, just doesn't work. Most of what's in here are faux front-pages with headlines that are supposed to be funny. Some of the better ones include "Dow-ner" (for the stock market crash of 1929), "Head Fed Dead" (for the death of Alexander Hamilton), and "Sodom No-Morrah" (for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah). Yes, those are the better ones. I give the author credit for some of the gags that don't work, but were still gags, but too many of these headlines are almost serious. What's funny about "White House Run by Wilson's Wife"? "Lincoln is a Manic Depressive"? "Caesar Slain"? These may be how such events could actually have been covered by a tabloid, but there's nothing inherently funny about that.

Oddly, several of the "historical" stories were so recent as to have actually been covered by contemporary tabloids (even the Hamilton killing was covered by tabloids - Hamilton himself founded the New York Post). I'm not sure about the point of the "recent history" headlines - that McDonough could write better headlines than real tabloid editors?

Another low point is the series of headlines about Jesus. McDonough seems to be worried about offending Christians, so he never uses the name "Jesus" (until he covers John Lennon's claim that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus with the side-splitting headline, "Bigger than Jesus" [wasn't that an actual headline from the time?]) Otherwise, Christ is simply "Miracle Man."

By far, the most cringe-inducing aspect of the book is the inclusion of fake "articles" accompanying some of the headlines. The articles are so un-funny that they are painful to read. So don't. Don't read any of it. This book is not worth your time. And that's the way it is.

Rating:
Summary: News Flash: This One¿s No Headliner
Review: The premise of this "book" (more like an extended magazine-style gag) is funny - what if world history was covered by a New York Post style tabloid? The execution, however, just doesn't work. Most of what's in here are faux front-pages with headlines that are supposed to be funny. Some of the better ones include "Dow-ner" (for the stock market crash of 1929), "Head Fed Dead" (for the death of Alexander Hamilton), and "Sodom No-Morrah" (for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah). Yes, those are the better ones. I give the author credit for some of the gags that don't work, but were still gags, but too many of these headlines are almost serious. What's funny about "White House Run by Wilson's Wife"? "Lincoln is a Manic Depressive"? "Caesar Slain"? These may be how such events could actually have been covered by a tabloid, but there's nothing inherently funny about that.

Oddly, several of the "historical" stories were so recent as to have actually been covered by contemporary tabloids (even the Hamilton killing was covered by tabloids - Hamilton himself founded the New York Post). I'm not sure about the point of the "recent history" headlines - that McDonough could write better headlines than real tabloid editors?

Another low point is the series of headlines about Jesus. McDonough seems to be worried about offending Christians, so he never uses the name "Jesus" (until he covers John Lennon's claim that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus with the side-splitting headline, "Bigger than Jesus" [wasn't that an actual headline from the time?]) Otherwise, Christ is simply "Miracle Man."

By far, the most cringe-inducing aspect of the book is the inclusion of fake "articles" accompanying some of the headlines. The articles are so un-funny that they are painful to read. So don't. Don't read any of it. This book is not worth your time. And that's the way it is.